Former Chelsea defender Gary Cahill is backing the club to come good under Mauricio Pochettino despite their poor start to the new season.
The 37-year-old played and scored as a Chelsea legends side beat Bayern Munich legends 4-0 at Stamford Bridge in a charity match in memory of former Blues striker and manager Gianluca Vialli.
Cahill spent seven years at Chelsea, winning two Premier League titles, the Champions League, and a host of other silverware during his time with the club.
The current Chelsea team have not experienced such success, finishing in the bottom half of the Premier League last season and have already lost twice in the opening four league games of the season under new boss Pochettino.
But Cahill has urged Chelsea fans to be patient and says the Argentinian needs time for his new-look team to gel.
“Obviously it’s quite disappointing in terms of the results but the average age of the squad is very, very young and it’s a new squad that’s been put together,” he explained.
“A lot of them have not got huge experience in football just yet and certainly not in the Premier League so that will take time, it’s a very hard league.
“But there’s bundles of talent. I was away on pre-season with them and saw the training, and I was very impressed. But this will obviously take time. Time and patience and let these young players develop.
“When you’re in transition and the team’s evolving and changing, when we were successful here we had the core of the team and then we added one or two players to that and that’s a lot easier to adapt those players into the system and the football club.
“When you have so many changes, it does take time. The ability is there, first and foremost, but it takes time to learn this league and get experience. You get experience good and bad, football’s not all roses.
“They’ve had a few sticky results and that will give them some experience. In contrast to that, the manager has obviously got bundles of experience in this league, so I think he’s a great person to guide them through this.”
