Henderson is a Blue!

Chelsea have just announced today that Jordan Henderson has signed for the club on a free transfer, after terminating his contract at Brentford.

48 hours ago, it was Danny Welbeck who was signing, arriving for a nominal fee from Brighton. Welbeck reigned as the club's oldest player (35) for just a couple of days before Henderson (36) arrived to steal the record from him.

Chelsea have not signed a player aged over 30 since Pierre Emerick Aubameyang four years ago. They haven't even paid a transfer fee for a player over 26 until Maxence Lacroix arrived earlier this summer. Almost every signing since the summer of 2022 has been aged 22 or younger. So what's the reasoning behind the change in strategy?

Well, a look at the table from last season shows you that Chelsea's youth exclusive policy simply wasn't working. It was clear to most football fans from the very start of the experiment what the flaws were - if you want young players to go up in value, they need to play in a successful team that scores goals, keeps clean sheets and win games. In the Premier League, it's almost impossible to build a winning team without some experience and know how.

So how quickly can the likes of Henderson and Welbeck help Chelsea? The best betting sites offers for new users show that there's improved faith in the Blues to make it back to the Champions League next season among the bookies. Clearly they're also convinced that a bit of experience will go a long way.

And it's not just a bit of experience - Welbeck has played 400 Premier League games for Brighton, Watford, Arsenal, Man U and Sunderland. Henderson has 463 for Brentford, Liverpool and Sunderland.

That is a serious injection of knowledge which should have an instant impact.

Both tactically and in the dressing room, there is a lot of value to veterans. They are basically a loss leader - you'll not get any money when they leave, but your young players will gain more in value from having the right examples to follow.

Sadly, the club's sporting directors took years to come to the same conclusion that most fans did the moment they heard about the plan. It seems that Xabi Alonso has also made it very clear to them that he also believes in the value of adding experience to the squad.

Co-owner Behdad Eghbali hinted at a change when speaking at a conference in April, saying "we have to add more ready-made players... we need balance, you tweak a model, you improve, you learn from mistakes."

Kaynak: Yahoo Sports. Telif hakkı kaynak yayına aittir; buradaki metin özet/atıftır.

Orijinal haber: https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/henderson-blue-104000753.html