I know some might not agree with this and feel that it might be better to hug all of our players and tell them that they’re doing the best that they can do, but for me, this squad needs tough love.
At the end of the day, you are representing Chelsea Football Club, a club enriched with successful history and club legends who would bleed blue for the badge, the fans, and the cause.
Sources: Former Chelsea player still being considered for return to club
If you make the decision to join Chelsea, you simply have to accept the pressure, the criticism if you’re not performing, and the expectations of what it means to play for this club. I’ve got no time for molly coddling.
Yes, we have a young squad, and there does need to be a sense of nurturing done, to an extent. But most of these lads in our starting Xl are not kids, they are not even teenagers, they are 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25, these are fully grown adults. They can take some hard truths, they can take some tough love, they should be able to take the pressure.
To succeed at Chelsea you need to be a mentality monster. You need to be prepared to fight. You need to have confidence in your own ability. You need to be strong minded and strong willed. You need to be a leader.
Chelsea’s most successful teams had leaders all over the pitch – Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Petr Cech, Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Ricardo Carvalho, Cesar Azpilicueta, Diego Costa, just to name a few, all mentality monsters.
Costa told Terry when he joined the club, ‘I got to war, you come with me.’
Ashley Cole recently did an interview with TNT Sports and said: “At Chelsea, I had a different kind of mentality. I was angrier when I went there. I played with more anger. I wanted to win, it was all about winning. My magic moment was winning the Champions League.”
A ‘different kind of mentality’ and he was ‘angrier’ – this is exactly what you need to make it at Chelsea.
If you’re giving this on the pitch week in week out, then you are the majority of the way there. The fans will back you, the fans will love you, and you’ve got a good chance of becoming a cult hero at the very least. Just look at the Alfie Gilchrist example to prove that point, fans already adore him, and that is because he gives 100% for this club every second he is on the pitch regardless of the scoreline.
If you’re out there fighting over who is taking a penalty and smiling when we get knocked out of The FA Cup, you will never make it here.
As a Chelsea player, you should expect to be criticised when you lose 5-0 to a London rival. You should be telling your manager to rinse you. Instead, we have Mauricio Pochettino who will never place any blame on his players purely because he wants to keep them all onside.
I get it, you don’t want to throw them under the bus, you don’t want to lose the dressing room, and you want to create report like this one from The Daily Mail this week….
‘Chelsea would run the risk of a dressing room backlash if they sacked Mauricio Pochettino,’ write Kieran Gill of The Daily Mail.
‘Sources say Pochettino’s man-management skills have been appreciated amid the scrutiny on them.’
I’m sorry but a manager should not be there to hold hands with the players, a manager should be a disciplinary. A manager should run riot at his players when they lose 5-0, not molly coddle them.
I understand the negativity behind throwing your players under the bus and what it can do to squad harmony, I get that maybe it should be done behind closed doors. But Pochettino doesn’t even do that from what I’ve heard. He wants to be friends with them all, and they are NOT your friends.
It’s no wonder they don’t want him sacked, he is literally their shield from reality. These are grown men; stand up, take accountability, hold your head up, and prove the critics wrong. The fans will love and respect you so much more if you just get your head down, work, and let your feet do the talking.
The video of Cesc Fabregas berating his players that I posed in the week is everything you need from your manager. Look at the mix of fear and respect in the eyes of the players…
Like with everything, a manager needs balance. They need to have an open door policy, give players time and when needed, an arm around the shoulder. But there needs to be a clear line drawn between that and the fact that YOU are their manager, their leader. Sometimes, leaders need to rant, they need to motivate, they need to teach tough love. Pochettino doesn’t do any of that.
There needs to be a good balance in man-management. The players love Poch because he doesn’t have that balance, he only has the nice side. We need good cop, bad cop. We need the best of both worlds. Thomas Tuchel lost some of the dressing room because he got overly angry and some of the players didn’t like that. It’s all about balance, timing, when to be strict, when to be nice. I genuinely think managers like Jose Mourinho will often strike the perfect balance with that (perhaps not always). John Terry adores Mourinho but still fears him – that’s what you want from your manager, that sums it up perfectly. Terry would be annoyed if he wasn’t berated for making a mistake, he would want to own up to it and for the manager to call him out, that would motivate him to be better. Pochettino is not feared, and he needs to be. He’s seen as a good man-manager, and although I agree to en extend, I actually think the positivity and not calling things as they are can be more harmful than good.
We need our leader, our manager, to be honest, call it how it is. If the players were sht, say they were sht. If you messed up, say you messed up. We are tired of excuses. If players can’t handle the heat, then get the hell out of the kitchen. This is Chelsea FC, you have an amazing opportunity to play for this club and become part of our long and great history, don’t hide away behind the manager, stand up and be counted, make a name for yourself, take the heat, own your mistakes, correct them, and be a warrior, be a mentality monster.
That’s what it takes to make it at Chelsea. This is the real world, this is reality. You are going to get pressure, you are going to get stick, it’s all part of it. Yes, they are humans and the abuse is always too much and I’ll never condone that. But you’re playing football for a career and earning a lot of money doing that, it’s every young boy’s dream (I’d happily swap places). Stand up, soak it up, enjoy is, and show us you deserve to be wearing the famous Chelsea badge!