Behdad Eghbali has insisted that while the road has been bumpy, Chelsea has successfully secured the world-class talent necessary to compete at the highest level.
The current Chelsea squad is built around a specific group of players by the hierarchy as the indispensable core of the long-term vision.
However, the squad on the whole has faced challenges in achieving consistent synergy, often hampered by a lack of veteran presence and recurring availability issues among key personnel.
Balancing the development of young prospects with the immediate demands of the Premier League has proven difficult, leading to a focus on refining the team come the summer.
The objective is to supplement this established core with players who possess the maturity to handle high-pressure environments, especially after seeing the number of collapses this season.
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Behdad Eghbali picks his six core Chelsea players
Giving an interview to The Athletic, Behdad Eghbali wasted no time in naming the six players that he sees as the foundations of this current Chelsea side.
“I think, generally, we’ve been fortunate, not in getting everything right, but we do have a core (of) good players, global players. Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Levi Colwill, Estevao Willian, Reece James.”
However, that core could soon be disrupted with all that’s going on with Enzo Fernandez, as Chelsea are supposedly no longer opposed to selling the midfielder this summer.
One positive is that Moises Caicedo is set to put pen to paper on a new deal.
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The players unlucky not to make Chelsea’s ‘core’
Several prominent names are absent from Behdad Eghbali’s untouchables list, highlighting the precarious nature of the current squad hierarchy.
Most notably, Marc Cucurella and Trevoh Chalobah have taken up more senior roles at Chelsea and have played equally as big roles this season.
When you consider the fact that Chelsea reassured Cucurella about the summer transfer window business, you would think he’d be included as part of the core group.
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