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AVB Already Deflecting Fergie’s Digs

Here we go, the season hasn’t even started and someone’s got the ‘pensioner’s’ stick out to beat us with again!

No surprises for guessing it’s our old friend Sir Alex Ferguson, particularly since the Premier League (and needless to say it’s Chelsea as usual) have a new manager for him to test out. He’s probably missed having a sparring partner at Chelsea since Mourinho’s departure because whilst Carlo Ancelotti was just too respectful, the others (Hiddink aside) haven’t been up to much when it comes to the verbal ping-pong through the press, so he’s probably been polishing his gloves up in preparation.

Anyway, in comes Andre Villas-Boas and out comes the old ‘ageing side’ dig, or at least that’s what he’s been hinting at when he says we’re struggling to freshen our squad this summer.  Mind you, didn’t he say we’d reached our peak under Mourinho and had our day right before we did the double just 14 months ago? – a point AVB made in response, saying “These players still have a lot offer. Just look at the trophies they have won and how successful they have been.”

Not that the Chelsea manager dismissed Fergie’s view completely mind you because he did go on to say “Chelsea are the second or third oldest team in the Premier League and I must respect the recovery periods of the older players.  So I must find the correct balance between experience and youth and find out what kind of game we can play.”

And realistically, whilst the press are quick to agree with Fergie by pointing out ‘a large proportion of the Chelsea playing staff are in their early 30s’, as TheChelseaBlog pointed out last season, that isn’t looking at the whole picture. Because whilst it’s true, in our ‘over 30s’ we have Anelka 32, Lampard 33, Drogba 33, Malouda 31 and Benayoun 31 (and I’m not including players like Hilario and Ferriera because neither are likely to feature much, if at all) and even JT and Ashley Cole are both 30 now, in the ‘under 30s’ selection, we have the likes of Cech, Alex, Bosingwa, Essien, Zhirkov, Ivanovic, Torres, Kalou, Mikel, Ramires, Luiz, Sturridge, as well as up-and-coming youngsters Bruma, Kakuta, McEachran and van Aanholt.

Add to that any new signings we do make are likely to bring our average age down rather than up, as should any late departures, and this ‘ageing side’ thing just doesn’t have the same ring of truth about it anymore.

Try again Fergie!

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