Chelsea must swallow pride and sign England World Cup star after transfer recommendation
Chelsea are short in many areas across the pitch, but one bargain signing can solve several issues at once for Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso may need several signings to build a competitive Chelsea side(Image: Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Chelsea’s transfer chiefs tried to re-create the wheel, but saw them all fall off in the process. The Blues’ transfer failures were woefully exposed in last season’s tumultuous campaign.
Liam Rosenior was the fall man after results nosedived in terrifying fashion, but a spectacular tailspin was always going to happen. The Blues’ lack of experience punished them in their Champions League disintegration to Paris Saint-Germain and left them wide open in the final dozen fixtures in the Premier League.
The Blue who pointed out these issues, Marc Cucurella, is now gone and as well as quality at both sides of the pitch, he takes to Real Madrid the bulk of the west Londoners’ trophy winning experience and nous. But for Xabi Alonso, there is a simple and free answer to one of his major problems.
The only cost is Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart abandoning the expensive and error prone strategy, which focuses on young talent, in the hope they can develop into a top player or be sold for a profit. – as Joe Cole has already recommended, Chelsea must sign John Stones.
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Stones returns to England as a two-time World Cup semi-finalist and two-time European Championships finalist for his country. He departed Manchester City as a free agent and as a six-time Premier League champion and Champions League winner.
Eleven years ago, Everton turned down Chelsea’s £30million bid for the Blues, before selling him to Manchester City for £47.5m one year later. Despite an injury prone domestic campaign, Stones was outstanding for England at the World Cup and entrenched himself as one of the finest central defenders to ever don the Three Lions shirt.
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All of his attributes were put to the test in the USA and Mexico, whether it was his back to the wall rear-guard against Mexico, or his front-footed display against Croatia. He may not be the fresh-faced 21-year-old Chelsea did everything to sign in 2015, but he is a 32-year-old, elite-level winner who can still perform at the top level.
Chelsea’s flirtation with 33-year-old Granit Xhaka suggests the buy young at-all-costs approach has shifted – and shift it must. Stones is still one of the finest defenders of his generation and he would immediately improve the Chelsea defence.
Not so long ago, Chelsea took a similar risk with 35-year-old Thiago Silva, who had been ruthlessly shown the door by Paris Saint-Germain. He immediately lifted the standards of the Blues defence and, less than a year later, was lifting the Champions League.
Stones is three years younger, has more elite trophy winning experience than Silva did at the time, and is performing at the top of his game. As Cole explained to football.london at the end of last season, the Englishman is a no brainer.
The former Chelsea forward said: “One thing we’re sure we don’t want is wholesale changes because these young players that you had belief in three years ago: they’re still the same players.
“They just need what I’ve been saying for two or three years, where you have experience around them within the group that helps them through games to coach them, whilst on the pitch to give them their wisdom, and build it out that way. Even if you’re just selling players, there’s ones that are not going to get near it. That’s not for me to say, that’s for them to work out.
“Then you bring in your John Stones and players on a free transfer who don’t need to play every minute of every game, but they understand winning, they understand culture and they can still help out in the pitch and do bits. And those players that need that, they’ve got it within the group, it can’t be from coaches, all the time.
“All the great teams are coached from within their own dressing room and its knowledge and wisdom passed down over the years. Like, it just baffles me how people just don’t understand that. But hopefully, they’ve read the room and that’s the way they go.”
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