{"id":9188,"date":"2026-05-16T16:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9188"},"modified":"2026-05-16T16:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:47:12","slug":"the-team-should-have-been-built-around-him-five-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9188","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The team should have been built around him five years ago&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5167988\" data-slug-id=\"2782777\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/cmc-predictor\/v2\/cross-icon.png?w=40\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" alt=\"close\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chelsea legend Joe Cole has slammed the club for letting a Cobham graduate leave the club in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Marc Guehi joined Chelsea&#8217;s academy as a six-year-old, and he was tipped to be a major part of the Blues squad in the future during his stint with the academy. The defender only managed 2 appearances for the first team before getting loaned out to Swansea in 2020\/21.<\/p>\n<p><template id=\"template__newsletter-inline-banner-form-combo-widget\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<p><img id=\"subscribe-img\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for the submission!\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>After his loan spell, the London-based club decided to sell the English defender. Guehi joined Crystal Palace in a deal worth around \u00a318 million in 2021 and hasn&#8217;t looked back since. He won the FA Cup and the Community Shield with The Eagles during his 5-year stint at Selhurst Park.<\/p>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>In January 2026, Manchester City saw off competition from multiple clubs to sign Guehi for a fee of just \u00a320 million. In the following months, Guehi has cemented himself as a key part of the City defense.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Cole slammed his former club for letting a player like Guehi leave and asked for an internal investigation to be conducted to see who at the club signed off on his sale. He said (via Metro):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;He came from Chelsea from the age of six, we sold him to Crystal Palace, and now he\u2019s at Manchester City, and he looks like he\u2019s been there for 20 years,\u2019 Cole said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I\u2019m looking at him and I\u2019m thinking: how has this kid got a Manchester City shirt on? The team should have been built around him five years ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Whoever has let him out the door at Chelsea\u2026 if I\u2019m the owner, I\u2019m going, \u201cRight, who\u2019s decision, or what collective of people\u2019s decision, was it to think it was a good idea to let this kid leave the club?\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Everyone would go, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t me, it wasn\u2019t me!\u201d\u2026 unless you find out who is making these decisions, these decisions will continue to happen and you\u2019ll keep losing players like that. You need to do an appraisal on it&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Chelsea close to appointing Xabi Alonso as first-team coach: Reports<\/h2>\n<p>Chelsea is close to appointing former Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso as the first-team coach after reaching an agreement in principle with the Spanish gaffer. Reports suggest Alonso is the overwhelming favorite to take over as Blues boss after the club held positive talks with him. The London-based club is now working on a plan that will allow Alonso to slot into their current sporting structure to ensure his assimilation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Thank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tag-cloud\">\n<div class=\"tags-text\">\n<div class=\"scrollable-content-holder  article-padding\">\n<p class=\"article-p  \">Quick Links<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerLeft\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Left \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-left.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<nav id=\"pnProductNav\" class=\"pn-ProductNav\">\n<\/nav>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerRight\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Right \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-right.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p>More from Sportskeeda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Vignesh Raja<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea legend Joe Cole has slammed the club for letting a Cobham graduate leave the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}