Ray Wilkins’ Season Prediction

Wilkins spoke of our new philosophy and style of play which interestingly, he likens it to the Spanish team. “Chelsea are a team that has been rebuilt with some extremely talented guys but it makes them a lot smaller this season. There is a clear change of philosophy in the way they are going about things.

Having lost Didier, they have taken the opportunity to switch it totally round with small players in the forward positions. I think they will look a lot more Spain-like in their style of play and that will be very interesting”

Our former assistant manager and captain also has some positive expectations about our leading striker for the season Fernando Torres. “I think we will see a better Fernando Torres. Part of that is simply the fact that Didier has gone. When you have such a huge personality at a club it is very difficult to come in and take over, no matter how much you cost and how good a player is. Torres is a good player, no question but he found it tough. “Didier is an immense personality and changing from that, from as style of play of feeding him, will take time. There are certainly some options for them, with Oscar, Eden Hazard and Marko Marin all new and Juan Mata there from last season, when he did so well. “I think it was the time to change it for them as well – there is not another Didier Drogba out there, so they had to make the change”

Wilkins made mention of one important point which could create problem for managers and teams with quality depth of players like ours today as it happened to AVB with Lampard. “The difficulty for Roberto will be keeping all the players happy. I think they will realize they are in a squad of real quality and that they will be picked by performance every week. When this squad was put together, they were looking to create competition. I think the foreign players accept rotation more than the British ones.”

Speaking about our title rivals, City and United, Wilkins had this to say: “Roberto Mancini needs a couple more, to freshen the place up and add to the competition in the squad. Maybe there are few too many players in their set-up who know they will start and knowing Roberto, he will not want that. What he does want is a squad who tell themselves that if they are not performing they will not be playing.

“It’s very important that you reinforce, especially from a position of strength, because everybody else will do to try to catch up and overtake you. I still think they will buy, for that reason, up front and at centre-half, a couple of defenders and midfielders because it looks like one or two strikers will go”

Wilkins then spoke clearly of the tittle race and who are favorites for it. “I think it will come down to three – United, City and Chelsea. They will be the boys” he reiterated. “United have got Nemanja Vidic back, which makes a difference. I’m quite convinced that if Vidic had been fit at the end of last season they would have won the title. They would not have given away the soft goals they did in those big games. He is a monster, as important to unite as John Terry is to Chelsea. “Looking elsewhere, it might be easier for Andre-Villas-Boas at Spurs because there is not the same expectation as at Chelsea to win everything. At Tottenham, there are expectations but not as great. If they finish fourth the fans will be more than happy, whereas if Chelsea end up there, there will be problems.”

So there it is with predictions and expectations of Ray Wilkins and I agree with him almost all of them. My caution to all fans is to lower your expectations for the club. Rome was not built in a day. It will take some time for our newly assembled talented young squad to blend and play the exciting football we all wish for Chelsea. The community shield could be an important step for us if we win which can provide a huge psychological boost for the lads but if we fail to win, it is not the end of life but rather the beginning, since there are no points to for. Let us remember that out of the three new first team players we have signed; only Hazard may play for the team since Marin is injured (hamstring strain according to Chelsea TV) and Oscar is at the Olympics, so there will not be a drastic change in our team from last year. We have not finished strengthening our team and the club has said there will be a couple of addition before the season starts. This means the team which faces City will have a different look when the season is ready. One thing is assured, no matter what, Chelsea will always be up there but even if we do not, the Club should always earn your support. KTBFFH!