Chelsea have only had six captains in the Premier League era, but a leadership void at Stamford Bridge leaves the Blues with few viable armband candidates.
Many issues face Mauricio Pochettino as he prepares for his first season as Chelsea manager, not least that of the club captaincy.
This summer has been another one of mass change at Stamford Bridge with a wealth of experience and leadership leaving. Club captain Cesar Azpilicueta has gone, as well as occasional stand-in skippers Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante. Another, Jorginho, moved across London to Arsenal in January.
Mount, in particular, was long predicted to inherit the armband, even up until the start of last season. His exit is indicative of the chaos that has engulfed the club since the arrival of Todd Boehly and company.
As is the rather stunning fact that just six of the 20-man matchday squad for the 2021 Champions League final remain at Chelsea, and two of those, Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi are likely to be moved on in the coming weeks.
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Of the three starters from that famous night, two are right in the mix for the captaincy this season. Apologies to Ben Chilwell.
Reece James and Thiago Silva find themselves at very different ends of their career, both of whom have their pros and cons in regard to taking on the armband.
James appears the more likely candidate, having been the man to lift the inaugural Premier League Summer Series trophy for the Blues following their 2-0 win against Fulham on Sunday. Prestige.
While the 23-year-old is undoubtedly a top-class player and has obvious leadership qualities, his injury record is checkered to say the least, having made just 14 league starts last season after a series of hamstring and knee issues.
Unfortunately he can’t be trusted to stay fit right now but he isn’t alone in not being guaranteed to be on the pitch weekly.
Silva has captained Brazil, Milan and PSG over the course of his long and illustrious career, as well as Chelsea at times since arriving in the summer of 2020.
He is the archetypal centre-back leader but he will turn 39 in September and simply cannot be expected to start week in week out for the Blues. The soon-to-be confirmed signing of Axel Disai to add to Levi Colwill and Benoit Badiashile further confirms this.
It leaves the club in a strange position, especially after the straightforward succession plan of the Premier League era. Across 31 seasons, Chelsea have had just six captains, the lowest number of any club in that time; even within that, Andy Townsend only lasted a year before leaving for Aston Villa in 1993.
From here, Dennis Wise assumed the leadership mantle, to be followed by Marcel Desailly, John Terry (the only man to lift five Premier League titles as captain), Gary Cahill and, most recently, Azpilicueta.
All of these players had been groomed for the role while their predecessor was still at the club. For example, Cahill was the playing captain while Terry remained the club captain in his final season at the club, one in which Chelsea claimed their last title under Antonio Conte.
In all of those sides as well, there was plentiful leaders such as Gianluca Vialli, Gus Poyet, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Petr Cech.
It made developing youngsters and leaders far easier with a solid group of senior pros, something which Chelsea now simply lack with Raheem Sterling being the only other experienced player in their ranks – and his Stamford Bridge career has been less than impressive to date.
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Perhaps the primary reason for the appointment of Pochettino was his renowned ability and penchant for working with younger players but stockpiling dozens of prospects all at once without a strong leadership group makes little to no sense.
His Spurs team might have been young and vibrant but it did still feature a World Cup-winning skipper in Hugo Lloris, the experienced pair of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen at the back and another Belgian, Moussa Dembele, in midfield. And despite being in his mid-20s under Poch, Christian Eriksen was an extremely experienced player.
Going further back and to the most famous recent team of youngsters, the fabled Class of ’92, they prospered under the guidance and tutelage of Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and Denis Irwin, as well as a young Roy Keane, who would eventually captain them.
It all points to the absence of a strategy or plan under Clearlake Capital, whose own lack of leadership has since seeped downwards and into the playing squad, and leaves Pochettino in an unenviable position upon his return to the Premier League, with more questions than answers.