Merson: Chelsea need experience - but Welbeck needs to play to be effective

Chelsea transfer news: Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson good for experience but striker needs game time, says Paul Merson In his latest Sky Sports column, Paul Merson discusses Chelsea's potential double signing of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck; Arsenal have pursued Vinicius Jr and hold interest in Bradley Barcola; Rodri could leave Man City for Real Madrid with Elliot Anderson at the Etihad Wednesday 29 July 2026 18:05, UK In his latest Sky Sports column, Paul Merson gives his take on Chelsea's potential double signing of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck, Arsenal's pursuit of Vinicius Jr and the possibility of Man City losing Rodri to Real Madrid. Read below for the Magic Man's thoughts as the summer transfer window begins to heat up... Merson's one worry about Welbeck to Chelsea I've always screamed out that Chelsea need experience. And those two players are experience. People are going to say: "Oh, what are they buying 35-year-olds for?" It's not about the future for Chelsea, it's about the here and now. They've gone for the future before with players on seven, eight-year contracts. And if it was successful, they would have been the most successful team in the world for many a year, but it hasn't worked like that. - Lessons from Leverkusen? Xabi Alonso's Chelsea rebuild explained - Transfer Centre LIVE! | Chelsea news & transfers🔵 - Got Sky? Watch Chelsea games LIVE on your phone📱 - Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW📺 - Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want! 🔔 So you need experience with these kids. They're buying good young players but you still need experience. It's priceless, experience. They're not going to play every game when it goes well. But when Chelsea do have games when it isn't going well and the crowd get a bit restless, that experience helps, believe me. I like Welbeck. I don't know him as a person, but he comes across as a lovely bloke and a good professional. If you look at his record the last two years at Brighton, it's been amazing. But he's played a lot of football - and he needs to play a lot of football when you're his age. If you look at his record, he played 30-odd games last year and then 30-odd games the year before. He's not going to get 30-odd games this year. It's hard to stop-start when you get to a certain age. You need to keep on playing. You can't keep on just playing a game here or there. It just isn't the same. I know what it's like. I played until I was well into my 30s. You had to play all the time. When you didn't play all the time, it got hard. If Xabi Alonso is going to play Joao Pedro, I don't see where he plays. He isn't going to drop back into a No 10, because there's Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers there. He'll just keep coming off the bench. And when you don't play, you don't play. It's not as if Chelsea have European football that gives you eight or nine extra games a season. I expect Henderson to be a closer with 15 or 20 minutes to go. If you watch Chelsea, they could be winning 1-0 in a game and not get a second, third or a fourth. Look at the number of times Chelsea have let in last-minute goals in games, especially in the season before when Enzo Maresca was in charge. Sometimes you need that player who's going to come in and close the game out. Just give you that bit of calmness on the ball, keep the ball, tell the younger players where to go. Henderson gives you that. For me, he would play a big part, 100 per cent. If Arsenal don't get Vinicius or Barcola, it's a big worry Vinicius Jr is just looking for a new contract at Real Madrid. He's playing Arsenal. But this is where Arsenal are now. This is the market they're in. Arsenal are looking to buy someone from Real Madrid, one of the top players. It just shows you where Arsenal are in the market. It's a big worry for all the other teams in the league, in my opinion. If Arsenal don't get Vinicius, then they have to get Bradley Barcola. They have to get a left winger in, especially now Leandro Trossard has left. They left themselves very short in that position. And if Arsenal don't get Vinicius or Barcola, then it's a major worry. For them to let Trossard go is not good business in my opinion - not for what you're selling. He went for literally nothing. I can't believe that half the Premier League weren't after Trossard. He played in all the big games for Arsenal last season and he's a brilliant footballer. There are a lot of good players but not a lot of good footballers out there. He came under that second category. 'I don't see how Rodri and Anderson play together' Rodri is one of the top two holding midfielders in the world, alongside Moises Caicedo. But I don't see how him and Elliot Anderson play together. Rodri is the best in the business at ticking it over, Anderson is going to be the best in the business at ticking it over. But to play both of them in there? I don't think they need that. How many teams are going to have a go at Man City? People go to the Etihad and shut up shop and counter-attack. Do you need two holding midfielders against Hull? No, of course not. Then all of a sudden, someone's not playing. Don't get me wrong, in the big games, when they're playing back away in the Champions League in a quarter-final or the last 16, then you need two holding midfield players. They were a bit too open in the Champions League and were well off it last year. But the holy grail is the 38 games in the Premier League. And there aren't enough games in the Premier League for them both to play in the same team. Unless they bought Anderson and he gets a season of learning under the best in the world in Rodri. But £116m is a lot to spend on someone to be an understudy. Rodri will want to play, and he won't want to sit there and be someone's understudy. But you're still selling one of the best players in the world. I don't think Man City will win the Premier League this year anyway. They didn't win it last year with the best manager in the world. They were only ever in the title race because Arsenal had a bad three weeks. I think Liverpool are Arsenal's nearest challengers this season.