Pedro Neto is the latest Chelsea player to comment on the current fierce competition at Chelsea, and he says the competition is so fierce that the players can’t sleep!
That’s what we want to hear, right? Obviously he’s not taking it literally!
With myself Jay Today’s podcast will focus on the competition within the squad and go into more detail, but we can all agree that Chelsea have made a very wise decision to try and sign two top players in every position this season, as we reported earlier in the summer, because Chelsea have a lot of games to play this season and they also have injuries to deal with.
Neto showed his best mentality this week as he talked about competing.
He says:
“When you arrive at a big club you have to adapt to something new. At Wolverhampton I probably played 90 per cent of the games.
“Here you have to work harder, or the coach might change players and you might not be able to play. You know you have to work, so you do better.
“With the quality we have here, nobody can sleep well. As the manager said, ‘not everyone is going to play every game’.
“We have to work hard and work on ourselves and keep doing that every weekend, every training session, every game. I hope that with that mentality we can get to the top.”
Neto and the rest of the squad simply need to elevate themselves and play consistently if they want to play for Chelsea this season, and that’s good for us and the club. The level has to be high, and competition makes that happen.
Speaking of levels, Neto admits that he has not yet reached his peak and is not yet fully healthy.
“I’m not at my level right now, but I’m getting there,” Neto continued. “I know I’m going to be at my best and I’m going to enjoy it.
“I’m continuing to work on it. I’m continuing to work on my confidence, my football, my adaptation, and I hope to get (full fitness) as soon as possible.”
This is an honest and open piece of writing, and I love that.
The signing of Neto excited me in the summer, and it wasn’t just a sudden arrival. I rate him. But he has to play on the right for me, find his level and get back to full fitness. When he does that, I think we’ll see a confident and quality player.
We all know he’s not there yet and needs to improve, but it’s also meaningful to hear him talk about his fitness like this. I’m sure he’ll get there.
