Zenden: Chelsea Must Rebuild Again After a Season to Forget

Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports , former Chelsea , Liverpool and Barcelona midfielder Bolo Zenden has given a frank assessment of a chaotic season at Stamford Bridge and what the club must do to recover this summer.

Zenden has urged caution over Xabi Alonso taking the Chelsea job, backed Nathan Ake as a smart returnee to Stamford Bridge , and questioned whether Jorrel Hato is wasting his career on the bench.

The former Chelsea man has also weighed in on a potential Jose Mourinho comeback, the risk of a summer exodus without Champions League football, and whether Emmanuel Emegha and Bart Verbruggen are the right recruits.

Chelsea

Carragher Called Chelsea “Broken” Is That Fair?

There has been a lot of turmoil at Chelsea , particularly since Roman Abramovich left. Before that, there were still a lot of managerial changes. I think only Jose Mourinho is the one who stayed the longest and did really well for the club. Loads of other managers came through and didn't stick. Surprisingly, Thomas did really well with the team, taking them from a difficult position to winning the Champions League . Chelsea can say they have won every trophy possible. The trophy cabinet is absolutely packed. This brings certain expectations from the fans.

Since then, there have been new owners, new managers, and then Enzo Maresca, who probably surprised a lot of people by doing so well. However, it came out that he had been in talks with Manchester City . He didn't openly admit it, but I believe internally he did say it was the case.

I think there's an obligation to do so; if you speak to someone else, you have to let your people know. That sort of revelation sparked something, and the club decided to get rid of him. Since then, we've all seen that it's only gone downwards. The results haven't been good. Liam Rosenior had a good start for about five games but still ended up losing his job. It's a graveyard for managers, and that's never nice. If you look at where they are now, the last thing you would expect is for Chelsea not to be in Europe , especially considering how many European spots are available: five for the Champions League , plus the Europa League and Conference League .

They might even be out of all of them. They still have the cup final that they can play, which won't be easy. If they win that, they'll be in Europe . So that gives them a little bit of hope to at least win a trophy and be in Europe . That will be the lifeline, I think. But yeah, Chelsea will have to go back to the drawing board in the summer. Again, a new manager, probably again, new players in, and players out. I guess as a Chelsea fan, it's not an easy period. And obviously, it's worse if you're a Spurs fan and you're looking at a relegation battle, where Spurs won the Europa League not that long ago, and look where they are now. Maybe in the end, we'll say it's the beauty of the game; you never know, anything can happen. But yeah, it doesn't look good for Chelsea at the moment.

Will Chelsea Face An Exodus?

I think as a player, you don't want the question to be asked. And if you're too honest about it, it can backfire. It's a normal thing to think, okay, if I ever get a chance to play for a club like Real Madrid or Barcelona , then obviously you're open to listen. That doesn't make it easier for the current manager, of course.

It goes the other way around as well. For example, if a team qualifies for Europe , you know that you have a better position on the market, which also means that if you're not playing in Europe , that makes it so much more difficult to attract players. But also, you look at players maybe wanting to leave. And of course, the players that are at Chelsea , they expect to play in Europe . And you could also suggest to them, well, you should have played a little bit better as a team so that you were entitled to play in Europe .

Next Chelsea Manager

Assessing Mourinho's Potential Return

He's the manager who's been there and knows the club. Anything is possible in football. But I also know that Jose Mourinho obviously had a very good relationship with Roman Abramovich . I'm not sure if it would be the right moment for Mourinho to come back. If you talk about Mourinho , there's also been talk about him getting the job at Real Madrid . Being back in the new Bernabeu , that would be a special one as well to happen, because they'll be looking at a new manager.

The way I've read the papers and the links, it's most likely that Alvaro Arbeloa is not going to stick with the job. See what happens on the weekend when you play El Clasico, and Barca wins the league. A 3-0 victory for Barca doesn't look good on Arbeloa , but hey, it's football; anything can happen. So yeah, there's always going to be names in there to see if they can take on the job.

Move Quick For Alonso?

I'd be cautious about Xabi Alonso to Chelsea ; I'm not sure it's a good idea, and I think you have to take a few things in mind. First of all, he has a history with Liverpool, and he's not been a manager in England yet.

Now, I remember when I was assistant coach to Rafa Benitez when he joined Chelsea . I was there, and I saw what happened to Benitez with the Chelsea fans. They never really took him on because of his history at Liverpool . He was a manager there and not a player, so it might be slightly different, but I'd be cautious. The other thing is when he was at Real Madrid , Xabi Alonso , there obviously was some criticism that he couldn't really cope with the star attitudes from certain players. And I think he was used to managing in Germany, where the players are more likely to follow the manager, whereas when he was at Madrid , some just played their own game.

How will that be at Chelsea if there are some bigger names on bench and not playing in Europe ? I think as a manager you have to be really thoughtful of your choices. Because let's say if you go to Madrid and you get the sack after six or eight months, then maybe you move to Chelsea , it's not going well, you get a sack again, those are not just scratches; they are scars, and it might harm your managerial career.

Squad Assessment

Will Hato Have To Leave For Game Time?

I always say that if you move to a different competition, especially the Premier League , you have to give the players a little bit of time to adapt. Some adapt in three months, others in a year. So that's one point with Jorrel Hato . Secondly, when you are a young player, you have to make the right decision to go to the club where you're most likely to play most of your minutes, because to develop, you need to play games, and he hasn't played too many. Is he a good player? Yes, of course. He reminds me a little bit of Ryan Gravenberch back when he went to Bayern Munich . He was also a young age and learned a lot but didn't play a lot, and then moved to Liverpool . He needed one year to adapt a bit. Also, the style Liverpool played at the time under Jürgen Klopp was relatively direct, so they sort of skipped the middle a bit.

On the other hand, last year, they played more from the back, through the middle, and then to the front. And that fitted Gravenberch really well in the middle. If you make a certain decision and in the end there's a change of manager, maybe a change of style, and you don't play enough minutes, it's a waste of talent somewhere down the line. But you also still have to look in the mirror, and when you make a step, you have to obviously step it up a bit and do as much as you can to get match time.

But also, what happens sometimes, you know, when you look at Chelsea , they sign players and give them like a six or seven-year contract. I don't know how many years Hato signed for, but can you blame him for signing for Chelsea in the end? I mean, it's strange, but also, as I said, sometimes it's the environment or the combination of manager and tactics. If you look at a player like Noni Madueke , I was with him at PSV , and he moved to Chelsea . I wasn't sure if that was the right decision to do, but he got a six-year contract, you know, back in London . He's a London boy, so, you know, why not?

He featured, but probably not as much as he wanted. Still, he got himself into the national team and then moved to Arsenal , where you think, okay, there's Bukayo Saka as well on the right-hand side, but he plays. He shows that he's got quality, and then he also does that for the national team. So sometimes it's difficult to put your finger on exactly why a player does or doesn't perform. A lot of the time it's a combination of the environment, the manager, the players, the tactics, your colleagues, the whole lot needs to fit the bill.

Ake Back?

If you sign young players and give them a six-year deal, then obviously it's a business model because you want to sell them on after a year or two, move them on, and get some money back. If you sign a 31-year-old like Nathan Ake , then obviously you're not going to make a lot of money on them anymore. But you do get their experience. What you sometimes forget is that the older, experienced players can actually develop the youngsters. You need a good mixture. You need those experienced players within the dressing room to tell the young lads what to do and how to do it.

For example, I remember my time at Chelsea , with John Terry playing next to Marcel Desailly . I'm sure he learned a lot from Marcel . So you do need those kinds of players within the squad to be able to develop the youngsters. They need to take them by the hand, not literally, but you know what I mean. So it's important to have that power within the dressing room as well.

Now, there have also been talks that Nathan Ake might come to PSV Eindhoven . I know PSV tried to sign him a long time ago when he was still at Chelsea and was out on loan a few times. But he preferred to stay in England because then obviously you become a homegrown player if you've played a certain amount of years in England . But it all depends, obviously, on the family situation as well, what you want to do. Ake still has a lot in the locker to give. I'm sure that he could take a good role at Chelsea if that would be an opportunity for him and if he's likely to move back to London . It could be a great signing.

Transfers

Emegha To Deputise For Pedro?

I think it will be difficult for Emmanuel Emegha at Chelsea . If he had a chance to go to the World Cup with Holland , he's probably going to be out now because I think he's injured. He'll be out for six weeks, I think, with a muscle injury. So that won't help him. It will be difficult at a club like Chelsea because of the history of the club. There have been many, many good strikers, so that's quite a gap to fill. Also, when you play at Chelsea , there are definite expectations. The way they play at the moment makes it difficult for a striker to score a lot of goals. And in the end, that's what really counts for a striker.

We have to see if he can do well. He's still young. He's done well at Strasbourg . It's a simple move for Chelsea to make. But I don't think he'll be a finished product when he comes. So if they sign him, I think he needs time to adapt to the Premier League and everything that comes with it.

Verbruggen To The Bridge?

It won't be easy for Bart Verbruggen at Chelsea . If he's potentially interested, yeah, of course, who wouldn't like to play for Chelsea ? That's for sure. If you put him next to the likes of Petr Cech , that's going to be hard. I don't think he has that presence in the box. But if you have a manager that is most likely to play build-up football from the back, he's got good feet, you know, can play well from the back. It comes with a risk; sometimes, obviously, it goes wrong, but that's what happens when you play from the back.

But yeah, he's the one that will probably be a number one choice in the summer for Holland when we play the World Cup . And if he does well there, then it's most likely that more clubs will be interested. And it's also not a shame to say that if there comes an opportunity to move up on the ladder from Brighton , yeah, why not?

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