Ricardo Carvalho has seemingly set his heart on joining his former Porto and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. The Portuguese defender has reportedly said he would go “swimming or running” to the Bernabeu should Mourinho make an offer for him. In my opinion, losing Carvalho to Real Madrid would be a huge loss given some of his heroic performances for the Blues.
Since arriving from Porto in 2004, Carvalho has been a key component in establishing Chelsea’s reputation as having the best defence in the league. In 2004/2005, Mourinho’s first season at the helm, Chelsea’s defence was positively miserly; only conceding a record 15 league goals on the way to securing a first league title since 1955. From his impressive first season in England, Carvalho has only gone from strength to strength.
Carvalho’s partnership with John Terry proved to be one of the strongest centre-back pairings of the Premier League era. While Terry is undoubtedly the face of Chelsea’s defence, Carvalho’s role should not be underestimated. Indeed, many people (myself included) are of the belief that Carvalho is better than the Chelsea skipper.
Carvalho possesses all of the defensive attributes that Terry has, along with greater pace. Without Carvalho, it may have taken people longer to decide that Terry wasn’t all that good as he frequently covered for Terry’s shortcomings.
But for me, Carvalho’s most endearing quality is his commitment. With Carvalho, you always knew what you were going to get from him. Whenever he put on the shirt, he gave his all on the pitch, doing whatever it takes to win. There is one moment that sticks out to me that encapsulates what Ricardo Carvalho is all about. It’s the 2005 Champions League second round match against Barcelona.
With the game hanging in the balance at 3-2 and Chelsea heading out on the away goals rule, Chelsea suddenly get a corner on the right hand side. Damien Duff steps up to whip in a left footed corner to the penalty spot. Out comes Victor Valdes, seemingly favourite to claim the Irishman’s corner, only for Ricardo Carvalho to give the Barcelona ‘keeper a slight nudge causing Valdes to miss the ball. This allowed John Terry to head the ball into the corner of the net to send the Bridge into delirium. Yes, it could have been called a foul but Carvalho was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that we won that game.
On the one hand, Carvalho’s Chelsea exit can be justified. In recent times, Carvalho has found himself behind Alex as first-choice partner for John Terry as Guus Hiddink and now Carlo Ancelotti have preferred the Brazilian in the centre of defence. Carvalho has also had his fair share of injury problems with an ankle injury keeping him sidelined towards the end of last season. In addition to Carvalho, Ancelotti has great depth at centre-back with Terry, Alex, Ivanovic, Mancienne and Bruma all fighting for a starting berth and with Carvalho’s advancing years, his best performances might be behind him.
But if he does leave, I hope my fellow Chelsea fans don’t hold it against him. Carvalho has given his all for the club in his time at the Bridge and has been integral to our success. He should be allowed to go with his head held high.
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