Antonio Conte is being appreciated by many for successfully instilling an air of confidence and quality in the team, which was quite absent in their last disastrous season. It should be noted that Conte has not only given stability to an otherwise under confident team, but he is also giving chance to players, who have been till now spending seasons as loanees at various clubs.
In their weekend win over Leicester, this fact came to the fore when the brilliant link up play between Chalobah and Moses led to the third goal of the game. One might wonder that after years of spending time on loan, those two are finally ready for first time, but Chelsea have often have been criticised of going for star transfers, which lead to sending the current growing young lot on loans.
Chelsea, currently, have 38 players on loan, and most of whom are first team players for their clubs at reputed leagues and doing well. They are quite clueless about their standings in the clubs future. They include the likes of Christian Atsu in Newcastle, Kenedy in Watford, Piazon in Fulham, Loic Remy in Crystal palace, Pasalic in AC Milan, Rahman Baba in Schalke 04, and Traore in AFC Ajax.
With Piazon, Atsu and Kenedy approaching at their end of loan, Conte’s player selection would be encouraging for them. Piazon has earlier been the sole player to raise his concern regarding Chelsea’s loan policy.
In his interview with ESPN, Piazon highlighted how Mourinho’s arrival killed many dreams of the younger crop, who had till then played through the Under-21s getting adapted to the English Premier League playing style. He criticised how the club spends millions buying big players every year with complete disregard to the upcoming breed.
The crux of the matter roots much deeper than Mourinho’s player selection. Chelsea’s technical director Michael Emenalo has also been under the criticism scanner for showing complete neglect to the players. Chelsea have spent seasons changing players and managers in a rush to bring in instant results. It shows, how Emenalo and Abramovich has failed the club.
Conte’s attitude towards players and the way the team has been playing under him shows growing signs of improvement at the fundamental level. The young crop, especially the large numbers who have now spent years out in different clubs, hopeless and clueless about their future at Chelsea might now see a glimpse of hope in the coming years.
