Chelsea left wing-back Marcos Alonso has aimed a cheeky dig at the club’s board about their transfer policy following their Champions League elimination on Wednesday at the hands of Barcelona.
Lionel Messi once again stepped up to guide the Catalan giants to victory with two goals and an assist to beat Chelsea 3-0 at the Nou Camp, winning 4-1 on aggregate.
The defeat was a sour one to take for Antonio Conte and co. and it followed an underwhelming few months for the Premier League champions who have seen their top-four hopes fade away a bit.
Chelsea’s current scenario in the league table sees them in 5th place, 4 points off 4th-placed Liverpool with just 8 games to go. Conte has come under massive pressure in the last few months and the defeat at Barcelona that resulted in the elimination of Chelsea from the Champions League won’t do him any good.
However, it is the first time a player has come up with comments and Alonso has echoed the Italian gaffer’s sentiments of not having a large squad to compete for the title and silverware.
The Daily Star claims that several key targets in the transfer window were missed including Alex Sandro of Juventus, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who joined Liverpool and Fernando Llorente who snubbed us to join rivals Tottenham Hotspur on the summer transfer deadline day.
Alonso has now come up supporting his manager, questioning the club for failing to land several top targets.
“It’s difficult as there are so many games this year and we have not got the deepest squad, maybe, and we have had new players this year,” Alonso was quoted by the Daily Star.
“We can only look forward and start fighting for fourth spot in the Champions League and try to win the FA Cup.”
“I think there’s been a lot of positives in both games against Barcelona and I think we have to show this desire in the next games and make sure that we win every game.
“We showed until the last minute that we can play against any team and now we have eight finals and we have to make sure we play Champions League next year.”
It feels a bit like the end of the road in many ways for Conte and Sunday’s FA Cup quarterfinal against Leicester is the last hope of salvaging this season with a trophy.
