FanPost

Left Back - Now and Next

OK here's the third of the positional break downs, I haven't altered the content very much either on this one, but I might look to do so more in the future, perhaps integrating some of the club based stuff at the bottom of 'Chelsea: The Transfer Market Story 2013 and beyond' .

Left Back

We've currently got Ashley Cole (for now at least, it is not clear for how much longer this will be the case), Ryan Bertrand, Patrick van Anholt, Aziz Deen-Conteh and George Saville on the left, (and 40% of Ronan at Fluminense), we'll only need a new player should Cole move, or if Bertrand continues to be used further up field, I have concerns about whether van Anholt, Deen-Conteh and Saville are going to make the grade - undoubtedly all fine young players, van Anholt in particular we should be confident in, while Deen-Conteh and Saville have both been solid if unspectacular recently, while Adam Nditi has shown himself reasonably proficient playing at left back as well as left mid, behind Cole, Bertrand and potentially van Anholt we're looking a bit thin.

Age is also an issue, currently Cole is 31, Bertrand is 23 and the rest of the cohort; van Anholt, Deen-Conteh, Saville, Nditi and Ronan are younger still (22, 19, 19, 19 and 17 respectively), there's a big age gap there (particularly as Bertrand only recently turned 23). If Cole was to take the one year on offer and then leave at the end of the 2013-14 season, he'd be 33, with two years, assuming he saw out his contract he'd be 34, certainly getting up in years. That would have to be a concern (particularly compared with the youth and vigor we'll have on the right with Cesar Azpilicueta, Todd Kane potentially Alastair Gordon, Josh Aina, Samuel Bangura, Nortei Nortey out of the U18's and potentially Wallace...Ivanovic will still only be 30 in two years).

If we need a new player it should be Luke Shaw from Southampton, known as the 'next Gareth Bale' or Lucas Digne from Lille who might justifiably be considered the French Gareth Bale. In the youth squads they should be watching Real Madrid Castilla's Juan José Manresa and Javier García-Noblejas Hernanz or Barca youth star Alejandro Grimaldo to see if there's any contractual disputes we could exploit. Other options include Le Harve's Benjamin Mendy, Manchester City's Ashley Smith-Brown (nicked Frédéric Veseli style from our Northern rivals), or we could try a similar trick with Arsenal young gun Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill (double barrelled surnames seem popular among young left backs).

If we need a more senior player then the best option is David Alaba (aka David 'I'm competing with Philipp Lahm for the left back spot and if I play in midfield I'm up against Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos so I need a new club' Alaba). Other options include; Nacho Monreal ( aka Nacho 'Malaga has lots of problems and will probably have to sell me as well as Isco, and as a bonus for Chelsea I'm from Osasuna and used to be Cesar Azpilicueta's teammate' Monreal, Yuto Nagatomo (aka Yuto 'now Alvaro Pereira's arrived I'll mainly be his back up' Nagatomo) or Fabio Coentrão (aka Fabio 'contract dispute with Madrid and personal dispute with Mourinho' Coentrao). Brazil and Sao Paulo star left back Bruno Cortes would be another possible option but for the fact it may be difficult getting him a work permit.

Further options we could consider have issues, Alvaro Pereira has only just moved to Inter (that doesn't necessarily mean he's out after all we'll want him next season when he'll be available again), he's a Chelsea target from way back (pre-AVB in fact) but he's a more effective midfielder. Aly Cissokho again has just moved, but again he'll be an option next season, again he's a prior Chelsea target, but has long been linked with moves to other clubs and our scouts have apparently been quite constant in their preference of Pereira.

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