After a great season that ended with us picking up 2 trophies, the Carling Cup and the Premier League, we look back at a few things we learnt over the year.
Jose and Chelsea can compete with FFP
Before the start of the season Chelsea’s major rivals spent a lot of money beefing up their squads, without really mounting a challenge. Chelsea on the other hand complied with financial fair player and managed to make a net profit while they ran away with the league from day 1.
Rome wasn’t built in a day
3 years ago Chelsea invested millions into their youth system and signed some the youngest talent in the world, they then brought back Jose Mourinho and will give him time to build a winning team with this talent.
Beautiful, young eggs, eggs that need a mum or, in this case, a dad to take care of them, to keep them warm during the winter, to bring the blanket and work and improve them.
“One day the moment will arrive when the weather changes, the sun rises, you break the eggs and the eggs are ready to go for life at the top level,” José in September 2013.
This season the youth team won the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League, and now more than 5 youth players are been slowly integrated into the first team in a way that doesn’t compromise results.
Patrick Bamford was also voted best player in the Championship with Drogba retiring he could easily be brought back to finish off his development with Chelsea as the 3rd choice striker.
A successful youth system means Chelsea have enough talent to dominate the EPL for the next decade without breaking the bank, and even the current squad is very young if with the players peak being between 27-30 we can only expect a bigger and better performance next season.
No one is bigger than the club
After John Terry’s arguably best season, he agreed to a one year contract extension and we all saw that club policy is club policy and no player is bigger than the club – even the captain, leader, legend.
Fringe players have to take their chances
You need to have a fighting and hardworking mentality to survive at Chelsea, nothing is granted or given on a silver platter. If you demand first team football without earning it you will be offloaded before you finish your sentence.
Ramires spend most the season ill or injured but when he got his opportunity, he took it and soon was a regular starter.
Mikel warmed the bench most of the season, mainly used to shut out games, but as soon as Matic got a red card he came in and filled that position well until he was injured.
Remy and Drogba were backup strikers but scored on nearly every opportunity presented to them. Remy managed 7 EPL goals from 22 Shots and contributed 5 crosses and was the best backup striker in the league with just 5 goals away from making the top 10 goal scorers list from very limited action.
Get the business done early
A lot of pundits claim we won the league before the season started with the signings of Fabregas, Costa and with us bringing back Courtois from his loan.
This year we can expect 2 major signings to increase competition and strengthen the squad, and never write off Chelsea signing back a player they sold.
