OPINION: Players coming into Chelsea must provide competition for places!

We read rumours all day, everyday about Chelsea but there has to be one thing that remains constant with any new player purchase, they MUST come into the club provide immediate competition for places in the first team.

People that know me personally will know how I felt about Yossi Benayoun coming to Chelsea as the perfect example. I couldn't see how he was going to force the likes of Frank Lampard to push himself to remain in the side. If anything, we all know he was brought to the club for one reason and that was to support Fernando Torres. He didn't offer us anything else but that!

The situation has to be the same now and some could argue that the likes of Mohamed Salah and now Juan Cuadrado are exactly that - players that will not force the likes of Hazard and Willian out of the side in those wide areas. I am sure that we will see Cuadrado come good but we have to take his performances so far as the basis of our current opinions.

Chelsea have a real chance to strengthen in key areas to then build on top of the core of what we already have here. Do I believe the likes of Varane, Bale, Pogba and Pedro would provide instant competition for places at Chelsea next season? Yes I would!

Now I realise that Chelsea have to fill their squad so expect a couple of the youngsters to do that rather than waste money. Jose Mourinho has already said the following about his intentions this summer. He said:

“We are not selling any players. In my previous squad I had players I was happy to sell to make money, in this squad I have none that I am happy to do that with. I want to keep my important players. In this squad it is easy to see that they were all important because the squad was made of 15 or 16 players plus the young boys.”

Obviously we are going to try to improve the squad and there will be rotation with the young players. Our young players are prepared for good, difficult loans, which they weren’t before. That is the next step for them. “Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] is staying, he’s not going on loan, but our squad next season will be very similar to this one with a couple of new players.”

Perfect in my opinion as we do not need an overhaul. I would only go as far as to say we need three or even four players at a push this summer to improve on what we have - A Goalkeeper, Left Back, Holding Midfielder and a Forward.

Again though, they MUST be players that come in and provide real competition for places for those currently in the same position as them at Chelsea this season. We need our players to push themselves to do better, to play better and remain in the team. They improve, we improve and it's as simple as that.

What do you people think?