Over the weekend I had a random message sent to me on Twitter, and it wasn’t from a Chelsea fan.
The message was from a Swansea City supporter, which I think is an absolute first for me. And all this chap said was, ‘thank you for Bashir Humphreys!’
Of course, they can enjoy him this season, but next season this guy has a genuine chance of coming back into the Chelsea squad and challenging for a place.
Perhaps he can be the one to replace Thiago Silva, as big a task as that would be? Obviously he wouldn’t be directly replacing Silva anyway, at least in terms of importance and experience. But with Levi Colwill, Benoit Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, and Axel Disasi all set to battel it out to actually ‘replace’ Silva, Humphreys could come back in to the squad and replace Silva’s spot.
It’s always been the expectation that this is Silva’s last year at Chelsea and that for me is absolutely the correct decision, with massive due respect to Thiago. I think even he will feel that this should be his last season in the Premier League.
But back to Humphreys, this guy is showing real class, and we all actually saw that in pre-season as well. He very almost stayed at Chelsea, as Dan Barker from The Chelsea Spot reported on our Podcast last week. Chelsea really like him, Mauricio Pochettino really likes him, and there was a thought that he should stay to cover injuries. But in the end, it was his development that rightly came first and the fact that they wanted him to be playing matches, and that’s exactly what he has been doing so far.
He’s played five matches so far for Swansea and even came up with a super important goal, and Swansea fans are now absolutely raving about him.
He’s already been in the Championship team of the week earlier this month:
He got this raving review after scoring his goal:
Wales Online: ‘Proved the hero as he picked an incredible moment to score his first goal in senior football and grab the winner. He impressed throughout the game, oozing confidence on the ball as he gave another performance beyond his years. 8/10 (star man).’
And just look at these stats after he helped Swansea beat Plymouth 3-1 in their last game at the weekend:
The boy is literally made for Chelsea and is already looking a class above the level he is playing at.
The best thing is, the England U20 international is still just 20-years-old and is still very much developing. This loan will do him wonders and I truly believe he will be good enough to slot in to our squad next summer and potentially save us millions in signing a new centre back to replace Silva, if that is what we decide to do.
With the injuries we get, especially at the back, then Humphreys could really see a pathway open up at Chelsea and of course, we should be giving pathways to the young players we have who are clearly good enough.
He’s a tall (6ft 2in) ball playing central defender who plays with confidence and class. What is not to love? He also has a long contract with us (2027).