Chelsea Chronicles: Mid-Season Break After Club World Cup Struggles, 'Punk Rock Star' Says Goodbye & Team GB Legend Visits Cobham

IT’s no secret that playing in the Club World Cup last summer has had an impact on Chelsea’s season.

Stars including , Moises Caicedo, and Enzo Fernandez have all suffered injuries this season and played through knocks at times, as a consequence of simply being overplayed.

Cole Palmer has been spending some downtime in Dubai Palmer partied with the likes of Joao Pedro and Marc Cucurella in the UAE

Perhaps, then, that is the reason some stars were given some holiday time before returning to training this week to play against .

, after he snubbed an away trip to Hull to

Wesley Fofana, Joao Pedro, Enzo Fernandez and also flocked to Dubai for some winter sun, which is understandable given how grim the has been in the UK.

Some of the boys,

The timing may be odd to some, but it’s a well-deserved break for the Chelsea stars, who have played more minutes than most players in the last two seasons for club AND country.

Across the 24/25 season and this one so far, Marc Cucurella has played the most minutes of any Chelsea player, and now faces some time on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

His total minutes came in at 8,122.

Just ten minutes more than Moises Caicedo, at 8,112, but for the midfielder, those have been played in several time zones with an absurd amount of travel in that period.

A similar story can be told for Enzo Fernandez.

The Argentine midfielder has racked up 7,093 club minutes and an additional 845 minutes for the national team over the past two seasons, for a total of 7,938.

This ridiculous number of games and schedule has clearly been making an impact on players picking up injuries, and the loads that their bodies can handle, with Palmer probably being the best example of that.

Palmer has racked up 5,636 minutes over the past two seasons for club and country, despite missing the majority of this season through injury.

More concerningly, his 24/25 minutes clocked in at a total of 4,471, almost four times that of this season, with the ice-cold star yet to play a minute of football for ‘s side since September, in a World Cup season no less.

Compared to non-Chelsea players, Erling Haaland is up there in terms of minutes played, too.

The Norway striker has totalled 8,257 minutes, more than any player in the Blues’ squad.

, though, comes in with just 5,818, ever so slightly more than Palmer.

Cucurella has played more minutes than any other Chelsea player for club and countryCredit: Reuters

It’s not just the number of minutes either; it’s the travel and the lack of a real break to recover from such gruelling seasons, pretty much constantly training and being prepared without much real downtime.

That’s why moments like this for players are important, and likely why they with no Premier League game until Burnley at home on Saturday.

That said, if they drop points, the critics will be out in full force…

There is still plenty of football to be played for these Blues stars this season

ROCK STAR BARNEY

CHELSEA have their own punk rock star – but not for much longer.

knows a fellow Blues legend when he sees one and says club secretary Dave Barnard will be sadly missed when he retires at the end of next season.

Asked about Barnard, who joined Chelsea in 2002 after 13 years as chief executive at Wimbledon, Cole told Chelsea Files: “Dave is a proper character.

“He was in the Crazy Gang at Wimbledon.

“We bonded over his love of music. He was still playing in a band into his 50s and 60s, and I believe he’s still going.

“That’s not the sort of thing you associate with a club secretary, a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll, punk rock star.

“First of all, he’s very, very good at his job. That’s why he stayed in it for so long.

“He’s a very important cog for Chelsea’s success over the last few years.

“It’ll be a sad day when he does leave the club.”

Chelsea legend Joe Cole told SunSport about his love for BarneyCredit: Getty Dave Barnard has been at Chelsea for a long long time

Chelsea announced earlier this month “Barney” would be scaling back his duties this season and take on a more ambassadorial role before retiring at the end of the 2026-7 campaign.

Barnard is one of the few people left at from the pre-Roman Abramovich era.

Executive assistant Jane Fitzgerald and press and accreditation officer Thresa Conneely are the only other senior members of staff still around, following the retirement of press steward Brian Pullman in 2024.

Cole hopes the new regime at Chelsea is able to find people of similar calibre and loyalty to guide the club in the future.

Cole said: “Football moves on and evolves. Big business comes in, new ideas come in.

“But it’s always been about the people that are in your club.

“You need to pass on the baton. When you’ve got a good person in your club, you need to look after them, treat them well, make sure they’re getting the right respect in their job and never undermine or demean anybody in any position.

“When you’ve got someone like Thresa or Dave, people who are looking after you, nurturing, making sure everything’s okay, it’s invaluable for a football club.”

DIOMANDE IN THE ROUGH

YAN Diomande is one of the highest-rated young wingers in world football.

And therefore seems like exactly the type of signing that Chelsea would be eyeing up, and it wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone to see him linked with the club last summer and in the windows previous to that.

Instead of a move to the Blues though, he opted to join Leganes in November 2024 and completed his move to the LaLiga side in January 2025.

Just seven months later, he joined on a five-year contract after the German side activated his release clause, worth 20 million euros.

He’s gone from strength to strength in the , and has been linked with a move to either Chelsea, Spurs or Liverpool, with a quoted price of £87m.

He has now opened up to German outlet BILD about his option to join the Blues after a trial there before becoming a much bigger name.

Yan Diomande is very highly thought of at RB LeipzigCredit: Getty He had a trial with Chelsea early on in his career, but chose to move elsewhere, to LeganesCredit: Getty

He said: “To prepare for a professional career in Europe, I moved to an academy in Florida. Two years later, I had my first trials with Chelsea, , and .

“It was a difficult time. I felt like for many people, it was all about money.

“A lot of people told me I absolutely had to play for Chelsea. Then I stopped everything and made a decision for myself.

“I knew the president of Leganes; he had helped with my move to the USA.

“Suddenly, I was faced with a choice: Leganes or Chelsea? It was risky, but luckily, it was the right decision. I think patience is very important in football.”

It was a difficult time. I felt like for many people it was all about money. A lot of people told me I had to go to Chelsea.”

Yan Diomande, Via BILD

HULL ARRESTS

HUMBERSIDE police continue to investigate during Friday night’s tie at .

Four men, aged 24, 45 and two 21-year-olds, were arrested at the match, and one of the 21-year-olds has been released without charge.

In a statement, Humberside Police said: “Investigations are ongoing after officers received multiple reports of alleged abusive chanting at the football match between Hull City and Chelsea at the MKM Stadium in Hull on Friday, 13 February.

“As a result, four men aged 24, 45 and two aged 21 were all arrested at the stadium on suspicion of offensive chanting. The 24-year-old man, the 45-year-old man and one of the 21-year-old men are currently under investigation pending further enquiries. The second 21-year-old man has been released without charge.”

The cops also arrested a 54-year-old on suspicion of assault following reports of a steward being attacked while they are looking into reports of a bottle being thrown onto the concourse.

A warning was shown in the stadium of discriminatory chantingCredit: @LloydCanfieldFC

WREX APPEAL

CHELSEA and Wrexham will hope their FA Cup tie passes off rather more peacefully than their last meeting.

The two clubs last met during a pre-season tour of America two years ago – facing off at the Levi’s Stadium in California.

And it took just two minutes of the friendly for an almighty brawl to break out.

took issue with a rough early challenge from , resulting in the two of them grabbing one another by the scruff of the neck.

Teammates, including and , rushed in to break the scrap up.

The chances of a repeat are slim, given that neither Colwill nor McClean will be involved in their fifth-round tie next month.

Colwill has been absent with an ACL injury since day one of pre-season this season, while McClean left Wrexham to return to Derry City last month.

Levi Colwill had James McClean by the scruff of his neck last time Chelsea played WrexhamCredit: AP

MO ADVICE

Four-time Olympic Champion is a well-known Arsenal fan.

But that didn’t stop him from spending some time and posing for pictures with Chelsea’s Cobham academy starlets.

The legendary runner was pictured with a group of academy players, including the highly rated Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, at Cobham last week.

Mo Farah was at Cobham with some Chelsea academy players He stopped for pics with plenty of the youngsters, including the highly rated Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli (Second from right)

Farah was a man in popular demand, also grabbing a picture with young striker Chizzy Ezenwata, which was uploaded to his Instagram story.

One thing is for sure, Sir Mo could definitely pass on a word of advice or two about how to make it to the very top as an elite sportsperson.