“Who wants to come when they are in the Europa Conference League?” Joe Cole fears Chelsea will struggle to sign big players this summer, but says they MUST buy a genuine No. 9…
- Chelsea face an uphill battle to make it to Europe next season as they sit 11th
- Joe Cole believes a lack of Champions League will affect their transfer plans
- He says Todd Boehly should prioritize signing a real No. 9 and clear the team
Joe Cole believes Chelsea will struggle to sign top quality players if they only have Europe Conference League football to offer this summer – and will need a ‘big squad’ from their current squad first.
The Blues languish in 11th place in the Premier League and will struggle to make it to the continental league next season.
Their hopes of making it all the way to the Champions League have also faded after Real Madrid beat them 2-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final on Wednesday night.
Chelsea have spent more than £600 million on new players since Todd Boehly took over, but former midfielder Cole fears the owners are receiving poor recruitment advice, especially when it comes to forwards.
“We’re not talking about ‘who gets Chelsea’, we’re talking about ‘who wants to go to Chelsea’ when they play in the Europa Conference League? We have to be honest,” he said on BT Sport.
Joe Cole fears Chelsea owner Todd Boehly will struggle to sign the best players this summer if they don’t play in European competition next season
The Blues face an uphill battle in their Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid
“The owners have come in and done what all good owners do: spend money. You have to praise them for that, they are good people and they want to do what is right for the club.
“But they should probably look at themselves and ask ‘who is advising us on these players?’ Why do we have nine or ten No. 10s and wingers when we could have had a No. 9?
“We don’t know the ins and outs, but the problem lies with the recruitments of the past 12 months.
“Nobody in this squad has scored 20 goals a season in their career, so why do you think they’re going to do that now.” That’s the general problem.’
Graham Potter struggled to deal with Chelsea’s bloated squad before being sacked, with Frank Lampard filling in for the remainder of the season.
Cole said the first priority for the summer term is to shorten the squad for anyone coming in as their next permanent manager.
But fundamentally, a long-standing player retention flaw that has seen players like Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah leave before they excel elsewhere in the Premier League needs to be addressed.
Joe Cole believes Chelsea need a ‘major culling’ of their bloated squad before signing new players
Karim Benzema celebrates after giving Real Madrid the lead with a shot from close range
Chelsea, more than any other football club, has to be careful about letting players go. They let De Bruyne go, they let Salah go, when there was no route to the first team,” said Cole.
‘They need to be even sharper in their recruitment. On the other hand there will be players in the team where it will never work for them at Chelsea, either they are not at that level or for some reason it doesn’t work out.
“This club is scarred by the loss of those players because the road is blocked.
“There must be a large selection of players who have to look elsewhere for their careers.
“Then people have to sit down and say, ‘We have to be absolutely sure that we’re bringing in someone that we know and we’re going to make a whole plan around them to get the best out of them, get a No. 9 and reshape the squad a bit.’
Chelsea return to the Premier League at home to Brighton on Saturday afternoon before playing in their quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Substitute Marco Asensio gave Madrid breathing space and a buffer with two goals
Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell was shown a straight red card just before the hour mark for withdrawing Madrid star Rodrygo