Football moves fast. The World Cup has only just ended – last night, with France running out 4-2 winners over Croatia – and already preseasons are underway at top clubs.
At Chelsea, the attending players are a rag-tag bunch, as all the senior internationals in the team who played at the tournament in Russia are still on holiday.
That means a bunch of second rate players, mixed with youth teamers and returning loanees.
Two men who won’t be joining anytime soon are Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard. It was reported in the Evening Standard today that they will get three weeks off from now – taking them all the way up to the Community Shield game against Manchester City.
The question is which of them will actually still be at the club then. These three weeks will be the prime time for both to try and engineer a move away, and the time when Chelsea will be most inclined to accept.
Let’s see which, if either, are still here come September.
