Chelsea takes a group photo on the plane to the USA, the fans are baffled: and who are they?

While Lukaku trains with the other redundancies in London, Chelsea left yesterday for the United States, where they will play the pre-season tour. There are five friendlies abroad for Pochettino’s side: The tour starts tomorrow with a game against newly promoted Wrexham in League Two, then comes the FC Series, a competition with only Premier League teams, which will see the Blues. He faced Brighton, Newcastle and Fulham respectively. Finally, the final match of the tour will take place on August 2, against Borussia Dortmund in Chicago.

After a disastrous last season – finishing in 12th place, well outside the cup zone, with four coaches rotating on the bench – New coach Pochettino is called upon to rebuild the team from the foundations that appeared without rhyme or reason.. The ‘work in progress’ tag is more visible than ever, among transfers already done, players like Lukaku and Aubameyang who are out of the project and needing to be dropped, people absent due to injury (Wesley Fofana has been devastating, as he’s just made surgery to rebuild the cruciate ligament) and the signature is still to be signed (Moise Caicedo from Brighton is an exhausting negotiation).

Thus, the team that left for the United States is very different – at least under the auspices of the coaching staff and the fans – than the team that should appear in the starting line-up for the next Premier League on August 12. There are only 6 midfielders available to Pochettino, of which 23-year-old Conor Gallagher and 22-year-old Enzo Fernandez are the two oldest players. After all, Chelsea’s midfield has seen the departures of key players like Kovacic, Kante, Mount and Havertz in this session.

A total of 13 first-team players were sold by the Blues on a permanent or loan basis, and Pochettino thus included several young players in the squad for the American tour. The London club posted a picture of the team on board during the flight on their social pages, but the effect was certainly not what they wanted. The shot – in which some familiar faces such as Sterling, Modric and Cucurella can be discerned, but largely includes players unknown to the general public – Blues fans were concerned about the quality and depth of the squad.

The comments ranged from scathing to sarcastic:I don’t even know half of this team“,”This club is over“,”The worst team I’ve seen in two decadesUntil the last sentence:But who are all these people?Pochettino will have a lot to work on.