Thiago Silva has stressed that Chelsea's bloated squad is likely to cause issues for both Frank Lampard and the next permanent Blues boss after their chastening Champions League exit.
The Londoners were dumped out of Europe by Real Madrid after failing to overturn a two goal deficit in the second leg of their quarter-final tie at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night. Rodrygo scored twice to seal a 2-0 win for the Spanish giants on the night and a 4-0 triumph over aggregate.
The result caps a rotten few months for Chelsea, who spent over £300million on the likes of Myhaylo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez in the January transfer window but are languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League.
Todd Boehly and the Blues hierarchy decided to dispense with the services of head coach Graham Potter earlier this month and moved swiftly to install Lampard as caretaker manager until the end of the season.
But Silva, 38, has outlined that, of the many issues currently plaguing the club, the huge playing squad is a major one - and with no transfer window on the horizon, there is little Lampard can do to solve such a problem, which will be passed on to his successor next season.
"I think the first step has been made. An incorrect step, but it has been made," the veteran defender said of the recent changes at the club on Thursday night.
"We can’t be blaming the managers if we don’t take responsibility. It’s a hard period for the club, with a lot of indecision. Change of ownership, new players arriving – we had to increase the size of the changing room because it didn’t fit the size of the squad.
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"A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy. There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play. The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that’s tough.
"Some can’t make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes."
Silva's comments paint a fairly damning assessment of the choices that Boehly and Chelsea's new hierarchy have made since purchasing the club from Roman Abramovich last year.
The onus is now firmly on Boehly and co to get their next managerial appointment right after giving Potter just six months at the helm. Former Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann is the favourite to take over in the summer after talks with the Blues, while former Spain and Barcelona boss Luis Enrique is also believed to be in the frame.
