Peter Smith
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Mateo Kovacic is our next name at Chelsea.
Matt, do you want to kick us off on this one?
Because it feels to me like, if you look back on Chelsea's season, the general story is the many talented young players that Frank Lampard's brought through.
Abraham, Mount, Hudson-Odoi,
Rhys James, Billy Gilmore, Tamori, they've all had their moments in the limelight at various times through the season.
But yeah, Kovacic is a perhaps more experienced player and one who, as we say, hasn't been mentioned about so much this season.
Yes, absolutely.
Some good seasons ahead of him, I'm sure.
Adam, in December, you wrote a piece about his influence after a defeat to Bournemouth when he was left out of the side, explaining how Chelsea missed his ability to open up opposition side to his passing.
Matt was talking about his dribbling there, but you were making points about his passing.
He actually only started two of the next six.
Chelsea won both of those games.
They were tough ones away to Tottenham and Arsenal.
and they lost two of the other four and drew at Brighton.
So signs there perhaps underlining your point about how important he is for this side.
So what's the issue there?
Why does his absence from the starting XI cause so many issues for Lampard and Chelsea?
Yeah, perhaps Lampard wasn't on the website that day.
We said there about the appreciation Chelsea fans have.
Do you think he would get the Chelsea Player of the Year prize?