William Gallas names the Frank Lampard signing Chelsea still haven’t replaced

William Gallas admits he is struggling to understand why Chelsea are yet to replace a player who cost the club nothing in transfer fees.

The Premier League giants have spent over £1.5billion since the Clearlake Consortium took over from Roman Abramovic.

Despite significant investment, the Blues appear to be significantly short of what is required in order to compete for Premier and Champions League glory.

While their forward line is definitely in need of strengthening, the lack of a dominant central defensive pairing remains the obvious weakness current head coach Enzo Maresca is dealing with.

Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana are the current first choice pairing but neither appear to retain the full confidence of Maresca, who has also been reluctant to utilise Benoit Badiashile, while Axel Disasi remains part of the ‘bomb squad’ despite the lack of options available to his manager.

Rather than dip into the market in January for another up and coming talent, Gallas believe a more experienced defender would serve Maresca better as it did when Frank Lampard brought Thiago Silva to the club as a free agent.

‘For me, it’s always a problem with a club that doesn’t have experienced players in the team,’ Gallas told OLGB.

‘So when we speak about Chelsea, we know Thiago Silva was the captain of Chelsea, was a player who had more experience, and at the same time, he was helping the young defenders who were around him.

‘When he left, yes, they didn’t buy an experienced defender, that’s why the defenders have made some mistakes.

‘The problem is when you are on the pitch, when you play against the big clubs, you need someone who is leading the defensive line. When I look at Chelsea, when they play, no one is leading that defense line. 

‘That is a problem because all the players, all the defenders, are focused about what they have to do and not about the defensive line.’

Chelsea did sign Jorrel Hato from Ajax in the summer but the 19-year-old has struggled to impress so far and was badly at fault for the concession of two goals in the recent Champions League draw against Qarabag.

‘You have to fight,’ said Gallas when asked how Hato could force his way back into Maresca’s plans.

‘You came from Ajax and now you play for Chelsea. Chelsea is on another level. It’s a big club and when you play for the big club, you know it will be a big competition to try to be in the starting eleven. 

‘So now I think what he has to do is just to fight to be in the starting eleven. It won’t be easy but he’s still young, he’s only 19.

‘He has the quality, so what he needs to do is just to work hard and when he will get the opportunity to play, he has to take his chance.’