The sure sign of a long international break is small stories getting blown wildly out of proportion, and that’s just what we’ve seen this week with the sensational stories of Chelsea’s first team having a day off cancelled because of a 3-0 defeat to an U21 side in training last week.
In many ways, it’s a non story. But still, the fact we now have all the details (thanks to the Daily Mail’s Chelsea Confidential column) means there’s still a little juice to be had from this lemon. Hopefully now we know what happened – and have had Enzo Maresca’s response to it – we can all move on.
By tonight, there should be some much bigger headlines on the agenda, given we’re playing a huge game against Tottenham Hotspur.
What really happened in Cobham clash
According to this piece, it all went down last Wednesday. While the majority of Chelsea’s first team were away on international duty, the remaining first team players (plus some youngsters filling the gaps in their team) played a match against an Under-21 team.
They lost 3-0 to the academy side, with Donnell McNeilly, the 19 year old being linked with moves away this summer when his current contract expires, scoring twice. Another thing to note is that Yaya Dieme, the 17 year old winger on trial and set to join Chelsea (or more likely, Strasbourg) featured.
It was not a proper game – it was 25 minutes per half, with Enzo Maresca apparently repeatedly stopping the game to give instructions. But it was still serious enough that the coach, unhappy with the effort levels and the performance from the first teamers present, decided that a day off that was in the books for last Thursday, was to be cancelled.
Not a big deal, but not nothing either.
