Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, has had to endure a tough week after scraping a draw at West Brom before losing to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.
Having spent the most money by far in the current transfer window, the pressure is squarely on the former Blues midfielder, and Paul Merson has questioned another of his decisions.
Allowing Ross Barkley to leave for Aston Villa could come back and bite him according to the former Arsenal and Villa man.
“What a signing that is. I can’t quite believe it, if I’m honest,” Merson said in his column for the Daily Star.
“How Barkley doesn’t get in the Chelsea team beats me. He is a huge talent.
“To let him go like this, especially to another Premier League team, is a dangerous game by Frank.
“If Barkley hits the ground running and starts ripping it up for Villa then serious questions will be asked why Lampard let him go.
“Chelsea have already gone out of one of the cups and they have looked hit and miss so far in the league despite spending all that money.
“They are still not defending well and Frank won’t need any extra pressure on him from Ross Barkley tearing things up at Villa Park.”
At this point, Lampard is still working out who his best XI is, and therefore there’s bound to be the odd poor performance or bad result.
He will live and die by his decisions, and importantly for a manager, especially a young one, Lampard does appear to have the mentality required to make those decisions.
The time to judge whether they’ve been correct or not will be at the end of the season and not just a few games in.
Merson is the real idiot. Does he even watch the games? Barkley is a very selfish player that will not pass the ball, particularly to the left-winger. he takes low percentage shots and wastes opportunities. If they could take soft as cotton candy Jorginho with him it would a total addition by subtraction move.
Barkley was playing much better and is a physical specimen at midfield, which we lack. I don’t care if he “tears it up” at AV or not… this was a mistake IMHO.
What has he done in Chelsea since he was bought?