In his first Sporting Life column, Robert O'Connor looks at the problems Frank Lampard faces in balancing his young side with potential new signings.
The difference between failure and success can sometimes be simply a matter of expectations. In August, few people expected Chelsea, shackled with a transfer ban and with a new, inexperienced manager in charge, to challenge for the title, but probably fewer foresaw the blossoming of so many of the club’s academy prospects in such a short time.
Tottenham away in December was a microcosm of what has worked about Frank Lampard’s inconsistent Chelsea. Mason Mount, newly confident from starts and a goal for England, was a bully in midfield. It was all the more pleasing for the fact that both he and his manager have clearly made a concerted effort to toughen up a player that is at heart more technician than terrier.
Mount spoke in the days before the 2-0 win at Tottenham about the need for a modern number 10 to appreciate the dirtier side of the game, somewhere along the chain of evolution that turned Bergkamps into Ozils.
This demonstrated to supporters that there is a self-awareness to the player, that despite his young years he is set on becoming a part of an effective team rather than simply a great standalone creator, playing sumptuous passes in a losing cause.
Amidst the hard running and breathless tackling, Mount still showed against Spurs the deftness of touch in possession of the ball that first set him apart amongst Chelsea’s crowded youth academy. Yet the hallmark so far of his brief first-team career is that he has learnt to be content with appearing unspectacular, knowing how to temper the yearning for flashness in favour of rough and dirty discipline.
It’s worth remembering that this is still happening. Chelsea have collected transfer fees on 11 players since Lampard took charge. Excluding the money received from Eden Hazard’s move to Real Madrid, the club banked more than £40m, mostly from players with barely a handful of first-team appearances. Lampard wants the club’s youngsters to show their value in Chelsea blue, not at the bottom of the business’s annual books.
There needs to be new blood in January to prevent the youth revolution being undermined. Inexperience breeds inexperience and spirals into entropy unless it is anchored by older heads.
Chelsea have lost five of the last nine in the league. It should have been more but for Arsenal’s inability to turn dominance into goals at the Emirates in December.
They have never looked like a challenger to league-leaders Liverpool, and their place in next season’s Champions League appears dependent on how quickly Lampard can calm the jitters that started the team on this wonky run back in November.
That’s the challenge for the manager in January, how to achieve the alchemy of keeping his team buoyed by the excitability of youth but safe from sinking beneath the weight of inexperience.