Chelsea Files: How The Avengers convinced club legend to join Blues, Xabi Alonso set to cull 40-man squad

DID you know that The Avengers had a part to play in one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players joining them in 1996? Apart from it wasn’t Spider-Man, The Hulk and Iron Man convincing Gianluca Vialli to leave Juventus for Stamford Bridge, it was a 1960s TV show with the same name. Gianluca Vialli completed a shock move to Chelsea in 1996 Credit: Rex Vialli went on to manage Chelsea and Watford Credit: EPA Vialli’s move to Chelsea at the time seemed to make no sense. Juventus had just won the Champions League, with the Blues having just placed 11th in the Premier League, ironically not too dissimilar to where they were last season before spending a bucket-load on Morgan Rogers this summer. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Asked about the move, one of Vialli’s lifelong friends, Luca Dal Monte, exclusively told SunSport about his decision to come to Stamford Bridge. Dal Monte said: “Gianluca’s decision to join Chelsea was not just a football decision. If you look at it purely in football terms, it made very little sense. “He was leaving Juventus, who had just won the Champions League, for a Chelsea side that had finished 11th in the Premier League. “I remember that a few years earlier, when Silvio Berlusconi was making his second attempt to take him to AC Milan, I had actually argued with Gianluca about the importance of winning trophies. “I remember telling him that a great player becomes truly great not only because of the way he plays or the goals he scores, but also because of the silverware he wins. “Leaving the Champions of Europe immediately after winning the Champions League seemed almost incomprehensible. But Gianluca felt that his time in Italy had come to an end. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK Vialli was a Champions League winner with Juventus Credit: Reuters “He had won almost everything there was to win, first with Sampdoria and then with Juventus, and at 32 he wanted something different, not simply another club but another experience of life. “London had a particular fascination for Italians of our generation. For many of us, it was the destination of our first flight, often for an Easter holiday when we were teenagers. “Britain had also entered our imagination through television. We had grown up under the spell of British series such as The Avengers – “Mrs Peel, we’re needed!” – and London seemed exciting, stylish and somehow different from anywhere else. “I think there was also something very characteristic of Gianluca in the decision. He was curious. He was never frightened by change. He could have remained in Italy, where he was famous, successful and completely at home. “But instead, he chose to put himself in a country where he barely spoke the language and where the football culture was entirely different. In a sense, he chose uncertainty. What he could not possibly have known was how profoundly that decision would change his life. “Chelsea was supposed to be the next chapter of his career. Instead, it became part of his identity. He arrived as a famous Italian footballer and became a Chelsea man, and Stamford Bridge really did capture his heart.” Vialli, who arned 59 caps for Italy, tragically died in 2023 at the age of 58 following a six-year battle with cancer. More of Dal Monte’s tales of his treasured relationship with Vialli can be found in his new biography: The Gentleman: Gianluca Vialli and How He Changed English Football Forever. MAHD WORLD MAHDI NICOLL-JAZULI and Reggie Watson looked like the future of Chelsea during the pre-season tour. But the challenge now is to turn future into present, for them and the rest of the Blues’ impressive crop of youngsters. MNJ and Watson are still only 16. So although they proved they could mix it in men’s football in Australia and the Far East, and sometimes showed up their more experienced team-mates, loan moves away from Cobham feel unlikely. The pair’s development may well be best served by “playing up” in PL2 and the Premier League International Cup, competitions for Under-21s, as well as in the Under-18s. Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, Reggie Walsh and Shim Mheuka are on a different path. All three have already had a taste of first-team football. Mheuka was also the top goalscorer and player of the season in PL2 last year and surely needs a loan to at least a Championship club, or a top-flight side abroad, in order to take the next step. Winger Kavuma-McQueen, 17, is being strongly linked with a loan move to Portsmouth. He looks to have the confidence as well as the ability to make an impression in the second tier. Walsh, also 17 but with a much-improved physique, is now more likely to be able to impose his creative skills, and a spell at League One Wigan is in the offing. Jesse Derry, who made an eventful first-team debut at the end of the last campaign, has already gone to Sporting Lisbon for the season. Chelsea have no first-team European football this campaign so much of the hard work for the remainder of the window will involve cutting Xabi Alonso’s squad of around 40 to a more manageable number. But the club will also be busy finalising plans to make sure the best prospects of the Academy, who also include 17-year-old “Moroccan Messi” Ibrahim Rabbaj, have the best chance of becoming first-team players as soon as possible. Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli impressed on Chelsea’s pre-season tour Credit: Getty Reggie Watson is the son of former Premier League player Ben Watson Credit: Getty STRAS RELIEF STRASBOURG fans will doubtless continue their protests against the BlueCo owners they share with Chelsea. As things stand, Alonso’s first-team squad will contain the former spine of their sister club’s team. Mike Penders, Mamadou Sarr, Valentin Barco and Emmanuel Emegha are all now in England. However they perform, Strasbourg fans will feel sore and even more justified in believing their interests and aspirations are being sacrificed for Chelsea’s benefit. If the quartet are given a chance by Alonso and do well, it will reaffirm the Ligue 1 team’s status as a glorified feeder club. If one or more of them barely play for the Blues or are sold or sent out on loan elsewhere, the fans will legitimately question why they were not left in Strasbourg. Players moving the other way across the English Channel, with goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen set to replace Penders, will do little to appease supporters no matter how well the team does on the pitch. Emmanuel Emegha scored 31 goals in 78 games for Strasbourg Credit: Getty Valentin Barco went to the World Cup with Argentina Credit: Getty Comment now