César Azpilicueta

[OneMoSalah 8,785]

12 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Another Azpi season.

3420 minutes possible in PL, he played 3230.

If Lampard wasnt so enforcing of playing him at LB it would of been considerably less I think.

James got a good portion of playing time this season. Like 2000+ minutes I think I seen somewhere.

Also don’t think Azpi had a bad season either, limited on the left at times but still, the usual 7/10, consistency was there all season. Played well. Got some assists. Good influence on the group. 

[NikkiCFC 8,058]

8 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

If Lampard wasnt so enforcing of playing him at LB it would of been considerably less I think.

James got a good portion of playing time this season. Like 2000+ minutes I think I seen somewhere.

When James plays we either use Azpi as LB or we go with 3-4-3. We used James and Alonso/Emerson full back pairing just a couple of times this season because they are not good defensively.

You can afford that when you are Liverpool. World class GK, CB and 3 midfielders who are all better in defense than in attacking part of the game.

[Milan 17,859]

I heard that Azpi got his FIRST yellow card of the season in the league in the final minutes against Wolves? Is that true?

[Jase 43,479]

22 minutes ago, Milan said:

I heard that Azpi got his FIRST yellow card of the season in the league in the final minutes against Wolves? Is that true?

Yup, it is true.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/cesar-azpilicueta/leistungsdaten/spieler/57500

He has only 4 yellow cards all season - 1 in PL, 1 in Super Cup and 2 in Champions League.

[King Kante 1,500]

15 hours ago, Jason said:

Yup, it is true.

https://www.transfermarkt.com/cesar-azpilicueta/leistungsdaten/spieler/57500

He has only 4 yellow cards all season - 1 in PL, 1 in Super Cup and 2 in Champions League.

That is a pretty amazing stat. I have noticed in the past 18-24 months that Dave has started to add a few more dark arts to his game and is now a bit of a sh*t houser. 

Also, did anyone else notice his cheeky grin after he had kicked that Wolves player? It was hilarious. 

[killer1257 3,282]

Yup, it is true.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/cesar-azpilicueta/leistungsdaten/spieler/57500
He has only 4 yellow cards all season - 1 in PL, 1 in Super Cup and 2 in Champions League.

CRAZY. I wish Azpi could teach Jorginho how not to get a yellow card.

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[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, killer1257 said:

CRAZY. I wish Azpi could teach Jorginho how not to get a yellow card.

Gesendet von meinem VOG-L29 mit Tapatalk
 

How about asking Azpi to teach Jorginho how to tackle without getting a yellow card? 

[Jase 43,479]

The hamstring injury must be pretty bad for Azpi to end up in tears. 

When I think about it, can't believe 2 of my current favorite Chelsea players ended up with the same injury in the same game in a cup final that we lost.

FUCK THIS SHIT! 😭

[Milan 17,859]

10 hours ago, Jason said:

The hamstring injury must be pretty bad for Azpi to end up in tears. 

When I think about it, can't believe 2 of my current favorite Chelsea players ended up with the same injury in the same game in a cup final that we lost.

FUCK THIS SHIT! 😭

You know straight away that something is wrong when Azpi is down on the ground. However, I thought the tears were more because of him, as a captain, missing the rest of the final, than because of the pain. I hope, at least.

[bigbluewillie 1,859]

27 minutes ago, Milan said:

You know straight away that something is wrong when Azpi is down on the ground. However, I thought the tears were more because of him, as a captain, missing the rest of the final, than because of the pain. I hope, at least.

OOOOOpppps that should be to Jason

Dave still one of your favs Hmmmm

He was one of mine but 2 seasons ago, since then he's got steadily worse until this season most games he's been abysmal.

Reminded me of all them years ago and Ken Shilleto marking Georgie Best who tunerd Ken left right and center and he ended up going off with knee ligament damage, as good as wrecked his career.

And against Aubameyang he tore Dave a new arsehole, Aubameyang admittedly was the Arse's best player by far and they'd had lost him as we lost Pullisic I am confident there would have been a different outcome in our favour

[Jase 43,479]

Out for 3 weeks with the hamstring injury.

[King Kante 1,500]

3 hours ago, Jason said:

Out for 3 weeks with the hamstring injury.

Man, I seriously thought he would be out for a while. This guy is like Robocop.

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, King Kante said:

Man, I seriously thought he would be out for a while. This guy is like Robocop.

Yeah, judging by the reaction when he went off, thought it was quite serious. Luckily it wasn't and especially at the moment, we have no backup for James if Azpi's out for a long time. 

[NikkiCFC 8,058]

I am hearing Henry Lawrence is very talented guy.

[Tomo 21,733]

9 hours ago, King Kante said:

Man, I seriously thought he would be out for a while. This guy is like Robocop.

Still far behind Mount who went off twice with serious looking injuries only to start the next game.

[Jase 43,479]

Already back in training after that hamstring injury...

 

[Vesper 29,022]

Cesar Azpilicueta – assertive, ambitious and the epitome of Chelsea

https://theathletic.com/2051321/2020/09/09/cesar-azpilicueta-chelsea-captain-conte-lampard/

Last Christmas, all of Chelsea’s first-team staff at Cobham received a bottle of red wine as a gesture of appreciation for their hard work. Such festive gifts are pretty common from managers and executives at clubs; former technical director Michael Emenalo was known for going out of his way to make sure people across the different departments felt valued. But these particular bottles were from the new club captain, Cesar Azpilicueta.

Sadly, they weren’t bottles of Azpilicueta, the winemaker that has gained significant brand recognition in Spain over recent years as a result of their namesake’s exploits on the pitch for Chelsea, despite having nothing to do with him, but the act is one of many over the past year that underline just how seriously the defender takes the position he inherited permanently from Gary Cahill before the 2019-20 season.

As one Chelsea insider told The Athletic, Azpilicueta conducts himself as if he is “captain of the staff, as well as the players”, with a duty to represent and include everyone he deals with at the club. It is a leadership role that he has been steadily growing into since his arrival at Stamford Bridge in 2012 and while he, like Cahill before him, will always suffer in comparison to John Terry, it is hard not to be impressed by the extent to which he has embraced the responsibility.

---

In an interview with Spanish business newspaper Expansion last month, Azpilicueta explained what he understands the role of Chelsea captain to be.

“Being captain of Chelsea implies a great responsibility for everything the club entails, its fans and its expectations,” he said. “I am very proud to convey their values every day and to keep the club among the best teams in the world. Our work is exposed to the public and beyond the opinions of each of them, that pressure must be replaced by self-criticism. Recognising that you can do better is vital to moving forward.”

It was that spirit of self-criticism that prompted Azpilicueta to stand up and address his team-mates in the Stamford Bridge dressing room after Chelsea allowed a 2-0 lead to slip at home to Sheffield United in August 2019. He had been directly at fault for the goals that enabled Chris Wilder’s team to leave with a 2-2 draw and the result meant Frank Lampard’s tenure as manager had begun with one win in five matches.

He apologised for his performance, took responsibility for the result and used the September international break to clear his head with his wife and children, returning to training with a renewed determination to improve. Chelsea responded by winning eight of their next 10 matches, embarking on a seven-match winning streak in the Premier League to establish an advantage in the top-four race that, despite numerous wobbles, proved decisive.

“It made me a better person, a better captain and everything,” he said in an interview with the Daily Mail in July.

The 2019-20 season ended on a similarly disappointing note for Azpilicueta personally as he limped out of Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal with a hamstring injury after conceding the penalty that led to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s equaliser. But between those two low points, he was one of the few stabilising components of a shaky defence and an assertive voice in a squad short on vocal leaders, encouraging his younger team-mates while also holding them to account.

Lampard had no doubt about Azpilicueta’s enduring value; no player in Chelsea’s squad played more than the Spaniard’s 4,310 minutes across all competitions in 2019-20 and whenever the time was deemed right to give the prodigiously talented Reece James an opportunity to grow into the role of starting right-back, the man he will one day replace was invariably shifted to left-back rather than the bench.

“His attitude; his application every single day is an absolute standard for any young player,” Lampard said about his captain. “He is the epitome of the club. He is the one the fans look at and say, ‘That is how we feel about Chelsea’. He is captain for that reason.”

---

The challenges posed by Azpilicueta’s first season as captain went far beyond the pitch. The sudden shutdown from March to June in response to the pandemic forced Premier League clubs across the country to think long and hard about how best they could serve their communities. Chelsea were more proactive than most in focusing the full range of their resources on tackling the public health crisis in England and no player at the club was more engaged in the process than Azpilicueta.

As well as keeping in regular contact with his team-mates to make sure they were coping, he put himself at the centre of Chelsea’s community outreach, making calls and recording video messages to keep up the morale of vulnerable people in isolation. More than simply making himself available, those overseeing the projects would regularly receive calls and messages from him suggesting ideas and discussing the details of arrangements. He personally funded 500 exercise packs and 300 school meals for the children of key workers in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Club divides melted away as footballers banded together to take collective action and Azpilicueta stepped up to the task of representing his team-mates. He was one of the most prominent voices on the conference calls between Premier League captains, led by Jordan Henderson of Liverpool, where the details of Project Restart were discussed and the “Players Together” initiative to help the National Health Service (NHS) was born.

Azpilicueta was the one who spoke for the Chelsea squad in talks with the board about a potential first-team pay cut in light of the football shutdown. It was an awkward situation replicated at other clubs across the country and sources have told The Athletic that he found the talks very difficult to navigate but he nevertheless accepted the responsibility as part of his leadership role. Ultimately, no pay cut or wage deferral for the playing squad was forthcoming.

Chelsea regard Azpilicueta as a man who can be relied upon to find the right words for the moment, whether it be a bad defeat or a subject weightier than football; it was no surprise in January when he stepped up to speak passionately and eloquently about what the club’s pioneering campaign against anti-semitism meant to him. That quality also makes him a better captain day-to-day at the training ground.

One legacy of Terry that Azpilicueta has continued is a genuine care and interest in the happiness and success of everyone at Cobham. His video message wishing Chelsea Women good luck on the eve of the new Women’s Super League season wasn’t an idle gesture — he often attends their games — and sources told The Athletic that he recently got in touch with an injured academy player to offer words of encouragement with his rehabilitation.

On the pitch, Azpilicueta is the last remaining link to the Terry era, the last player in Lampard’s squad who once called him a team-mate — and he takes every opportunity to try to maintain the culture they once set as players.

---

Jose Mourinho once claimed that a team of 11 Azpilicuetas could win the Champions League. Chelsea have had to make do with one but he’s still been enough to help lift six major trophies in eight years.

It’s the sheer variety of his contributions to winning teams that makes Azpilicueta’s status as a Premier League legend unassailable. A highly-rated young right-back when he was signed for just £7 million from Marseille in 2012, he won his first Premier League title in 2014-15 as a left-back who was so consistently solid that he ended Ashley Cole’s eight-year career at Stamford Bridge. He won his second as a centre-back in Antonio Conte’s inspired 3-4-3 system in 2016-17, covering for the limitations of Victor Moses and enabling the former Nigeria international to showcase his strengths as a wing-back.

“We had watched some videos about him before but the first days of training confirmed our assessments for the better,” Angelo Alessio, Conte’s former assistant at Chelsea, tells The Athletic. “We needed a player who knew how to defend but was also technically good for playing from the back.

“Azpilicueta was the right choice — he had great skills to cover that position. He is so capable of playing anywhere in defence because he has a lot of skills and his concentration was always 100 per cent on the pitch.”

It wasn’t until Maurizio Sarri arrived in the summer of 2018 that Azpilicueta got the chance to be Chelsea’s undisputed starting right-back. It was the moment when his journey towards the captaincy accelerated rapidly; Cahill, the man who inherited the armband from Terry, swiftly fell out of favour and he was selected by the new regime to be the captain on the pitch.

“There were other players who were entitled to the position because of the time they’d spent at Chelsea, because of their personalities, because of the players they were,” Sarri’s former assistant Gianfranco Zola tells The Athletic. “Cahill was very important for the group but we also had David Luiz, who was very reliable, another leader. He was one of the ones but in the end we went for Cesar because he deserved it.

“He’s a very, very reliable person, which is very important in our job. He’s honest, a good person to have around you when you’re trying to do something important and know there will be difficult moments.”

Throughout a rollercoaster season under Sarri, punctuated by several damaging defeats and flashes of open hostility from supporters, Azpilicueta proved himself a stabilising influence — while being prepared to speak his mind.

“His attitude in troubled moments was to put his head down and work harder,” Zola says. “He’s serious about his work. When they had chats between the players, he would be one of the players talking. When things aren’t going well, you need a wake-up call and to have people in the changing room who can do that is very important.

“He was someone who always did his work with thought, without leaving anything behind. But, at the same time, when it was necessary to say a few things, he said them. He wasn’t afraid to speak up and that’s very important. I would call him a balanced leader.”

In the aftermath of Chelsea’s win over Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku, Cahill had no problem letting Azpilicueta keep the armband and handle the trophy lift. He also took a leading role in the celebrations afterwards.

“A good memory I have of Cesar is when we won the Europa League final against Arsenal, everyone was celebrating in the disco in the hotel in Baku,” Zola says. “We were all dancing and Cesar was going crazy along with David Luiz. It tells you how much it meant for them, even after they won so much.”

---

Azpilicueta has been Chelsea’s most-used outfield player in every one of the last five seasons across all competitions, and from August 2015 to May 2019, he missed just two of 152 Premier League matches, starting 149 of them. The physical load he has shouldered has been nothing short of staggering and his remarkable durability was a big reason why it was so jarring to see him limp off against Arsenal in the FA Cup final.

For years, his daily routine has been rigorous: he arrives at Cobham in time to have breakfast at the training ground and then hit the gym before training, where he sets an exacting standard for the intensity of the session. Afterwards, he sticks around to do extensive stretches and goes for a swim in the pool. In his own time, he is always eager to learn about new ways to optimise his body’s ability to rest and recover. But he also knows he is not a machine.

This season, with Ben Chilwell expected to establish himself as Chelsea’s long-term solution at left-back and James taking the next steps in his development on the right, Azpilicueta is likely to play fewer minutes. But you can also expect him to put up a serious fight before he gives up his status as a regular starter, just as Branislav Ivanovic and Cole did before him. Having just turned 31, he has every reason to believe his body has more to give at the top level.

Football remains his primary focus but he is setting the wheels in motion for the next chapter of his life.

Chelsea team-mates and staff have grown accustomed to seeing him tapping away at his laptop on the journey back from away trips as he works towards an online degree in business management at the Berlin School of Business and Innovation. He is part-owner of a FIFA esports team called the Falcons with two prominent Spanish YouTubers, Jose Antonio Cacho and Jesus Rincon, and he has a vision for the project beyond mere financial investment.

He wants the Falcons to have a team ethic similar to a real football team and to use the platform to help people; recently, he hosted an online camp with the parents of gamers aimed at increasing awareness of the potential dangers of playing online, such as bullying and communicating with people posing under fake identities — a concern that has grown in his mind since having three children of his own.

Despite the extent to which he has embraced leadership at Chelsea, those who know Azpilicueta don’t expect him to go into management when he finally retires. Given how settled he and his family are in their home near Cobham, however, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him choose to live in the UK rather than return to his native Pamplona, when he hangs up his boots, or for another role to be found for him at the club he has served so well for so long.

In the meantime, players and staff at Cobham can continue to enjoy the benefits of having a captain worthy of Chelsea’s best traditions and grandest aspirations.

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

Hes a legend still currently playing, the last one really from the last decade.

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