“I cried because they were the soul of the team” – Zola says Chelsea shouldn’t have sell these 3 players
The three players that left the team, according to Zola, “were the soul of the team.”
The legendary Zola of Chelsea made over 300 appearances for the Blues between 1996 and 2003.
Chelsea showed hints of improvement in the second part of the season and ultimately finished sixth in the Premier League last year.
But at the beginning of the season, Mauricio Pochettino’s club faced some challenging circumstances.
Zola claims that Chelsea was severely impacted by the sales of Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic, who went on to join Arsenal and Manchester City, respectively.
Zola also believes that the departure of Jorginho to Arsenal in January 2023 deprived Chelsea of an important leader.
Zola told Ladbrokes: ‘Chelsea have had a hard season especially at the beginning, but they changed a lot.
‘They put a lot of young players in place, and lost a lot of experienced ones like Jorginho, Havertz, and Kovacic. They lost many players who were the soul of the team, the leaders, so it took time to get going.
‘But finally Pochettino got it working and it was working quite well. It was very surprising to see him leaving and I don’t know the full reasons but obviously from a supporter point of view I am disappointed.’
Despite the improvement that Chelsea showed, Pochettino departed the club last month.
There were many changes at Chelsea last summer, with a host of players arriving at Stamford Bridge.
It inevitably took time for some of those players to settle but there were some success stories with Cole Palmer for instance scoring 22 goals in the Premier League.
Enzo Maresca has now taken charge of Chelsea on a five-year deal, while there has already been one new arrival at the club this summer in Tosin Adarabioyo, who will join on a free transfer following his departure from Fulham.