The old faithfuls took Chelsea a step nearer to the title at Anfield but the club’s future is full of youthful promise
Amid the strangest atmosphere Anfield has known for many years, Chelsea took a tentative step into the future today. As the match ended with the London club on the brink of a third title in the Abramovich era, finally it became possible for the club to look beyond the achievements and aura of José Mourinho.
Most of the players in the line-up were part of Mourinho’s side, and some of them go back as far as Claudio Ranieri’s tenure, but what happens next at Stamford Bridge appears likely to become firmly identified with Carlo Ancelotti. During the summer, certain changes and additions to the squad may cement that association.
Joe Cole, unable to agree a new deal, looks likely to depart, along with Juliano Belletti and possibly Deco. Gossip suggests that if Mourinho takes over at Real Madrid in the summer, he will come calling for Frank Lampard and perhaps Ricardo Carvalho. But the presence of Frank Arnesen, the club’s somewhat shadowy director of football, in the directors’ box provided a reminder that finally Chelsea are ready to see some tangible reward from their expensive academy programme.
At the bottom of their lengthy first‑team squad list are the unfamiliar names of 10 young players, including the Italian forward Fabio Borini, the Dutch defender Jeffrey Bruma, the French midfielder Gael Kakuta and the extremely gifted 17-year-old Joshua McEachran, an English playmaker, who are considered ready for gradual assimiliation into the senior line-up. Their presence will reduce the average age of a group currently heavily weighted towards players in their late 20s and early 30s – although the club’s medical and physiotherapy team have successfully prolonged the youth of so many of them.
If Ancelotti is clever, he will not find himself having to explain to his employer that next season is a necessary period of transition. From what we have seen, Abramovich is not much interested in such a phenomenon. He wants results. He is likely to fund at least one major purchase in the close season, possibly Sergio Agüero, Atlético Madrid’s Argentinian striker, but he would like the team to reflect his investment in Arnesen’s project. This will be a new challenge for Ancelotti, whose successful seven-year spell with Milan was marked by a strong preference for extending the careers of
