“He’s the key to Chelsea success this season” “Never bench him”- Joe Cole reveals 20-years-old forgotten Chelsea man will be Blues key success this season
According to former Blues player Joe Cole, one of Chelsea’s most important variables this season may be a fit and fired Romeo Lavia.
In August 2023, Lavia moved from Southampton, although an injury postponed his debut. After making a 32-minute cameo against Crystal Palace in December, Mauricio Pochettino benched him due to more setbacks.
Since then, Pochettino has stepped down and Enzo Maresca has taken over as manager. And football analyst Cole for TNT Sports believes that Lavia’s and other important first-team players’ health will determine whether the Italian is successful or not.
Starting in Chelsea’s final preseason friendly against Inter Milan, former Manchester City player Lavia shared the field with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Enzo Fernandez, and other newcomers.
“Everyone i speak to about him who’s worked with him tells me how good he is, and every time i’ve watched him play he’s done two or three things in a game which have really impressed me,” Cole told Mirror Football. “Again i go back to it, keep players fit and on the pitch – if Chelsea can do that they’ll have a good season.
“If you start losing these players, like [Wesley] Fofana, like Lavia, like Reece James, like [Ben] Chilwell, then it becomes difficult, it really does. [New signing Pedro] Neto’s missed football as well so we need to keep him fit.”
Cole considers Sunday’s game against the reigning champions as a “free hit” for his old club “i’d take a draw now, i really would, but I think Chelsea could surprise them. they need to be very good off the ball in the midfield,” he added.
Chelsea spent around £400m under previous boss Pochettino, finishing sixth in what proved to be his one and only season at the helm. The spending has continued under Maresca, with Dewsbury-Hall and Neto the most expensive of nine new recruits brought in at a combined cost of more than £160m.
“Looking from the outside, 41 players is a problem, for many, many reasons,” Cole said. “Changing managers, although traditionally it wasn’t a problem at Chelsea, but then you had a stable background owner and director of football, everything else was stable at the club, and you had the players of a higher stature during that period. But changing managers on top of changing everything else doesn’t look great from the outside.
“I think the best thing for the club to do is get the messaging right. Start off with just saying ‘this is what we are and this is what we’re trying to achieve, and this is how we’re doing it’.
“Maybe they’re not capable of doing that because you don’t want to go ‘well maybe…’ but you’re constantly as a pundit now trying to read between the lines and pick up what’s going on and you just don’t know. One thing’s for sure, they’ll be exciting. I think it will be exciting.”