BERTRAND TRAORE played just 16 games for Chelsea but deserves a stand named in his honour when they next win the Premier League.
And that could be a lot sooner than we think.
What was once the most volatile club in the land is emerging from the coronavirus crisis reinvigorated and better prepared than any other for an assault on English football’s ultimate prize.
When the title does return to Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2017, the name Traore should be sung along with those of the men out on the pitch performing a lap of honour.
The reason Chelsea are the only team poised like coiled springs today, ready to leap into a bold, new era is down to that shady transfer deal almost seven years ago.
It was the bungled move which led Fifa to decree the Blues broke rules by shipping the gifted kid from his home in France to England — and that they did a similar thing a further 68 times.
But it triggered a chain of events which has ultimately seen them come up trumps.
Chelsea stand on the brink of winning a multi-million-pound game of poker, having been dealt the worst possible hand.
They were clobbered with a two-window transfer ban in February 2019, a punishment that sent shockwaves through a club reliant upon the chequebook of billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.
Manager Maurizio Sarri, whose only knowledge of the academy was a leftwards glance as he drove into the training ground each morning, left four months later for Juventus.
In came iconic midfielder Frank Lampard and key right-hand man Jody Morris, who knew the youth ranks inside out.
A clutch of loyal, hungry and ambitious kids were brought out of deep freeze and given a chance to overachieve.
That reconnected the first team to the fans who craved a home-grown hero and brought Chelsea’s roots back to life for next to nothing.
A manager and players sharing blue blood, a healthy bank balance and the crowd singing even when you lose.
A chastity belt could not offer better protection for when football had its pants pulled down by Covid-19.
Now with the game starting to come back to life, Chelsea have served their time with FIFA and spent £90 million on two new players.
Meanwhile, their rivals fight UEFA in the courts over creative accounting and the FFP rules, beg the bank for a multi-million pound loans, admit they are skint or try to turn around PR disasters for furloughing staff whilst paying mega-rich players the full whack.
It’s a bit like the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly and one thing leads to another. Although the dotty old bird in this nursery rhyme eventually bites off more than she can chew.
In Chelsea’s case, the club which was once everybody’s least favourite for the way owner Roman Abramovich simply waved his wad and bought a trophy, has seen massive potential bloom out of a calamity.
There will be no return to the mad old days of the noughties when the Russian snaffled up every promising player as if he were stripping a supermarket of loo roll.
Lampard firmly voiced his frustrations at failing to sign a player during the official January window.
But having lived through the uncertainty of that era when Chelsea players endured a similar life expectancy to that of a World War One fighter pilot, he appreciates the need for consistency while acknowledging the demands of his club.
There will be more shopping done and thanks to the money saved during the transfer ban and the sale of Eden Hazard there is some available – even with £90 million winging its way out of the current account to Ajax and RB Leipzig for Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner, the latest acquisitions.
Kai Havertz is on the list but won’t come cheap. There’ll have to be some balancing of the books and the squad to keep the players happy.
That may come from selling off around twenty of the 28 players currently on loan when the new regulations come into force.
Even the controversial policy on battery farming young players at the academy only to crush their dreams by lending them out seems to be paying off at the moment.
And while Liverpool admit they will only sign one player this summer, Manchester City ponder the massive repercussions of a European ban if they lose their appeal against overspending.
Manchester United are taking on bridging loans and Spurs have an aging squad with unsettled players plus a brand new empty stadium to pay for.
Arsenal will be an irrelevance for years to come.
Chelsea have fallen in s**t and come up smelling of roses. And thanks to Traore, it could be replaced by the sweet smell of success at Stamford Bridge very soon.
