Graham Potter has a number of things to set straight at Chelsea and overturning the narrative early on in his tenure could be vitally important to future success.
The new manager will be looking to not only make use of his own personal communication, leadership and intelligence skills to help develop the current group at Stamford Bridge, he will be relying on backing from the new ownership group to give him time to make fundamental changes at the club in order to create a new progression path.
This comes from steady improvement and planning and will be focused on clever recruitment as well as big money spending on proven stars. Integrating this with the impressive youth system at Cobham and the foundations of a young, talented squad provide the groundwork for success.
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One thing he will have to do in that period is convince players of not only their Chelsea aspirations, future and development but also where they can reach with their countries. The club already have four senior members of the England squad but have seen three more players that got away called up by Gareth Southgate since leaving the club.
Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Reece James were all awarded debuts for their country under Frank Lampard's guidance, while Callum Hudson-Odoi and Fikayo Tomori also earned international caps with the former Blues midfielder in charge.
After Lampard's first season in charge though, only Mount and James would play again for England with him at the helm. Tomori fell out of favour at his club and subsequently country; Hudson-Odoi hasn't played for England since 2019 and may well represent Ghana in the future; and Abraham missed out on playing international football in 2021 after falling down Lampard and Thomas Tuchel's pecking order.
Although the impressive nature of James and Mount for their countries is promising, Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been unable to earn another call up since 2018 and players that have left Chelsea have often gone on to get more opportunities since departing.
Both Abraham and Tomori are players that may well form part of the winter World Cup squad - even if they don't play as much as fans would like - and Marc Guehi, sold to Crystal Palace last summer - was called up seven months after leaving Chelsea without making a senior appearance and could also be involved in Qatar.
The task for Potter is to convince not only transfer targets but also Chelsea's own players that SW6 is the best place to enhance their international aspirations.
Although the previous narrative was that only top six clubs would be trusted for England, nine of the 25 players selected in Gareth Southgate's recent Nations League squad to face Italy and Germany England were from outside of Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal or Tottenham. This only gives more weight to players wishing to move on to develop and still be in with a chance of selection.
In this camp is Anthony Gordon. The Everton winger, linked with a move to Chelsea over the summer, is versatile and capable of playing in a back four of five at wingback or as a forward, has a lot of characteristics desired by Southgate but is yet to be rewarded with a cap. As he sees Ivan Toney offered a chance, Lampard was asked how the 21-year-old felt about the omission after an impressive breakthrough season in 2021/22.
"I can't talk for him, it's Gareth's decision," answered Lampard. "I know there's a lot of competition in that area of the pitch for England, there's a lot of quality players in there and Anthony just has to keep working.
"Working on all the parts of his game, not just goals, they're a huge part of it of course if you can get to that level because top wingers get big numbers and Anthony will want to do that because it's good for his game as a developing player.
"It's good that he's in the conversation, he just has to play [at Everton]."
Lampard himself was part of not only a so-called 'golden generation' but was also an established player and at a top club. Gordon has none of these advantages currently but does have interest from Chelsea in him. If Gordon becomes a player that Potter would also like to sign then proving to the winger that Chelsea can be a club that produces England players during their time at Stamford Bridge may well be something he has to do.
As for what the Everton star has to do now, Lampard doesn't want him to be distracted by the England talk, adding, "I don't think it's for him to think about it. You get asked in the media and people will talk about you but you just have to play and train everyday, how can you keep improving.
"He's very attentive like that and you can have good conversations with Anthony, he knows the areas of his game he needs to improve and wants to improve, he just needs to focus on that, the rest will just naturally come."
Closer to home and Conor Gallagher is in a similar situation. He received his first cap as a Crystal Palace player and realistically knew that returning to Chelsea this season would create a tough situation for him to impress Southgate in the same way.
The 22-year-old will now struggle to make the final World Cup squad after being moved back into the Under-21 side for this international break and faces his own future dilemma, another player that Potter will have to convince is still best placed to develop at Chelsea.
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