Chelsea Terrace Talk – Irish Examiner Article By Trizia

I have to admit I had my reservations about Demba Ba; given our largely poor record when signing strikers, I fully expected the injury which has seen him fail medicals for other clubs, manifest itself as soon as he pulled on the royal blue – but instead he was a revelation.

I’m not going to get carried away just yet, as it was only Southampton, but so used I had become to a virtually immobile centre forward, that to see an individual moving, wanting the ball, making space for others, actually scoring goals, that for me and many other Chelsea fans it was akin to having Maradona in his prime playing for us!

Only when you have a player looking to make an impression, can you fully appreciate how little Torres has been doing, especially in these last few weeks. Many of us have made a lot of excuses for the Spaniard – he needed to settle in, then he wasn’t getting the playing time, then he wasn’t getting the service, he was playing in Drogba’s shadow – we cheered him, we encouraged him, we did everything possible to make it work for him – and in all honesty we got very little in return. I also believe that the Benitez appointment was specifically to try and get him back to some semblance of the form he had at Liverpool – fail!

I can only hope that Demba Ba continues in the way that he started and that Torres finally understands that to get rewards on the pitch, he needs to put in that kind of effort. If not, then we really need to part company as I think we have carried him for too long.

Isn’t it bizarre that two loyal servants to the club are nearer to the exit door than him despite their ongoing contribution….

Speaking of hopefully learning lessons, let’s hope Benitez learnt a very valuable one against QPR – although given his comments following that debacle it seems that he still thinks he was in the right. Only a moron can expect to make that many changes to a team and not expect a detrimental effect; what I think that annoyed me most though, was the fact that it was evident very quickly that changes were needed if we were going to get any sort of result – yet he waited until his usual 60 minute mark to make the first change then his other two with 15 & 10 minutes left respectively. His stubbornness is just another trait of his that does little to enamour him to me or many others. As egotistical as Mourinho was, even he would make swift changes should it become apparent that the set up wasn’t working. To leave Ramires, Mata and Hazard all on the bench was simply an act of stupidity and the results were plain to see – the team starved of most of its creativity were reduced to taking pot shots from 20/30 yards.

The rumour mill has our previous very strong link to a move for  Falcao now getting more unlikely as the weeks go by. This is frustrating as following the Super Cup the papers were reporting this as a virtual done deal with only timing to be agreed. This is all sounding very familiar; Athletico led us a right merry dance with Aguero too – with his arrival at Stamford Bridge being “virtually guaranteed” in every transfer window for almost three years – until he signed for City.

Of course, this is fairly common in football these days – money talks – except that during all this time, Athletico have had the services of one of the highest regarded young goal keepers in the world – Thibaut Cortois. Cortois is of course a Chelsea player – and I think we need to start playing hard ball with the Spanish club if they continue to mess us around. Recall him – we are in need after all with Cech’s injury. It’s about time we started integrating him into the team anyway.

Cech is not getting any younger and the injuries will begin to get more frequent as they inevitably do with older players, Bring Cortois back – guarantee him all cup games and of course to step in for injuries. If we don’t reclaim him soon, we will invariably lose him – and quality keepers seem to be in short supply these days. Some may feel that I am being unfair on Turnbull but he is not the calibre of keeper for a club who aspires to the title every season – as patronising as that may sound, it is the truth and to be honest its more by luck than judgement that we haven’t suffered more through a lack of decent cover.

Speaking of young talented players, I seem to be in a minority of Chelsea fans who are sorry to see Daniel Sturridge go – especially to a club which has such an intense rivalry with us. Many accuse him of being greedy, egotistical & difficult – but he is still young. I predict he will do very well at Liverpool sadly – how long before we regret the decision? I have it on good authority he wanted away as he felt he had lost the fans – ironic that we have given Torres so much support, yet a kid who has shot instead of passed a couple of times has had to suffer the boo-boys & been largely written off by many. Let’s hope he’s not what Liverpool needed to help them out of their recent doldrums otherwise this could be a pretty hard lesson learned by Chelsea and the fans

Posted by Trizia

(You can see all of Trizia’s articles here)

Related Images: