20 Feb 2015 00:10:09
Alright lads this is just a sort of question thing. As you may all know we seemed to have prioritized a centre half for the summer most notably Varane. Someone else Ed mentioned was Ruidiger who never impressed me even though I have only seen him a couple of times. We are obviously looking for the heir to JT's throne for when he retires. Obviously the best centre back potentially available is Varane? Which I'm sure we'd all agree on. But is he the leader we need? If Terry retires or moves to the a squad role role we would be lacking a massive gap in the defense even though we would have Zouma and possibly Varane who i'm very confident of are both going to be world class. Yes they're both French so communication would be good, they're both very fast and powerful for CB's but neither are experience enough to lead the defense. There are just a couple for me who are world class leaders who could do a job In his role which would be Godin and Thiago Silva who would be quite hard to get and before ED says it yes we have no interest in them. A captain to replace him would be another real struggle. Zouma and Varane NO. Both would be too young and a lack of experience in the EPL. Then again there isn't any standout candidates. My choice would be AZPILICUETA. A work-horse, genuine nice guy and everybody loves the lad. Ivanovic and Matic are beasts but they're not the best English speakers to communicate with the officials.
Getting back to the CB situation I think another good idea If we can't get Varane would be to move Ivanovic into the Centre although it would me shuffling our defense about with Azpilicueta moving back to RB and I'd play Filipe Luis as LB. Also with that I'd bring Kalas back as a rotational Full back. It's going to be a real tough ask. A lot of people are already going too far praising Zouma and shouting him out to be the next captain. In a few years yes definately but he hasn't got the experience for now. It showed against BRADFORD with no JT and leadership at the back we'd still struggle against the small teams. Zouma needs to play the big games till the end of the season because for me he's already better than Cahill. His pace and power with Terry's leadership skills and positional awareness tick all the posts for a quality pairing. He needs to just play him more Cahill's low confidence could put a dent into our title hopes if Jose keeps playing him in poor form.
Anyway let me know what you think guys.
20 Feb 2015 00:39:56
I think it's as you've said. You aren't going to find guys like terry pretty much at all and you'll never know if someone's going to decelops into that kind of player. If I had to guess after Terry goes branislav or cesc will be the captain. Varane also lead the line really well for France at the world cup and I don't put a ton of weight in the "hasn't proven it in England" thought when the guys coming from a club like real.
Completely agree with TK . The guy varane coming from a team like Real Madrid would have no problem adjusting to a new league, confidence is clearly not a problem for him being able to make the switch from the French league to Spanish liga almost seamlessly and putting in a good showing at the world cup . Jose mourinho had no problem throwing him in at the deep end and clearly our interest shows he has no worries about his ability to adapt to the premier league or playing for Chelsea, he won't be captain but he certainly would be a leader of our backline that if he would arrive would be predominantly French speak with courtouis, zouma, varane plus azpilicuetas ability to speak the language fluently.
Cesc for next captain.
Zouma and Varane will be fine, we'll have Ivanovic as cover as well so we'll be alright.
Is going to be tough though.
20 Feb 2015 09:12:59
I find it difficult talking about a player who we haven't signed yet but agree he would be a great signing. JT will get a new contract and will play the majority of games next season so captaincy issue won't arise. Branna at RB will be vice captain as Drogba will not get a contract extension, Cech may leave and Cahil is slipping down the pecking order. Looking to the following season I would make Hazard captain, he is a very lively character, good communicator, has the total respect of the players and shown his commitment to Chelsea with his new contract.
I don't see hazard captain mate, not that sort of player.
20 Feb 2015 14:37:22
brana would be a sick captain