‘I want to see them push the teams who’ve been challenging regularly over the past few seasons. To truly challenge, I think Chelsea need two more years’ William Gallas on Chelsea’s next steps

Chelsea’s fourth-place finish last season meant that the club qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the Todd Boehly era.

The Blues will be one of six English clubs to feature in the competition this season, a feat never before seen in the tournament’s 70-year history.

Enzo Maresca’s side then followed up their domestic campaign by winning the Club World Cup this summer, but how far away are they from reclaiming the Premier League or Champions League?

Gallas on Chelsea’s trophy hopes this season

Former Blues defender William Gallas – who was ranked at no.29 on FourFourTwo’s list of the best Premier League players of 2000s – believes there is still work to be done at Stamford Bridge.

“It’ll take more than one year to be back to trying to lift the Premier League and the Champions League,” Gallas tells FourFourTwo. “The players are young, but they know each other well and it shows in their play.

“They’ll be near the top of the Premier League and near the Champions League closing stages. Their target will be to go very close in both – maybe top three or four in the league, quarter-finals or semis in Europe.

“I want to see them push the teams who’ve been challenging regularly over the past few seasons.

“To truly challenge, I think Chelsea need two more years. Make this season a very good one, with more progress, then the season after that could be when they win another Premier League or Champions League.”

The Blues have enjoyed another busy transfer window, with Brazilian starlet Estevao arriving this summer following last year’s signing, with the likes of Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens joining, as has striker Liam Delap.

“He’s a 22-year-old who looked good for Ipswich, but he’s young and only scored 12 goals,” Gallas says of the former Manchester City youth product.

“He’s got a lot of potential, but playing at Chelsea is different, the pressure is different. He can become part of a really great thing at Chelsea in the next couple of years.”

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.