The Chelsea Syndrome [Archive]

OutKast3000

04 Jan 2006, 10:04 AM

Yesterday I read that Jose Murinho told SWP that he would not be loaned out to Everton this transfer window. Evidently SWP wanted to go out on loan to get first team play to increase his chances for Germany.

'Tis a shame that such a talent is wasted on the bench.......so I dubbed this the Chelsea Syndrome as Chelsea has copius amounts of talent often left sitting on the bench.....Cudicini, Cole, Cole, Robben, Duff, Crespo, Drogba, Gudjohnsen....oftentimes many of these guys are left on the bench. It seems like the only surefire starters are Lampard, Terry and Cech.

So I propose a list of other talents that have been one way or another affected by the Chelsea Syndrome:

SWP - from Man City to Chelsea
Michael Owen - from Liverpool to Real Madrid
Louis Saha - from Fulham to Manchester United
Robinho - from Santos to Real Madrid (still a work in progress)
Antonio Cassano - from Roma to Real Madrid (yet to be determined - but likely will follow in Owen's tracks)

Add any others as I am curious to see what other players moved to a "big club" that never made much of a run.

Teso Dos Bichos

04 Jan 2006, 10:24 AM

Saha was getting a run before his various injuries, so the situation is not the same.

liverbird

04 Jan 2006, 11:10 AM

Graveson at Real

nicephoras

04 Jan 2006, 11:11 AM

We'll see what happens to SWP in a year. Remember, Joe Cole had to fight for first team places at first too. Now he's fine. Your other comments are odd - Zidane is retiring, opening up room for Cassano. Zidane's constantly hurt, anyway. Robinho has been playing consistently too. As for Saha - well, how would we know? He's so brittle. Although, of course, he'll always be third banana on that club.

SpursLivi

04 Jan 2006, 12:04 PM

I thought Owen was a success in Spain!

OutKast3000

04 Jan 2006, 01:29 PM

We'll see what happens to SWP in a year. Remember, Joe Cole had to fight for first team places at first too. Now he's fine. Your other comments are odd - Zidane is retiring, opening up room for Cassano. Zidane's constantly hurt, anyway. Robinho has been playing consistently too. As for Saha - well, how would we know? He's so brittle. Although, of course, he'll always be third banana on that club.

Good points and I agree wholeheartedly.

But they were just generalizations -- generally barring any injury certain players would not be playing ahead of others....IE. the Real Madrid players mostly.

Joe Cole is a prime example and a fantastic talent -- so hopefully SWP will right the ship and break into the first team.

I just really don't like the fact that he went from City superstud to Chelsea's second string. In my opinion he and Saha and Owen should have stayed put! Robinho is a different story - he is young and coming from a smaller league. One could argue that EPL is the best league in the world thus the lack of appeal to move from one premiership club to another.....or even abroad and back again like Owen.

Go figure he leaves Liverpool and they win the CL....as much as I think Owen is a quality player if I were Liverpool I'd say good ridance.

pollywood

04 Jan 2006, 02:38 PM

Henrik Larsson?

yasik19

04 Jan 2006, 03:11 PM

Henrik Larsson?

but he was out for a long time with an injury. Before that, i believe he started most of the time.

'Strobaby

04 Jan 2006, 04:32 PM

Gravesen was playing a lot of games until he got injured. Apparently, his injury is taking a while to heal (I read he doesn't use modern medicine), and Garcia is in his spot anyways, though he's apparently terrible.

ronaldo90

04 Jan 2006, 04:44 PM

I thought Owen was a success in Spain!

he done amazingly well considering the goals per minutes on pitch average he achieved

King-James

04 Jan 2006, 11:39 PM

Maybe hindsight is 20/20, but I thought SWP wasn't in the right mind to sign Chelsea. Unless he just wanted to win that big contract and didn't really care about playing... which I thought was/is unlikely.

nicephoras

05 Jan 2006, 12:37 AM

Maybe hindsight is 20/20, but I thought SWP wasn't in the right mind to sign Chelsea. Unless he just wanted to win that big contract and didn't really care about playing...

:rolleyes: He probably thought he'd play a lot. What a shock. He thinks he's good enough. He may well be; he'll just have to work at it.

OutKast3000

05 Jan 2006, 11:14 AM

I hope to see SWP get a place in the starting 11.

I feel that he is an amazing talent and hard worker so it shouldn't be a problem -- but it pains me to see him riding the pine.

The Potter

05 Jan 2006, 11:55 AM

I still think one of the main reasons Chelsea signed SWP was to stop anybody else getting him.

musicl

05 Jan 2006, 12:58 PM

SWP has been poor when he has played. I am not surprised that he is always on the bench.

King-James

05 Jan 2006, 01:22 PM

:rolleyes: He probably thought he'd play a lot. What a shock. He thinks he's good enough. He may well be; he'll just have to work at it.

Perhaps I forgot that players tend to really exaggerate their abilities in their minds.
Kind of hard to get much time, considering the squad competition. And not suprisingly he plays out of form when he is played, not getting consistant minutes to get in form.

qazwsx

06 Jan 2006, 04:07 AM

It's called self confidence. They don't get to where they are by beleiving everyone else is better than them and they can't compete. Theres plenty of very talented players out there who never made it because they didn't have the confidence in their own ability to give them the drive to prove themselves.

PS. Chelsea signed SWP because they needed a new RW. Duff and Robben are both LW and J.Cole can play CM and LW as well as RW. After the game at Liverpool last season, it was obvious we needed some more depth out wide. SWP will get the chance to prove himself, and I think once he settles in properly, he will.

michaec

06 Jan 2006, 05:16 AM

PS. Chelsea signed SWP because they needed a new RW. Duff and Robben are both LW and J.Cole can play CM and LW as well as RW. After the game at Liverpool last season, it was obvious we needed some more depth out wide. SWP will get the chance to prove himself, and I think once he settles in properly, he will.I agree that Wright-Phillips will get his chance. I don't know if Mourinho is just purposely easing him into things at Chelsea, but he is much more of a natural on the right wing than Robben, Duff or Cole. If the idea is to have someone out there slinging crosses in for the likes of Drogba and weighing in with a few goals from there too then Wright-Phillips is the best suited player in the Chelsea squad. Robben has been a little injury-prone, any time out for him will give Wright-Phillips the run of games he needs to establish himself in the team.

chelski72

19 Jan 2006, 06:50 AM

It's called self confidence. They don't get to where they are by beleiving everyone else is better than them and they can't compete. Theres plenty of very talented players out there who never made it because they didn't have the confidence in their own ability to give them the drive to prove themselves.

PS. Chelsea signed SWP because they needed a new RW. Duff and Robben are both LW and J.Cole can play CM and LW as well as RW. After the game at Liverpool last season, it was obvious we needed some more depth out wide. SWP will get the chance to prove himself, and I think once he settles in properly, he will.

Ah at last. Someone else understands that it wasn't a conspiracy. Yes, what you said is exactly why we bought SWP.

SWP knew the wingers we had when he joined. It's up to him and him alone to get into the 1st XI. He has no god-given right to be in it, just because he was a big part of Citeh...

Aussie_gunner_14

19 Jan 2006, 08:23 PM

Still think he was stupid not to think more of arsenal when we were very interested, think about it, our only real RW is freddie,he is often injured, and is out of form.

He'd be pushing for first team every week.
Oh well, he got greedy and as a result he now warms the timber frequently.