Imo vidal is the best mid that ever played for us, not only for his skill set but especially for his mentality in this day and age.
Hear me out, i think a big problem in football nowadays is players ego, it is extremely hard to get everyone to play for the team, i think the only team that's so big that it is an ego killer of sorts is real madrid, no player is bigger than real Madrid, juventus is the same for italian players. Gone are the days where Ferguson or moggi would put the fear of God in the players hearts, why do you think conte goes for the giaccherinis of this world.
If you look at the winners over the last ten years:
Barca: core that play together forever, and maybe only neymar comes up as the toxic type to fuck a team up, and we almost beat that team.
Real madrid: ego killer
And the rest: chelsea, bayern, liverpool, inter epitomized team work those seasons
I found this anecdote which i think is a propos
Great point but I think the issue isn't just the players it's the fans as well, they don't want a plucky underdog that suffers and wins by determination and more than a bit of luck, they want a team that goes toe-to-toe and player-for-player with Barcelona or Real Madrid or Man City, even if we have a lot less means to do it.
Of course, juventini are obsessed with winning the CL and would take even Chelsea's way of doing it, but after that they would not accept sliding back into relative CL mediocrity, which is what Chelsea have been ever since.
I genuinely think our plan is to juggle a team around with some absolutely quality and others filling in spaces, and think that if we can create a "quarter final plus" team for 10-12 years or so then law of averages suggests a win somewhere along the line.
We haven't won it for 24 years but in reality how many of those years did we have a team that could actually win it?
1997 to 1999 - should have won it at least once, maybe twice more in that spell
2000 to 2002 - strong team but really the start of a big rebuild and a CL win unlikely
2003 to 2006 - another chance went begging, final loss and wasted a super team under Capello
2007 to 2011 - Farsopoli years and subsequent wasteland, either didn't enter or had no genuine chance
2012 to 2014 - latter Conte years, solid QF team at best
2015 to 2019 - Allegri years where we overachieved early reaching the final, but lost two to teams with more tourno experience and individual quality
I make that 12 out of the 24 years where we put a team on the pitch that could potentially win the CL, so the plan to hang on in there and be considered a top 5 or 6 favourite each season is maybe not the worst idea.