Chelsea 'only have one leader' who they are set to lose

Stuart Telford

• 11 Jan 2024 14:44 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea's squad lacks leaders despite the lavish sums spent on the playing personnel, according to former Blues left-back Wayne Bridge.

Chelsea have spent more than £1 billion on players since a Todd Boehly-led consortium bought the club from Roman Abramovich in May 2022, but on-field results have failed to follow.

The Blues currently languish in 10th in the Premier League under Mauricio Pochettino, some 12 points behind Arsenal who occupy the fourth Champions League place at the midway point of the season.

Reece James was named as captain at the start of the season but injuries have restricted the England defender to just five Premier League starts. With fellow full-back Ben Chilwell also injured, Conor Gallagher has led the team out more often than not this season, but Bridge sees Thiago Silva as the real leader.

"So many players in that team had that mentality and [Jose] Mourinho brought that to another level," Bridge told The Mirror's Alan Smith of the squad he played in that included John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and more.

Thiago Silva the only leader

"There was no sloppiness ever. His mentality improved ours as well. But there were a lot of leaders. You can only name one now. Thiago and that's about it, really."

Unfortunately for Chelsea, Silva looks set to return to Fluminense in his native Brazil next summer, with the 39-year-old expected to make the move on expiry of his current contract in June.

His won't be the only hole in the defence, and Bridge can't quite believe that Chelsea have turned to centre-back Levi Colwill to occupy his former position of left-back, given who they have bought and sold.

"Colwill is good but he's more of a centre back and he's not going to overlap a lot," Bridge said. "And it didn't go too well on Tuesday night [in defeat to Middlesbrough in the EFL Cup].

"They'd rather Lewis Hall or [Tino] Livramento back now. It is crazy when you talk about the names and they don't have a left back. It's madness."