Gary Neville claims there’s a midfielder that’s kicked on and been amazing since Chelsea sold him for a relatively low price last year.
The central midfield positions at Stamford Bridge is certainly one of the major talking points at the club.
Blues head coach Mauricio Pochettino is the man who’s been trying to get the best out of expensive duo Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in the centre of the park. It’s academy graduate Conor Gallagher that has outshone both this season, though.
You can’t blame supporters for impatience when it comes to the midfield because Fernandez cost £106.8m (Sky Sports) from Benfica and Caicedo cost £115m (Sky Sports) from Brighton. Admittedly, the latter has quietly gone about his work nicely despite the mammoth price tag.
Chelsea have allowed central midfielders such as Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, N’Golo Kante and Billy Gilmour leave them in recent times. In fairness, most have thrived since their respective transfers.
Gary Neville says Chelsea sold a ‘beautiful player’
Pundit Gary Neville claims that Jorginho has excelled since his move from Chelsea to Arsenal midway through last season.
Arsenal paid Chelsea £12m (Sky Sports) to sign Jorginho at the start of 2023, which has turned out to be a really shrewd bit of business.
The experienced 32-year-old midfielder is a key cog in Mikel Arteta’s side, playing 35 matches across all competitions this campaign.
Neville told The Overlap: “Jorginho is a good example [for Casemiro]. Jorginho can’t run, he is better on the ball, but he can’t run. He was finished at Chelsea, everyone said he can’t run. He goes to Arsenal and he looks a beautiful player in that Arsenal midfield with Declan Rice one side and [Martin] Odegaard the other, with that centre-back partnership. You can play in that position and not run.”
Blues have missed Jorginho
For the experience and calmness Jorginho does bring on a football pitch, Chelsea’s very young group have definitely missed a figure like his this season.
It’s pretty clear that the Blues got rid of too many experienced players at once to leave the current squad thrown in at the deep end.
Fernandez and Caicedo are deep-lying midfielders with more ability in their boots right now, but both would’ve learned a lot from a mentor like Jorginho.