Enough is enough. We need a Striker NOW!

The Sporting Directors need to step up and do their jobs.

Another game, another disappointing result, amid a slew of missed chances. But, despite the poor run recently, I actually think it its quite fortunate we had the what was an inevitable bad run right now. Because if it had happened in February and March, we’d not be able to do a thing about it. But having it late December early January, means that action can - and must - be taken.

I’m not interested in scapegoating either Enzo Maresca or Nicolas Jackson. Jackson is still only 22 and shouldn’t be leading the line with basically no support, no alternative, no real competition. Enzo Maresca can only work with the tools he’s given, and to me, he’s not been given enough quality tools to work with.

The bottom line is, the squad building has been poor. The sporting directors built the squad over the last 2 years, so its largely their responsibility. They’ve bought a good first choice team, and core of 14-15 players, but not at all built a strong squad. And that is fully on them.

They’ve signed players head coach Enzo Maresca didn’t want - for example, Keirnan Dewsbury-Hall, who is now for sale, and Joao Felix. With the combined cost of those, £75m, you could probably have signed Marc Guehi (bearing in mind the discount for the sell-on clause) and had change to put towards bringing in Liam Delap for £20m, the fee Ipswich paid last summer. This would have freed up funds to go for a goalscoring left winger this month.

But what do I know? I’m just a fan.

I’ll get on to this window and our options in a moment.

But there’s at least 2 positions we’ve not had any quality for a long time which need to be addressed in this and the next window. Striker and goalkeeper.

Diego Costa was our last elite striker. He left in 2017. It’s now 8 years since we’ve had an elite, clinical striker who got 20 plus PL goals (Cole Palmer isn’t a striker). Since Courtois left a year later, we’ve not had a world class keeper.

Funnily enough, its also been 8 years since our last title challenge.

Coincidence? I think not.

Everyone in and around football, including fans, knows you need an elite striker and elite goalkeeper to challenge for the league. This is just known. All fans know this, everyone who knows football knows this.

Except the people running Chelsea in the last 8 years. From both our recent ownerships.

Two ownerships, multiple managers, and billions spent, but still no top striker or goalkeeper. That HAS to be rectified. It's simply not acceptable for a club like Chelsea to still have this problem now, and its costing us so many points.

The other issue, which I’ve gone on about for years on this site, is the need for leaders with some good experience. Ideally in the Premier League. Players with character to set the example, already coming into their prime. And last night made clear to me again we lack this, in particular in the key area of CB (another position which needs addressing).

Signing a goalkeeper will have to wait till the summer, the GKs we have will probably be good enough for a top 4 challenge. But the striker, along with a proven CB with leadership qualities, can be taken care of now, and HAS to be in my view.

I know we’ve recalled Trevoh Chalobah, who has leadership skills and is a very good player, but to me, we still need to address the lack of experience and leadership at the back. That could now be left to the summer, and might have to given our main target is at the same club, Crystal Palace, as we just recalled Trev from.

Just to say as well, we’re lucky that Trev is the character he is, and has such love for Chelsea and desire to make it here. The way he was messed about by the sporting directors in the summer, treated abysmally, only for them to grovel back to call him in and call him an “important player” now, is embarrassing and shameless from the sporting directors. They owe him an apology, in my view.

In regards to CB signings, more likely for the summer now, my advocacy for Marc Guehi, partially on the basis of his leadership qualities, his captaincy, his experience, his calm head, as well as his quality, have been completely justified in recent games. We lose our heads way too easily, and our defence lacks a true leader. To me, we need to do what it takes to sign him this window, and add some much needed leadership (and quality) to our back line. I don’t want another 21 year old coming in, I want a leader with PL experience.

Marc Guehi has the benefit of having experience (3 years in the PL and starting regularly for England, both in qualifying and in a major tournament, where we reached the final), being a natural leader (captain of Crystal Palace at 22), but also still being relatively young at 24. Not only that, he has the Chelsea DNA, he knows what this club is about and the expectations here. It's a no-brainer and needs to happen either now, or more likely in the summer given Trev’s recall.

In an ideal world, our CB options in the summer will be Levi Colwill, Marc Guehi, Trevoh Chalobah, Josh Acheampong and either Tosin or Wesley Fofana. I’m really concerned Wes is never going to stay fit enough to be effective for Chelsea, and Tosin is a very strong squad player who provides off field leadership and experience. But we’ll see.

This brings us to the more pressing and urgent need now, up front.

Although Trev coming back helps us at CB, we do need to bring a striker in this window. To me that’s not a debate anymore, and we’re just going to have to pay. However, it HAS to be done this window to ensure we stay in the top 4 race.

Some people are saying they want some proven quality too. I understand that, its clear finishing is a problem and we need a striker and winger who are natural born goal-scorers, and ideally won’t be project players.

The reality is much more difficult. Signing Viktor Gyokeres, for example, would be insanely expensive, he could demand high wages and would pretty much end Jackson’s Chelsea career as a starter. Also, my problem with the likes of him, Sesko etc is despite their massive talent, they have never played in the Premier League. So many times we’ve bought from outside the PL and its failed way too often for my liking.

This is why I’m so big on Liam Delap. Yes he is only 21, but he is a powerful, clinical finisher, he’s strong, powerful, good in the air and he’s now proven he can do it at PL level. Ipswich generally create fewer chances than Chelsea and yet he still has 8 PL goals. At Chelsea, that ratio would almost certainly go up, and he’s only 21 so will improve.

He’s played under Maresca in PL2 and thrived, getting 24 goals in 20 games. To me there’s very little risk in signing him and I think he has the temperament to play for a big club. Not to mention he has the Joe Shields seal of approval. He’d provide strong competition for Jackson, and could legitimately take his place, and we need a player who can do that. Good competition helps players, and it will help Jackson and Delap himself to have that competition.

I’d also be recalling Andrey Santos. Caicedo has played every PL game this season and 9 games since December 1st, he clearly needs a break. Romeo Lavia is now back, but we need more quality in that midfield, especially as Lavia has had injury issues. Andrey Santos would be able to come in and start PL games now, and I think he’d be excellent. He’s another vocal player with leadership skills too. To me that’s a no brainer.

If we can sign Delap and bring Santos back, on top of recalling and using Trev, to me that helps our chances of success this season significantly. Then pursue Guehi as a priority summer signing.

Its ridiculous that we should still be looking for solutions in these positions, but here we are. But make no doubt about it, these issues need to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

We have to get this right to ensure our top 4 status this season, and to help us move further towards finally challenging for the title in the coming years. The sporting directors need to step up and get things done. We’ve waited for long enough and there’s simply no debating it anymore.

The Score