צ'לסי 2019/20 - סופר, סופר פראנק

לאחר כמעט עשור של דומיננטיות בזירה המקומית, ברור לכל בר-דעת שמשהו רע עובר על צ'לסי.

גם כשפוגעים במינוי של המאמן, ההצלחה מתפרקת במהרה וחוזרת לנקום במועדון.

עד שיש רכש מוצלח, בוחרים במאמן שמבליט ללא צורך את החולשות שלו.

עבור מועדון שאיבד מעט את הדרך שלו ויצר סקפטיות בקרב האוהדים - ולא בגלל העדר הצלחה, אלא בגלל העדר תכנית ברורה - המינוי של פראנק למפארד הוא בשורה חיובית מאוד. אחרי הכל, למפארד הוא אגדת צ'לסי והוא מביא איתו צוות מסייע שכולל מאמני אקדמיה אשר עבדו עם שחקנים שנמצאים על סף פריצה לסגל הבוגר.

נראה, על פניו, שמדובר בפתרון הכי טוב שהמועדון היה יכול לחשוב עליו על מנת ליצור התלהבות בקרב האוהדים. אולם גם כאן, אפשר לטעון שהצעד הזה נכפה על המועדון בגלל השעיית ההעברות שפיפ"א הטילה עליו, זאת כמובן בגלל טעויות שהוא ביצע.

על כל פנים, גם הפתרון הזה עשוי להביא איתו זמנים רעים במידה ולמפארד לא יעמוד בדרישות ובלחצים של מועדון כמו צ'לסי. תרחיש סביר לכל הדעות.

לנו נותר רק לצפות מן הצד ולקוות לטוב. וגם אם תחילה המינוי יתברר כטוב, אנחנו יכולים להמר באיזו מהירות הטוב הזה יתפוגג.

 

כתבה על מייסון מאונט מהטלגראף:

How Mason Mount defied his dad - and interest from Manchester United - to become a star at Chelsea

Mason Mount was 14 when his father Tony told him to leave Chelsea. His reasoning seemed sound enough - young players, he explained to his son, simply do not get a chance at the club.

Tony told academy manager Neil Bath too, expressing his doubts about the pathway that was being promised, and he also spoke to other interested clubs without Masons knowledge to see what his options might be. Manchester United had already taken an interest after scouts working for the club spotted Mount playing football while on a family holiday in Egypt.

But when Tony laid it on the line with Mason, telling him that no academy graduate had made it into the first team since John Terry and that he would be "silly" to stay, the teenagers response was emphatic.

"Mason just said, well, Ill be the next one," said Tony. "He was absolutely adamant he wasnt going to leave and that he could make it."

Mount grew up as a Portsmouth fan and particularly took a shine to Argentine midfielder Andres DAlessandro, whose signed shirt he had framed and has still got. Pompey offered Mount a place in their academy when he was eight, but Mount opted for Chelsea, with whom he had been training from the age of six. At one stage, Tony was driving his son to Cobham for Saturday morning training and then driving him back to Fratton Park to watch DAlessandro and co in the afternoon.

Tony most likely still had his doubts about his sons hopes of being given a first-team chance until about two months ago, when the stars started to align for Mount and Chelseas other talented youngsters.

Chelsea chose not to try to get their transfer ban frozen and Frank Lampard was appointed successor to Maurizio Sarri as head coach. All of a sudden the path opened up for Mount.

If history is anything to go by, then Mount should be backed to grasp his chance as he has made a habit of making an early impression. He was aged just five, and playing in his first-ever mini-football tournament in Fareham - and for the first time on grass - when Chelsea scout Rob Winzar spotted him and invited him to train at the club once a week.

Winzar had only been working for Chelsea for three months and already knew Tony from their days in non-League football.

"I got lucky, really," said 54-year-old Winzar. "I went and had a chat with Tony and he said his lad was playing, so I had a look at him and there was Mason and Luke McCormick, who is also still at Chelsea, playing in the same team.

"Ive still got my notes from the tournament and all Id written from watching Mason was follow up. Thats all I needed because straight away he stood out. Not so much because of his skill or technique, but his aggression, not in a physical way, to get the ball back and run with it.

"Hes the best one Ive seen in 15 years of scouting for Chelsea and I saw Mason in my first year, in one of my first-ever scouting trips for the club. I still havent seen a player as good as him at that age."

Tony, a former non-league player and manager, was initially reluctant but eventually allowed his son to start training with Chelsea once he had turned six and he progressed through the age groups and later signed a scholarship after ignoring his fathers advice to leave.

Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole would on occasion go and train with Chelseas starstruck academy youngsters, while Mount also took a shine to David Luiz, with whom he had a picture taken. Luiz posted the photo of himself alongside Mount, when he was an academy player, on social media next to an image of them together on Chelseas pre-season tour of Japan this summer, with the caption life is great.

Now team-mates, Mount is said to have developed a 'bromance' with Luiz that has helped him to quickly settle into the first team squad, but the 20-year-old had already proved he can step out of his comfort zone and into new environments.

Aged 18 and on the back of an excellent season playing for Chelseas under-23s, Mount could have stayed put and enjoyed another comfortable campaign surrounded by familiar faces and some of his close friends. But he chose instead to go on loan to Vitesse Arnhem, where he scored with his first touch after stepping off the substitutes bench against FC Utrecht in October, before again demonstrating his determination during the Eredivisie winter break.

"Mason hadnt played too much because he had missed pre-season after being away with England under-19s," said Tony. "He had about 10 days off over Christmas and I said wed talk to Chelsea about sorting him out another loan where he might play more. But Mason said no and told me that he wanted to stay and prove himself. He wouldnt leave. I was really proud of how he adapted, never complained and turned it around."

Mount scored on his first appearance after the break against Sparta Rotterdam and never looked back, as he held down a starting place and performed so well that he won the Vitesse Player of the Year award. Technical director Marc van Hintum even claimed the youngster was the best player in the Eredivisie.

"We have been able to enjoy a great talent," said Van Hintum. "At Ajax there are no better players in the midfield, you know. No, not (Hakim) Ziyech either. Mason has everything: work rate, stamina, tactical ingenuity, technique, depth and dynamics. He can put pressure and has scoring ability. He can even head. He has the right mentality and he is intelligent. All conditions for a top career."

Other than impressing on the pitch in Holland, Mount grew up off it as he spent a year on his own in a three-bedroom house in the sleepy village of Doorwerth, just outside Arnhem. When Tony and his mother Debbie were not visiting, Mount cooked for himself, washed his own clothes and picked up enough of the Dutch language to get by.

But at the end of his first season playing first-team football, Mount wanted to push himself once more with a loan to the Championship and, again, he made a quick impression.

Derby County were on course to lose Lampards first game as a manager until the ball broke to Mount 20 yards out and his left-foot shot squeezed past Reading goalkeeper Vito Mannone last August. That set the tone for Mounts season, in which he won a senior England call-up in October and finished with 11 goals and helped Derby reach the Championship play-off final at Wembley, which was lost to Aston Villa.

The assumption at the turn of this year was that the logical next step for Mount would be to go on loan to a Premier League club this season to get top-flight experience. But after succeeding Sarri, Lampard quickly told Mount he would not be leaving on loan and would instead be part of his squad. The club further underlined their faith in him by handing him a new five-year contract worth around £77,000-a-week.

Yet again, Mount has not hung around in showing what he is capable of in pre-season. He scored on his first senior appearance in the friendly against St Patricks and netted two more against Reading.

"Ill be really proud when he plays for Chelsea in the Premier League," said Winzar. "But its what Mason and his family have done, really. Tony has been fantastic. Mason will be a superstar."

 

זה בדוק בולשיט, אבל רק המחשבה משעשעת אותי.