England legend Ray Wilkins has blamed former Nigeria international Michael Emenalo for Chelsea’s poor form, saying the replacements he signed in Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko have not lived up to their billing.
French midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko, who replaced Matic at The Blues, was red carded against Watford and the Spanish striker Alvaro Morata is suffering from being compared to his predecessor Diego Costa.
Conte’s training methods have been criticized with eight players suffering hamstring injuries this season, but Wilkins thinks Chelsea recruited poorly in the summer.
”I don’t know. If you’re paying a man as much as Chelsea are paying Conte, his knowledge is far superior to someone like Michael Emenalo, who they brought in to do that job,” Wilkins said!
”The manager’s knowledge is far superior. He knows the players he wants to bring in.
”The squad is weaker this season than the one that won the league last year. No Diego Costa, no Nemanja Matic – it’s been a massive blow to Conte.”
Wilkins added : ”I believe it was Michael who made the changes. To actually swap Matic with Bakayoko?
”They should have brought in Morata to play alongside Costa and they should have signed Bakayoko just to play every now and again.”
Michael Emenalo ended his ten-year association with Chelsea in November, before joining Monaco as Sporting Director few weeks later.
