Too old, or in their prime?
Successful
After a very successful first season in West London, the Champions League is pretty much all that remains for the Italian to achieve at the club.
“In my first season with Chelsea, we won the Premier League, FA Cup and Community Shield. But I missed out on the Champions League, so that is now my dream.”
Failure
The manager knows that everything has gone well so far, but he is also well aware that anything regarded as a failure by Roman Abramovic will not be tolerated. Let us not forget that Avram Grant was sacked after finishing runner-up in the Premier League and missing out on the Champions League by the width of the paint on a post.
“At the moment everything here in London is good. But I know if we do not keep winning that things will soon change for me. So we must quickly rediscover the enthusiasm we had last season and same good football.”
Motivated
Ancelotti is also well aware that many of his top players had a World Cup that is best forgotten. Despite that, he feels that those players will be more motivated than ever to achieve the elusive European success that the club and it’s fans so crave.
“All my Musketeers, including Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda, Frank Lampard and John Terry, have played in a World Cup which has lowered their profile. If you look at all the big nations that failed, from England to Argentina, France and Brazil, the coach was trying to get the right balance between the individuals and the organisation of the team.”
Injured
To that list you can add Petr Cech who is injured, Jon Obi Mikel and Michael Essien who missed the World Cup through injury, Nicolas Anelka who was at the centre of the French fiasco and Ashley Cole and Salomon Kalou who hardly set the World alight at the World Cup either.
Despite their obvious success last season, it may be difficult for Chelsea to go into the new season with a huge amount of confidence. With injured players, players reeling from a dreadful World Cup and one or two players suffering personal issues as well, the atmosphere may not be all that it could. Add to that the blow of losing out to Mourinho’s Inter last season and then seeing him go on to lift the trophy and the Chelsea players may not be in a terribly good place.
Age
The other supposed worry for Chelsea is the age of their best players. The below team is not an unreasonable suggestion for their starting eleven.
Petr Cech, 28
Branislav Ivanovic, 26
Ricardo Carvalho, 32
John Terry, 29
Ashley Cole, 29
Michael Essien, 27
Florent Malouda, 30
Frank Lampard, 32
Didier Drogba, 32
Nicolas Anelka, 31
There is a huge amount of experience and talent in that team, but there certainly isn’t much youth. By the end of the season seven of those eleven players will be over thirty. The average age is 29.6 and some people are quick to say that is too old to win anything.
Average
The average age of the two Champions League final teams was Bayern Munich 28, Inter 30. and Spain won the World Cup with an average age of 27.
Chelsea may just have the talent to win the Premier League again but the question is whether they are young enough to win the Champions League. The figures suggest that they might now be just at the right age.
What do you think?
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