Just as Chelsea supporters here in the Football Transfer Tavern thought the Blues were starting to turn it around this season after a good mini run in November, then came AFC Bournemouth.
Performing a famous 0-1 smash and grab victory at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening, a lot of our Blues fans are saying it’s rock bottom right now with Chelsea still just TWO points off the Premier League relegation zone with only 15 points accumulated from 15 games so far.
It’s been an absolute disaster of a Premier League campaign for Jose Mourinho’s team who will play in the Champions League tomorrow knowing that a home win (or draw depending on Dynamo Kiev’s result) against FC Porto will see them through to the knock-out round.
But despite going better in Europe, it’s their repeated failures in the Premier League that are starting to really annoy Chelsea supporters with their players not looking like they know what to do to get themselves out of the mire.
Questions have to be raised about just how motivated these players are to get themselves up and away from 14th place with the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa far used to clawing back points within the Premier League’s top four.
With this current situation being uncharted territory for not only Jose Mourinho but several of Chelsea’s playing staff, it appears the Blues aren’t coping well at all and may continue to struggle as the winter rumbles on.
With that in mind, we’ve devised a list of FIVE Chelsea players who Blues supporters need to bid goodbye to in the January transfer window with their contributions being close to non-existent at the moment.
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Click on the image below to reveal the FIVE players that Chelsea fans need to say BYE to in January!
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Radamel Falcao
It looked an absolute car crash signing back in the summer and so it has proved.
Yes Radamel Falcao can’t expect to receive a regular run in the team to get his form back which is what he probably needs but in the brief cameos he’s made, what has the Colombian shown? Nothing is your answer!
It’s actually quite sad to watch a former world beater suffer the downward spiral he’s currently experiencing in his career but the cold hard truth of the matter is that the likes of Falcao aren’t going to get the Blues out of their current slump.
Scoring just once this season against Crystal Palace, Falcao has actually been worse than when he on loan at Manchester United last season and that’s taken some doing!
Chelsea will be well advised to cut his loan spell from Monaco short in the New Year.
Oscar
When was the last time Oscar really affected a game with a standout performance?
In his early days as a Chelsea player, the Brazilian international thrived in the Blues’ starting eleven and who could forget that excellent swivel and strike from distance against Juventus a few years back?
Nowadays however, Oscar looks a player devoid of confidence and not really interested in all honesty.
In and out of the team when he used to be one of the first names down on the team-sheet, Oscar looks like a player who is struggling to dig in during Chelsea’s current crisis.
Still only 24-years-old, Oscar has been a long-term target of Juventus with ESPN reporting last month that the Old Lady are still interested in a swoop for the attacking midfielder.
January might be the time to cash in on the disinterested Oscar with an attacking midfield slot opening up for a potential big name new signing – if they want to deal with an unlikely lower half of the table scrap that is!
Papy Djilobodji
A case of the player clearly being panic signed upon the clearance of the club and not Jose Mourinho on transfer deadline day back in the summer, Papy Djilobodji is the definition of an outcast at Chelsea.
Appearing just once this season – against Walsall in the Capital One Cup – where he only made a substitutes’ appearance in second-half stoppage time, the Senegalese international is simply picking up his wages without doing much else right now.
If the player is a good professional deep down, surely he’ll want to be playing for the good of his career and a switch back to Ligue 1 where he had a good reputation with Nantes has to be on his agenda, no?
If Chelsea manage to land an additional centre back in January, perhaps only then will Djilobodji be granted his transfer away from Stamford Bridge following a nightmare spell in West London.
That said, no Chelsea fan actually knows how good he is because he hasn’t even received an opportunity yet!
Bertrand Traore – LOAN
Coming on as a late sub for Baba Rahman against AFC Bournemouth with Jose Mourinho’s team chasing the game after Glenn Murray’s late winner on Saturday, Bertrand Traore received a rare outing.
But despite still being billed a hot prospect, is he really going to help Chelsea out of their current slump?
To be fair, some Chelsea fans have been calling for the likes of Kenedy and Traore to dislodge underperforming first team squad members as an altogether fresh idea but this has never been Mourinho’s style and we can’t see it happening any time soon.
Kenedy has made more of an impact than Traore and looks far more likely to stay at Stamford Bridge in January and if Chelsea land a new midfielder, we can see Traore making another loan switch but he’ll hope to do better than Vitesse Arnhem again this time.
Jamal Blackman – LOAN
Part of Chelsea’s matchday squad more often than we would’ve expected this term as an unused substitute given the injury that has kept Thibaut Courtois out for the most part this season, Jamal Blackman surely doesn’t have a long-term future with the club.
The third choice at the start of the season, we saw Mourinho move to land the experienced former Italian international Marco Amelia part way through the season as a reserve and thus, Blackman has been limited to reserve outings again.
This is in stark contrast to last season whereby the 22-year-old received a few opportunities at a good level with Middlesbrough in the Championship and another loan spell such as that wouldn’t go amiss with Blackman fourth choice at present.
To be completely honest, if a Football League club wanted to snap him up permanently, we don’t think Chelsea would want to cling to his services too tightly!
