AZPILICUETA HAS QUIETLY BECOME AN ALL-TIME CHELSEA GREAT

CESAR Azpilicueta is not yet a generational great but he has now quietly established himself as a Chelsea legend. The Spaniard recently put on the captain’s armband and led the Blues to victory in the Club World Cup, in the process winning everything there is to win with them.

Azpilicueta joins an exclusive list of modern day Stamford Bridge greats that includes John Terry, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech.

Actually, Azpilicueta went a step further than the other legends mentioned as he won literally every trophy available to him.

Drogba, Cech, Terry and Lampard helped Chelsea win the Champions League in 2012 but the club lost the Club World Cup final that year against Brazilian side Corinthians.

In his 10 years with Chelsea, Azpilicueta has played at an unseen level of consistency, under several different Blues managers with Jose Mourinho remarking that he was one of his favourite players to work with. Throughout his stay with the club, Azpilicueta has remained consistently non-drop worthy despite having to compete against very good players.

He kept one of the best left backs in the world in Filipe Luis on the bench despite the fact that playing in the left back position was unnatural for him.

Azpilicueta oozes professionalism, vision and leadership yet is hardly ever discussed when talks about the best bargain transfers of all time are held.

Chelsea signed him for just £7 million from Marseille in 2012, in arguably one of the best value-formoney deals in the modern era that does not get talked about as much as it should.

Azpilicueta’s move to the Blues was fairly low profile and naturally, there was not extensive attention paid to whether he would have been a success or a failure.

He was an unknown player at the time and due to the fairly low fee, it would have been viewed as disposable income. Fans would not really have been as disappointed if he failed as compared to Fernando Torres or Romelu Lukaku.

One has to take into account Azpilicueta’s versatility. He has played across the defensive line, including as a right-back, centre-back and left-back. He may not be blessed with pace but makes up for that through his positioning, vision and anticipation.

In most games, he delivers 7/10 performances, something that not a lot of players can do.

In this day and age, it’s rare that a footballer remains for a decade at a high pressure and top club such as Chelsea that is consistently aiming to challenge for trophies. Azpilicueta has adapted to different managers, tactical formations and systems.

Even when he was required to give up his natural centre-back/right back position to other players, Azpilicueta never threw a tantrum and continued to perform at a high level. We do not see many players like him in this age.

With Azpilicueta’s contract with Chelsea expiring, even if he cuts ties with the club, he must go down as an all-time legend.