The preseason is here as Chelsea have two friendlies this week in Dublin- Wednesday against Bohemians and then Saturday afternoon versus St. Patrick’s. Let’s check in on what news items are currently circulating in the Chelsea FC cyberspace, Twitterverse, message boards and other online communities.
We start first with “Wonder Boy” Christian Pulisic, who claimed the Young Player of the 2019 Gold Cup tournament award. He was also named into the tourney’s Best XI, as he scored three times, and assisted on three more goals for the United States over the course of this past month.
Unfortunately, scoring was something that just didn’t happen too much for the Americans, and they fell short of the ultimate prize; falling 1-0 to arch-rival Mexico in the Gold Cup Final at Soldier Field last night. Pulisic, who “blossomed” this past month according to USMNT Coach Gregg Berhalter, will now join up with Chelsea with very little, if any, time off.ย
Pulisic could have used more help from his national teammates over the course of this tournament, but one player who really stepped up was midfielder Weston McKennie.
The USA manager compared the 20-year-old FC Schalke man to Pulisic, saying he really developed, both offensively and defensively, over the course of this month.
“If you look at Christian Pulisic, his contribution this tournament was fantastic,” said Berhalter. “Both sides of the ball, off the field, on the field, and Weston was similar, as he started maturing and realizing what level he can play at and what importance he can play to this team.
“You really saw it, especially in the latter phases of this tournament.”
The Stars and Stripes skipper also added that the goal all along of this past month was to “bring the young guys along.
Elsewhere, the transfer ban will prohibit Chelsea from signing new players this summer, and with that in mind, they must make sure that none of their young talent takes off for greener pastures. In order to stave that off, a couple of promising younger players could see a rise in pay grade. One such example is reported in the London Evening Standard:ย
“consider offering Callumย Hudson-Odoi a massive ยฃ100,000-a-week deal to put an end to interest from European clubs.”
CHO, whose current deal is up at the end of the upcoming season, has been strongly linked with a move to Bayern Munich, and to a lesser extent their rivals Borussia Dortmund.
The Standard adds that “Lampard and Hudson-Odoi met recently and the new manager was said to have tried to convince the English winger to stay.”
Finally, Frank Lampard has outlined his vision for what he wants to achieve at Chelsea, and that involves getting his players to perform with “high intensity.”
Metro has more about the newly minted boss hoping to inspire his team to establish dominance.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of โNo,ย I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.ย
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.comย on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.
