“I can play for you” “Change you transfer plan” – Blues legend tells Enzo Maresca to change transfer plan & re-sign him
Gary Cahill, a former defender with the team, has urged Chelsea to forgo their youthful recruitment push and instead add more experience.
Enzo Maresca, another new manager hired by the west Londoners, wants to bring in his own players. Chelsea has spent more over £1 billion in the last two years under Todd Boehly, mostly on acquiring young players rather than pursuing veteran players.
The two-time Premier League champion Cahill feels the current generation would benefit from having some veteran pros in and around the group, but that transfer strategy hasn’t worked out.
He told The Sun, when quizzed on the club’s recruitment: “I’d like to see a little bit of experience added in the window, to be honest. That would be a sensible play from Chelsea, from my personal point of view, to try and build that spine and knit together some of these young players.
“Obviously, the tactic has been to buy exciting young players to then develop over the next two or three years. That sometimes takes time, especially when you get players from different leagues, different countries. It’s not always easy for them to settle. For me, a good transfer window for Chelsea would be to have two or three experienced players that are not phased and potentially know the league but have been around a little bit.”
Cahill even went as far to suggest himself as a signing when pressed on players the Blues could pursue. He joked: “Me, mate! Did you see me in Soccer Aid?” Before adding: “But that kind of pedigree, an experienced player, a top player and a player that’s been around and knows the standards and knows what it’s like to compete.”
Many of Chelsea’s leading lights are all relatively inexperienced, the likes of Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez. They saw their most veteran player in Thiago Silva leave London this summer, which has cost them over 800 games of know how.
Cahill admitted that having the Brazilian at Cobham will have ensured he “set the standards and the levels” with several players still learning their trade. The former England international was adamant that “adding that experience will help this team on and off the pitch.”
So far this summer Maresca has moved to bring Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from the Foxes whilst other young stars have been captured in Renato Veiga and 18-year-old Marc Guiu.