Club icon demands new goalkeeper AND leader as Blues scrap major Reece James contract plans after leak

CHELSEA hero Wayne Bridge believes the Blues need a new goalkeeper and defensive leader.

And the England star who played in front of Petr Cech says the current team cannot continue with their “high wire” antics when playing out from the back.

When asked whether Robert Sanchez or Filip Jorgensen should play against Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 tie, Bridge was brutally honest.

The former left back said: “Honestly, I’d probably just flip a coin.There isn’t that much difference between the pair of them.”

But Bridge does feel Chelsea need a new No 1 between the sticks.

Bridge, who won the Premier League and both domestic cups during six years at Stamford Bridge, said: “Chelsea have been spoiled with the goalkeepers they’ve had in the past, and I’d probably say they need a goalie.

“I also think they need a real leader at the back. Thiago Silva going has been a massive miss.

“All the teams that go and win the league have a good backbone and a strong centre-back pairing, and it seems harder to come by these days.

“They probably need a centre-back who’s going to be that leader, lead the team and keep them shored up in defence, which at the moment they don’t really have because they’ve thrown points away.”

Leroy Rosenior’s side threw away the first leg against Barcelona away after twice coming from behind to level the score at 2-2.

Jorgensen was guilty of a poor pass when trying to play out from the back and Vitinha made it 3-2 before a late collapse saw the French champions add two more goals.

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Both the Dane and Sanchez have struggled with the ball at their feet in Rosenior’s short spell at the club.

Many have questioned the head coach’s insistence on building up from the ‘keeper, especially against teams who press as well as PSG and Arsenal,  who have beaten Rosenior’s Chelsea three times.

Bridge has nothing against the principle, but says players have to be drilled to recognise when to play it safer with a longer clearance.

Bridge, speaking on behalf of 10bet,  said: “I just see so much risk-taking (in Chelsea’s football). Sometimes they get out, but it’s close, then there’s a mistake, and they concede a goal.

“I think it’s a good way to play football, but there’s just too much risk-taking. Sometimes it’s high-wire stuff.

“I think they’ve got players who are capable of playing out from the back, but when you’re the one on the pitch you’ve got to anticipate situations — like if someone’s getting closed down too quickly.

“I don’t know if players are drilled and told they’ve got to do it every time, but it comes down to the player’s decision on the pitch at the end of the day.

“If something’s on, you play it. If you can play, you play. If not — if you can’t see something — then maybe you’ve got to dink it in behind.

“It’s not necessarily just the person on the ball’s job.

“They’ve got to pick the pass, but it’s also about the players around them moving and getting into positions to receive the ball.”

In last Saturday’s defeat by Newcastle, Sanchez flirted with disaster when a short pass to Wes Fofana put the French defender in trouble.

Fofana made a clumsy challenge on Anthony Gordon which, on another day, could have led to a penalty.

Rosenior says the risk of playing out from the back is worth the reward.

But unless Jorgensen or Sanchez improve, and the team in general becomes better at it, it would be a surprise if there was not a new No 1 goalkeeper at Chelsea next season.

The current Blues owners at one point had NINE ‘keepers on their books. Despite clearing the decks a bit last summer, It feels unlikely they would spend big money on another one.

They might well prefer to look in-house at Mike Penders, currently on loan at sister club Strasbourg and so someone who is used to what Rosenior wants – assuming the head coach himself stays at the club, of course.

Wayne Bridge was speaking to The Sun on behalf of 10bet.

FANS BREAK TRUST

CHELSEA fans never seemed to care much about the source of Roman Abramovich’s money while he was in charge.

So they probably aren’t that bothered now about how the Russian billionaire used it to cheat by making nearly £50m in illicit payments in order to grease the wheels of transfers.

If the Blues had copped more than a £10m fine and suspended transfer ban from the Premier League for the historic offences, supporters might have been a bit more upset.

But no-one is taking away any points won by the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian and David Luiz, let alone any of the trophies they lifted. Although you can make an argument that the punishment should have been harsher.

Instead there are probably fans who are so one-eyed in their dissatisfaction with the current owners that they blame them for reporting the club to the authorities after they uncovered the dodgy deals during the May 2022 takeover.

There are two deeper issues here.

On the one hand, there is the pointless nostalgia among a sizeable number of Chelsea fans for an era that cannot and will not return.

On the other, is the failure of the club’s hierarchy to explain publicly and honestly why that is the case, and why their way of running Chelsea is the best one to make them contenders for the big prizes again.

Director Danny Finkelstein tried to do that in private last month. Finkelstein met members of the NotAProjectCFC group in response to their protest against the BlueCo ownership group, and Clearlake Capital in particular, before the Brentford home game in January.

It is fair to say he won’t be doing that again in a hurry.

The NAPCFC crew decided to break the agreement to keep the contents of the meeting confidential and chose last week’s Champions League last 16 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain as the moment to release details.

The group is planning another protest sometime soon – and it could hardly be more pathetic than the last one, which was attended by very few fans, many of whom started singing songs about players the current owners actually brought to the club.

What do they actually want? Abramovich is not coming back. And even if another generous billionaire appeared or investors appeared, he or she would be restricted from blowing fortunes on the club.

By the very same financial fair play rules which were invented to prevent future Abramovich’s and were supported by the man himself so that Chelsea could pull up the drawbridge behind them.

Times have changed. The Blues cannot be run anymore as they were by Abramovich and his minions. And they now have to deal with state-funded Manchester City and Newcastle, and other rivals owned by billionaires.

But could they be run better than they are currently? That is a legitimate question, no matter what Finkelstein, his fellow directors, the co-owners and the famous five recruitment team might think.

The current regime has spent £1.5billion on players but there is not enough strength or depth to the squad. The strategy of buying young players, in high volume, to develop then sell or retain them, has never been tried before, and perhaps for a good reason.

Can it really bring back the days when Chelsea were challenging for the Premier League and Champions League? Is that even a primary goal for the current owners?

Abramovich pursued success, no matter the cost or the methods required, while using the Blues as a high-vis shield against the ups and downs of being a Russian oligarch.

BlueCo and majority owners Clearlake Capital are businessmen aiming to make a profit within a certain timeframe. They should be honest about what that means for Chelsea and their chances of on-field success.

This season Stamford Bridge chiefs have reduced, although far from abandoned, the policy of off-the-record briefings through third parties or direct whispers in the ear of certain individuals.

Private meetings with fans and other stakeholders are a legitimate and useful way of communicating and testing the water.

But they can come back to bite you and are not a successful communications strategy on their own..

A time is surely coming when Chelsea supremo Behdad Eghbali, his co-investors and bevy of football lieutenants will have to break cover and set out their stall.

PERFECT TIMING

REECE James’ new contract will have been agreed a while before it was officially announced last week.

But Chelsea insist they always intended to make the news public then, and it was not timed to take the sting out of the Champions League defeat in Paris.

It is said the Blues had a full whistles-and-bells multimedia production lined up, with teaser content for social media platforms and so on.

Some of it apparently had to be scrapped when an external media outlet broke the story earlier on Friday morning.

Who leaked it and spoiled all that hard work? Someone at the club or someone from James’ camp?

Regardless, it was a pleasure to have a surprise chance to speak to the Chelsea captain when he appeared at Liam Rosenior’s regular pre-match press conference.

But in many ways it would be more to the credit of the PR team if James’ new deal HAD been used to help take everyone’s mind off the bad result in Paris. It worked, for nearly a day and a half anyway..

It also felt a bit weird there was no mention at all of it in the programme for the Newcastle match, although there was a big tifo of James in the Matthew Harding Stand before kick off.

SUCCESS ELSEWHERE

Last week was very much doom and gloom from a Chelsea perspective, which was carried into this week.

A dismal defeat to PSG was followed by a defeat at home to Newcastle, before news of the fine and transfer bans AND an injury to captain Reece James.

However, here at the Chelsea Files we don’t like to be negative all the time, so thought we would bring you some good news in case you missed it.

The Chelsea Women’s team proved that the Blues are still winning trophies, by beating Manchester United 2-0 thanks to goals from Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones to lift the Women’s League Cup for the second season running.

Also, Chelsea Girls U14 won the inaugural edition of the Reece & Lauren James Cup, with the boys following the same path, winning the Boys U16 trophy.

For the boys U16 side, son of Chelsea legend Isago Silva was playing in that team, as was highly rated talent Hezekiah Grimwade.

Hope, at least, for the future of both teams!

LET OFF LIGHTLY

CHELSEA’S Premier League sanctions appear to have divided their top flight rivals.

The Blues were hit with a £10.75million fine on Monday after an investigation into dodgy transfer dealings and illegal academy approaches under Roman Abramovich‘s ownership.

Chelsea have also been handed a suspended transfer ban and a nine-month academy transfer ban.

The sanctions seem very lenient for such wrongdoing, but the Premier League have gone easy due to Chelsea’s American owners doing the right thing and self-reporting, handing over thousands of documents in the process.

Some rival Premier League executives consulted by Chelsea Files are frothing at the light sanctions, pointing to points deductions suffered by Everton and Nottingham Forest in recent years.

However, others feel that Chelsea’s self-reporting and co-operation, along with the fact that the wrongdoing was under a previous owner, mean the agreement is reasonable.

All are agreed on one aspect, however, and that is that the long-awaited Manchester City charges will be far more interesting.

RO-SET-PIECES

LIAM ROSENIIOR has taken a greater role in Chelsea’s set pieces and appears to have booted the set piece coach to the back of the dugout.

The Blues set piece coach is Bernardo Cueva, having joined the club from Brentford at the end of Mauricio Pochettino‘s tenure.

Pochettino was never a fan of the idea of hiring a set piece coach and, under Enzo Maresca, Cueva sat at the back of the Stamford Bridge dugout on matchdays.

When Rosenior arrived, however, Cueva was moved to the front row alongside the new manager.

That doesn’t seem to have lasted long. Cueva was back in his old seat at the back of the dugout against Newcastle at the weekend. Perhaps a demotion?

After a few issues with set pieces, Chelsea conceded cheap goals against Arsenal and Burnley from corners, prompting Rosenior to become increasingly involved in the preparation.

Speaking earlier this month, Rosenior said: “Am I involved? I am now.

“It’s not a laughing matter because it’s a key thing that we have to improve. Every manager has a different idea about the way you attack and defend set plays.

“I will always be honest. I’ve taken more responsibility in the last week because I know it’s something that needs to improve.

“Bernardo has proven what a fantastic set-piece coach he is in terms of our offensive output. He’s amongst the best in the league.”

SHORT FLIGHT FOR THE FIGHT

WITH so many English teams in Europe this season, the skies were full of private-charter jets crisscrossing the continent last week.

What you might not have expected was that Chelsea’s jet had to cross not just the channel, but Paris itself.

The Blues flew from Farnborough to Paris Le Bourget on Tuesday last week ahead of facing Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16 first leg.

But they did not return to London from Le Bourget, but Charles de Gaulle Airport instead.

That is because, by the time Chelsea had faced PSG on Wednesday night, Le Bourget was closed to departing flights.

That meant that the plane the Blues took home had to make a 19-minute flight between Le Bourget and Charles de Gaulle before taking the squad back to London Gatwick.

It is just a ten-minute drive between the two airports.