Mailbag: Chelsea, Rashford, promoted teams, Postecoglou and more!
Some great questions here I enjoyed answering.
Hello everyone, hope you’re thrilled to have European club football back with us.
Without doubt, my favourite part of writing the newsletter is how smart and thoughtful so many of you can be. Any time I’m struggling for ideas, I can turn to all of you for some brilliant questions. This was no exception. Let’s get into it.
There were two questions on the same topic, so let’s tackle them in one go. Jacob Mackenzie asked:
“What the hell are Chelsea doing? Is there any chance it works?”
Meanwhile Zayn asked:
“Hot take! Chelsea will finish in bottom half. You agree Grace?”
Ok, so let’s take a look at what Chelsea have been doing since they last played a Premier League game. Enzo Maresca replaced Mauricio Pochettino as manager. They’ve signed Pedro Neto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jørgensen and some expensive younger players I really don’t have any opinion on yet. They got decent transfer fees for Ian Maatsen and Omari Hutchinson, while getting the Lewis Hall deal that was already agreed finally done.
They were on the verge of selling Conor Gallagher to Atlético Madrid while bringing Samu Omorodion the other way, but the whole thing seems to have gone up in smoke very quickly. It looks like Chelsea are now sniffing around João Félix, and possibly still want Victor Osimhen, but who knows what will happen. Kim McCauley had a good breakdown of what’s going on over at The Transfer Flow. Just like every transfer window under Clearlake, I’m not sure any of this makes sense from the perspective of building a coherent squad for the new manager.
This is all a huge mess. None of it is how a football club should be run properly. And yet, astonishingly, I’m kind of Chelsea-curious.
Chelsea were good down the stretch last season, both playing and picking up results like a top four side. That’s why I think it was a mistake to sack Mauricio Pochettino, but I digress. Enzo Maresca is inheriting a better situation than Pochettino found. This team had an xG difference per game of +0.43 last season, and if that’s a lost cause, I don’t know what to think.
You look at the squad and, yes, they have a lot of players. But there should be enough here to build a competent side. Is it really that hard to find a strong starting eleven among all of this? I don’t think it should be. I’m not saying this with any real confidence. I can see all the ways it can go wrong. But I think I’m more optimistic that it might just work out than a lot of people I see online. Maybe there’s something here.
Keep on reading for my thoughts on Marcus Rashford, challenges for promoted teams, Tottenham and the emotional realities of supporting a club in modern football.