Warnock’s talking sh*t – Chelsea are ‘lucky’, not Azpilicueta
Neil Warnock says Cesar Azpilicueta is “very fortunate” to have won it all at Chelsea as he’s “not a great defender”. What a load of hokum.
Cesar Azpilicueta is Chelsea’s longest-serving player. Arriving in the same window as Eden Hazard, he’s been at Stamford Bridge for nine-and-a-half years. That alone, given it’s Chelsea, is an impressive feat. Only three other players – Andreas Christensen, N’Golo Kante and Marcos Alonso – have survived longer than five years.
Signed by Roberto Di Matteo, Azpilicueta has seen six further managers come and go and over £1billion spent on new players, including £150m on full-backs. He’s made 459 appearances, nearly 200 of those as captain, and now – having lifted both the Champions League and Club World Cup trophies in the last nine months – has won every major honour available to him. In many ways, yes, he is “very fortunate”, just not in the way Neil Warnock claims.
“I think Azpilicueta has been a very fortunate lad to be at a club like Chelsea. I don’t think he is a great defender. Sometimes in football you need a bit of luck and I think he’s had a bit of luck at the right time and in the right place. That’s what you need in football, you need a bit of luck to be successful.”
Most footballers do need a bit of luck to break through, whether it’s being coached by the right people, scouted by the right club or finding good representation, but that’s not the fortune Warnock is claiming; he believes Apilicueta has somehow stumbled his way through nearly a decade at one of the most successful clubs in Europe, beguiling some of the best coaches in the world into thinking he’s good at football.
Having got to Chelsea, the only way Azpilicueta can be considered ‘lucky’ is in the same way a retiree may consider themselves lucky as they look out into the garden they earned, from the holiday home they earned, bought with money made through hard work and talent. If there is a lucky party in all this, it’s Chelsea.
Some have (at times) doubted whether Cesar Azpilicueta was the right man to captain Chelsea, largely because he does it differently to John Terry.
But this is one of the truest examples of leadership. He took so much pressure off Havertz in a huge moment.pic.twitter.com/V0BrFbuQ1a
— Adam Newson (@AdamNewson) February 13, 2022
At £7m from Marseille, he’s arguably the club’s greatest ever signing. With his sneaky penalty tactic to reduce pressure on Kai Havertz as the most recent example of many, he’s arguably the club’s greatest ever captain. In and out of the team under Frank Lampard, Azpilicueta has been a near ever-present under Thomas Tuchel.
“He’s a huge, huge factor; a key factor and a key player for me at this club. He, for me, expresses everything that I think is typical for Chelsea: He’s a fighter, he’s a team player, he does not accept limits, he’s always available, a top, top professional and at the same time a very nice guy. It’s deep within him to be a team player, he’s very self-aware, very self-reflective and it’s a pure pleasure to have him in the group.”
It’s glowing praise from Tuchel, and meant as such, but the language he uses can augment the trope that Azpilicueta is some sort of mind set consultant, an imposter in the team purely to gee up his more talented teammates.
“A fighter”, “a team player”: descriptions not typically used for the most skilful players. In fact, often the reverse is true. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe aren’t particularly cohesive footballers, but that doesn’t mean antithetical characters like Azpilicueta should be denigrated by comparison. The Chelsea captain’s grit, determination and obsession with winning are perhaps his greatest strengths, but for some reason – maybe because those assets aren’t as quantifiable as goals, assists or mazy dribbles – they’re seen as evidence of a footballer who is less worthy of success.
You need someone like him in your team is another typical phrase, which again suggests they wouldn’t be in the team on sheer footballing talent alone, that it’s their mentality that earns them their spot. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but there’s this odd perception that if your mentality is your strongest suit, that you’re in some way stealing a living in football. And the possibility that your second strongest suit – one-on-one defending in Azpilicueta’s case – is outstanding and the best in your team, is for some reason ignored, with harping on about mentality the easy, lazy recourse.
James Milner has been tarred with a similar brush, and like Azpilicueta, also suffers because of his versatility, which continues to mar reputations.
Azpilicueta was the first-choice left-back in the title-winning campaign under Jose Mourinho, moved to centre-back to win it under Antonio Conte, captained the side from right-back to win the Europa League under Maurizio Sarri, and played at centre-back, right-back and right wing-back on the way to lifting the Champions League trophy with Thomas Tuchel last season. That is extraordinary brilliance, and should be acknowledged as such.
Chelsea may have won all of these trophies without Azpilicueta, but they would rather be with him than against him (another backhanded compliment). Yes, because of his mentality, but also because he’s an outstandingly talented defender and footballer.
Azpilicueta is not the sort to rise to such guff from Warnock, but were he to respond like one of the two managers under whom he’s won the Premier League, he would require all eight of his fingers to illustrate his trophy haul while demanding “respect, respect, respect”.
