Former England international Fara Williams has disagreed with Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher over Chelsea’s signings of veteran duo Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson.
Ever since BlueCo bought Chelsea in 2022, the club has had a transfer policy of signing young, up-and-coming talent and putting them on long-term contracts.
Midfielders such as Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez are high-profile examples of that but this summer, the appointment of manager Xabi Alonso has prompted a dramatic shift.
While summer acquisitions Morgan Rogers, Valentin Barco, Geovany Quenda, and Marco Palestra are all 23 and under, Chelsea also signed 35-year-old Welbeck from Brighton and Hove Albion and 36-year-old Henderson, following his Brentford departure.
Former Manchester United midfielder Scholes felt that these two arrivals in particular suggested muddled thinking at Stamford Bridge.
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He said on The Overlap last week, “Those two older players, it feels you’ve gone from one extreme to another, I can’t get my head around it. You’ve got a load of 21-year-olds, alright get some more experience at 28 or 29 but they’re like 37 or 38.
“I get the [Granit] Xhaka (33) one, he’s still a good player and he was brilliant in the World Cup. I think that’s where he’ll expect the most and that’s where they’re going to have most influence on the training pitch because they’re not going to be playing all the time, especially Henderson.
“Welbeck will still come on but that’s where they’re going to be most valuable. Look if Chelsea have got money to waste doing that then it’s down to them isn’t it.”
And ex-Liverpool defender Carragher described these signings as “strange”, particularly as they won’t get much game time. However, he did concede they will be “great” in the dressing room.
Despite that, former Everton and Liverpool player Williams thinks ex-Bayer Leverkusen boss Alonso – who won a domestic double in his first season at the German outfit – is quite the coup for Chelsea and Welbeck and Henderson can help develop “great young leaders” at the west London outfit.
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Williams, who is a Chelsea fan and was capped 172 times by England, told F365, “I mean, Alonso, it’s massive. We’ve seen it didn’t work out for him at Real Madrid, but we saw what he did in the German League and how successful he was there. He’s a good, young manager.
“Obviously he knows how to work with young players, but I think what he’s done, which is very good and hopefully Chelsea fans can see the benefits of bringing both Welbeck and Henderson into the squad, is that we have a young squad, not on the mature side, but experienced in terms of games played in the Premier League.
“These young players have massive experience, but having experience and maturity are two different things. And I think the likes of Welbeck and Henderson coming into the squad will help grow that kind of maturity within the squad, will help some of the young lads that turn them into not just great young players, but great young leaders.
“And I think that’s different. And I think that will really benefit the squad. So, yeah, without European football, they can just have that focus maybe of the Premier League. Who knows what they can achieve? Hopefully top four again and get back into Europe and then build on that.”
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