For the first time in a long while here in the Football Transfer Tavern, our resident Chelsea supporters are feeling rather down.
This of course comes on the back of the news yesterday that Petr Cech has already reportedly signed for the Blues’ London rivals Arsenal.
With the long-serving Czech Republic international leaving Stamford Bridge under Roman Abramovich’s blessing, while Blues fans of course respect the fantastic service he gave the club down the years, they can’t help feeling a tad betrayed simply because he is joining a bitter rival.
After Juan Mata joined Manchester United and Frank Lampard joined Manchester City in recent times, our Blues fans aren’t so happy with this pattern this is starting to emerge of former fan favourites joining rival pastures.
Add to the fact that Radamel Falcao, Robert Green and Alex Song could be set to arrive and our Chelsea fans are questioning whether the world has gone mad.
Nevertheless, these supporters are trying to change the subject away from Cech and this evening, they are discussing which current Blues stars need to up their game next season in the 2015/16 campaign.
They have whittled down a shortlist to five Chelsea players who need to improve next season. Do you agree with their choices?
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 Chelsea stars that must improve next season.
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Oscar
Brazilian international Oscar has been a wonderful signing for the Blues, having joined back in 2012 from Internacional.
A skilful, tricky player, Oscar has undoubtedly been one of the key cogs in Chelsea playing a more attractive style of football despite the team being branded as ‘boring’ in some quarters.
Nevertheless, last season we saw that his consistency in performances dipped somewhat with much of Chelsea’s creative burden being placed upon the shoulders of Eden Hazard.
Taking the most obvious metric, Oscar struck just eight goals in all competitions last season whereas in both 2013/14 and his debut season of 2012/13, he struck 12 and 13 goals respectively.
Playing in his favoured position – the number 10 role – you’d expect a far better haul from Oscar and when you look at his assists record in the Premier League too, it wasn’t of the amazing standards we have come to expect.
The consensus is that his indispensable status in this Chelsea team is slipping a little but with Juventus losing out on his signature this summer, he will have the chance to scale higher heights again next season.
Juan Cuadrado
Juan Cuadrado was given the unenviable task of trying to break into a Chelsea team that was sweeping aside every team in front of them back in January when he joined from Fiorentina.
Joining a new division for the first time can be tough and so it has proved for Cuadrado who despite his lightning pace, has struggled to find his best form in West London.
The problem for the Colombian international is that Chelsea fans have grown used to the fantastic performances of Willian in his favoured right wing position with the Brazilian boasting attacking and tracking back abilities in equal measure.
A player Jose Mourinho adores, Chelsea fans have come to expect all of his players buying into these tactics while providing energetic performances on a weekly basis.
Cuadrado has given the ball away too often in his Blues career to date and has often been found wanting in regards to his first touch.
An obvious choice and someone who needs to improve to get the Chelsea fans back on side next season.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Now we know what you’re thinking – he hardly played in Chelsea’s first team until the end of the season whereby the Premier League was already won!
That said, we’re including Blues youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek on our five-man shortlist simply born out of the fact that despite his potential, he simply must improve in order to remain at the forefront of Jose Mourinho’s attention.
The Blues boss has previously admitted that he would’ve failed England if a number of his talented Blues starlets fail to make the grade at international level and given Loftus-Cheek’s inclusion at the tail end of last season, you feel Mourinho is starting to come around to the idea of giving youth more of an opportunity at first team level.
That said, following the Blues’ end-of-season tour of Asia and Australia where they played Sydney FC, Mourinho was stinging in his assessment of Loftus-Cheek’s performance in what we perceive to be a move to keep the youngster on his toes.
With the player himself admitting that his manager was correct recently, Loftus-Cheek knows deep down that he’ll have to produce some exceptional performances next term to pose a realistic threat to John Obi Mikel and Ramires who represent his direct competition behind Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas of course.
Ramires
Having been at the club since 2010, Ramires is one of the longer serving players in Chelsea’s squad at the moment and although some times he is branded an ‘unsung hero’, on the rare occasions when the going gets tough, some Blues fans question his true worth.
Capable of running all day and then some, Ramires is often thrust into Jose Mourinho’s starting eleven on carefully selected occasions such as difficult Premier League away days or Champions League knockout rounds in order to carry out a specific job.
Other than this, you don’t really feel as though Chelsea would miss him if he was gone however with the Brazilian international playing less and less of a first team role with each passing season.
You feel he won’t be able to break Mourinho’s favoured midfield partnership of Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic and if the Blues truly have designs on capturing Paul Pogba in the next few transfer windows, you feel Ramires will be the man to make way.
A capable player on his day of course, when either Matic or Fabregas isn’t available and Ramires steps in, he simply doesn’t offer what the aforementioned pair do.
Loic Remy
The second choice striking option behind Diego Costa last season, Loic Remy bagged seven goals in 21 Premier League appearances but by Blues fans’ lofty standards, they believe they can do better than the Frenchman.
Remy showcased his lightning pace and goalscoring prowess at Newcastle United of course and as a result of this form was brought into Stamford Bridge from QPR last summer.
Always going to be a reserve option behind Costa, Remy is capable of getting goals against the bigger teams but given the consistency we have come to expect from Costa, the Frenchman’s stats simply don’t measure up.
It’s hard to be a reserve option who seemingly has to impress every time they emerge from the bench but we feel Remy will never be able to shake his super-sub tag during his time at Stamford Bridge.
And we say super but he didn’t always make an impact from the bench during last season.
Radamel Falcao is of course set to arrive at Stamford Bridge this summer and it remains to be seen whether Mourinho will be able to coax the Colombian’s best form out of him once again.
If he does manage to do this, you fear that Remy could fall even further down the attacking pecking order as a short-term stop gap kind of signing in the Samuel Eto’o mould.
