It’s being reported that some of Chelsea’s players are really surprised at Mauricio Pochettino’s decision not to give Thiago Silva the captain’s armband in recent games.
The 39-year-old is by some distance the most experienced player in this Chelsea squad, and indeed one of the most experienced and proven winners still playing in world football today.
Silva has won the Champions League with Chelsea, as well as multiple league titles in other countries, and was captain of his former club Paris Saint-Germain, while he’s also won over 100 caps for the Brazilian national team, whom he’s also captained for some time.
According to the Guardian, it’s left some Chelsea players baffled that Pochettino is overlooking such a senior player for the captaincy while other players are absent, with both Reece James and Ben Chilwell currently injured.
Silva seems the obvious choice to wear the armband for the Blues, but Pochettino has instead given it to young players like Conor Gallagher and Levi Colwill.
Chelsea fans will surely be concerned to hear about this unrest behind the scenes, even if Pochettino is perhaps understandably looking to the future by trusting the young players who look like being so important to this club’s long-term project.