Hupu, on May 5, a crisis column was written by The Athletic UK Chelsea and team reporter team.
Gossip board
TA: Chelsea will introduce players with top five/multi-line experience this summer, but they will not represent veterans.
Injury History/How to Get Palmer Back to the Top
Chelsea has been plagued by injuries to many key players this season. Part of this is due to bad luck, and part of it is related to the significantly shortened pre-season preparation time after winning the Club World Cup. However, it would be a serious dereliction of duty if the club's senior management does not think about how to let the medical and fitness departments improve this situation in the coming season.
There is a team whose physical condition is not ideal. Although there is a situation where running statistics cannot fully measure a team's effort, Chelsea's running distance has lagged behind its opponents in all Premier League games this season, and this is a poor statistic that the club from top to bottom is unwilling to continue next season.
Palmer, who typifies both of these issues, is unwilling to confront whether it would be wise for him or England to attend the World Cup this summer, but given his poor performance this season, the question has to be raised.
For Palmer, the 2024 European Cup is generally positive. Under Gareth Southgate, his playing time did not reach the level he expected or deserved. However, in the final against Spain, he came on as a substitute and scored a wonderful goal, which greatly increased his own value. If the World Cup can provide him with similar opportunities again, maybe he can change people's views on him and change the outside world's evaluation of him in a better direction.
However, the exhaustion brought about by the Club World Cup last summer left Palmer exhausted both physically and mentally. At that time, he admitted how much he was looking forward to resting after the game, but in the end he found that the rest period was too short to be tolerated. He also made no secret of the groin injury he's been dealing with for much of the season.
There's a physical issue, but there's also a stylistic one, which is that as Chelsea move towards a slower, more cautious, possession-oriented style of play, Palmer's individual numbers have plummeted and the improvisational flair he so often displayed when he was starting to emerge under Pochettino has now disappeared.
Chelsea's next head coach will have to find a way to let him regain this talent. However, to achieve this goal, Palmer's physical condition must also return to its optimal condition.
Let fans regain their confidence in the club and support the club again
To say that this may be the most difficult task is because the current relationship between the two parties is extremely bad. Fans have shouted slogans against the club's owners at every game over the past few months, with two protests breaking out outside Stamford Bridge, the second of which last month was far more attended than the first in January, with more planned for the FA Cup final and the final home game of the season against Tottenham Hotspur.
When the game is played at home, the atmosphere is simply terrible, and it is easy for the visiting team to find scoring opportunities here. Chelsea lost seven games at home in the 2025-2026 season. This is by no means without reason – in the Premier League, only the bottom four teams have lost more games at home than Chelsea.
As is the case with every individual club, improved results and performance are crucial to regaining the support of fans. However, the reason behind this is far more than that.
Although the club has established a fans advisory committee, fans are still complaining that the gap between them and the club is deepening. Ticket prices and the difficulty of purchasing tickets are a real source of anxiety for fans.
Fans' dissatisfaction with the way the club is run has intensified due to the lack of a long-term shirt sponsor and the lack of news on whether the club will rebuild Stamford Bridge or build a new stadium.
Convince players to believe in the project
In recent months, some key players who have played for Chelsea have begun to question the future development trend of the BlueCo project. Although the club may logically mention the fact that captain Reece James and player Moises Caicedo have signed new long-term contracts at Stamford Bridge, Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella have made it clear that they do not fully agree with that view.
In the past, the progress and upward trend shown by the team were, to a large extent, due to Maresca's first season coaching Chelsea. The Italian coach's departure in January, and the BlueCo's poor decision to hire Rossinier as his replacement, completely shattered that positive atmosphere. In order to rebuild Chelsea, it is crucial to select the next head coach.
Fernandez, Cucurella and other players may be in a state of satisfaction with salary increases and more stable contracts in the short term. But if Chelsea continues to sink into the middle of the Premier League and misses the Champions League, then this contentment will definitely come to an end. When many players first arrived at Stamford Bridge, they had ardent and huge expectations, hoping to participate in a very ambitious planning process in world football.
They are eager to receive wages that are commensurate with their value. At the same time, they are also eager to compete and win the most important trophies. If they are completely disillusioned with achieving these goals at Chelsea, then the actual situation in football is that they and their agents will rack their brains to send them to other clubs that can achieve their professional goals.
Get a big name from Chelsea to join the coaching staff or within the club
Perhaps one of the reasons for Chelsea's decline is that those who set Chelsea's high standards in the past are no longer in the first team. Former captain John Terry currently serves as a part-time mentor in the youth academy, nothing more than that.
Given the number of Chelsea regulars who have won the title over the past three decades, it is incomprehensible that the club has not invited them to join the coaching staff, or at least have some involvement in matters related to it.
Not only is it beneficial to the players, it can bring a lot of help, their guidance, but also allows the fans to find someone to identify with and find a sense of identity.
Obviously, Terry, who has been full of controversy for many years, is unlikely to be promoted. After the departures of Maresca and Rossinier, the club had two opportunities, but they missed them both. However, the club has other options.
Thiago Silva is an example. The former Brazil international won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021. However, he was watching the team lose to Nottingham Forest in the stands. The photo showed that he was extremely concerned about the progress of the team's game.
It should also be noted that he has just won the league championship with Porto at the age of 41, but his playing career will eventually come to an end. Current first-team player James has always said that Silva had a great influence on him when he played for Chelsea, and Colwell also highly praised this. His son Isago is currently developing well in the Chelsea youth academy, which shows that the relationship between him and Chelsea is still quite close.
Why not consider offering him a position?
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