Jose, you are exposing a serious hole in your management skills
Some premiership managers are seriously one-eyed. I’m beginning to think Mourinho is the worst of them. Having lost to Liverpool very comfortably at the weekend, poor old Jose is lamenting the lack of strength in depth of his squad once more. Apparently he can’t perform miracles. WHAT? The special one? What an admission.
It must be difficult for him, facing up to the problems that every premiership manager, nay, every club manager in the country, faces on a daily basis. Having to play players out of position. Oh, the hardship. Or perhaps he thinks that Newcastle’s Nobby Solano is actually a full-back. I could go on. The point is, that he implies that the only way he can stop the ‘rot’ at Chelsea is to buy someone in. Probably an experienced international for £10m or so. And this is because those in his reserves/youths etc are not good enough to play in the premiership.
Why not? If you have a club structure that involves a squad at various stages of development, it is incumbent on you to ensure that you have emergency cover for every position at your club. If your youths and reserves are not progressing at the right pace then they are either the wrong players or they are not being pushed and coached to the right level.
Look at the Bridge, Jose. Go visit the rest of your players. See the talent you surely have just waiting their chance and who are all, to a man, right royally hacked off that you consider them sub-standard. Do something different and take a risk.
Blimey, you’ve even got those two lads who are the product of football icon…
You know what, I was thinking the exact self-same thing on Saturday. Surely there must be at least one half-decent centre-back in the Chelsea youth setup who could benefit from a run in the first team? Or are they all out on loan? And speaking of which, if he’s so stuck for defenders, why hasn’t he recalled Glen Johnson from Portsmouth?
And can I just give a shout out to Wycombe Wanderers? Although they were thumped by Chelsea last night, their run to the semis of the Carling Cup is a superb achievement, and one that does all us other League Two underdogs proud!