Thiago Silva seeing ‘trust and confidence’ growing under Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea already

Chelsea have massively revamped the playing squad this summer, getting leaner, fitter, and much, much younger, which has left Thiago Silva has the undisputed elder statesman of the group. Not that he wasn’t one of them already, but his veteran leadership and experience will truly be needed and counted upon this upcoming season. As things stand, Thiago will be ten years older than the next oldest first-team regulars, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Raheem Sterling (both 28). And Ben Chilwell at 26 will be the only other player over 25 when the season begins.

That’s both promising and quite scary — “You can’t win anything with kids,” as the famous quip goes — but head coach Mauricio Pochettino certainly has the opportunity to mould the team in his image and set us up for years and years of success. Move over Fergie’s Fledglings; here come Poch’s Pups!

Silva’s already seeing some good signs after the first few weeks.

“Everything is working really well, we are training very good and trying to find the best connections and trying to get a good evolution.

“We need to prepare well as a team, so we can start the season in the best possible way and try to have a better and more successful year. The environment has always been good but it’s true that last season with difficult results, the situation was difficult.

“But the trust and confidence with Mauricio is starting to be very interesting, he’s putting things on the right line and direction so all the players can have a good season and perform better.”

-Thiago Silva; source: Chelsea FC

Of course it’s still very early and it’s still just preseason, where everything is geared towards building that positivity and confidence and belief (and fitness) going into the season. But, so far so good, and you can’t ask for much more than that right now.