Pep Chavarria is actually not your typical Chelsea signing. He didn’t make his debut in Spain’s high flight till he was 24 years previous. His European bow got here aged 27 in October within the UEFA Convention League towards Swedish facet Hacken. He was despatched off.
However maybe the Rayo Vallecano left-back’s rise is a part of the attraction. Now 28, having exceeded expectations once more at Rayo, this energetic and wholehearted participant can convey a little bit of what has been lacking at one of many Premier League’s true glamour golf equipment.
Marc Cucurella’s departure for Actual Madrid presents a emptiness on the left facet and Xabi Alonso has come to win trophies not simply develop saleable property. If Chavarria can assist him do this within the right here and now then that’s the precedence. It’s not all about wonderkids.
“There are players who develop later than others,” Jose Ramon Rodriguez tells Sky Sports activities. “He has taken a different route.” Rodriguez was Chavarria’s coach at Actual Zaragoza and noticed this up shut. “He has had to struggle a lot to get to where he has reached.”
When Chavarria joined Zaragoza in 2020, he arrived from third-tier facet UE Olot. However Rodriguez knew that he was able to rather more. “We saw the talent right away. He was able to perform at an intensity well above the level of the Spanish second division.”
Whereas the bodily capability was by no means actually doubtful, different points did need to be developed. “We could see that his progress could be very positive and very good. But this is a player who has improved a lot, both technically and in his decision-making,” he explains.
Chavarria’s mentality is a theme to that comes up time and time once more in dialog with Rodriguez. “He was a player who sacrificed himself a lot, who liked to train a lot,” he provides. “His way of training never let him down. He would always give the maximum.”
Rising up with Rayo Vallecano
It’s maybe telling that Andoni Iraola was in cost at Rayo when Chavarria was delivered to the membership in 2022. He’s a coach who values gamers who can convey actual depth to a crew’s efficiency. Iraola loves his full-backs to overlap and Chavarria can do this.
He has since proven that he can do extra than simply rise up and down the flank, turning into extra snug underlapping or getting into midfield, including parts to his sport. However that fame as one of many hardest-working full-backs in LaLiga is what underpins all of it.
Inigo Perez has helped convey extra from Chavarria throughout their three seasons collectively at Rayo. The participant naturally describes him as the perfect coach that he has labored with, permitting him to flourish as a contemporary full-back concerned in all points of the crew’s play.
Stats that present what he can do
For Perez and Chavarria, final season was the fruits as this modest membership from Madrid made historical past by reaching a European last. Chavarria was a key outlet for Rayo, having over 2000 touches in LaLiga and supplying a stream of crosses from the wing.
Chavarria ranked among the many high dozen gamers within the competitors for crosses from open play and corners received. But it surely was a twin function for Rayo as a result of he was additionally among the many high dozen gamers for blocking crosses and successful possession within the defensive third.
Are we speaking a few participant with a wand of a left foot who could be Chelsea’s creator in the way in which that Alex Grimaldo was for Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen out on the left? In all probability not. However as a prepared runner who stretches the play, his might nonetheless be an vital function.
Rayo Vallecano left-back Pep Chavarria’s strengths in stats
Concern about skill to adapt
Inevitably, there might be query marks over his credentials, questions that he might want to reply. Chavarria has by no means even performed overseas, not to mention within the Premier League, maybe probably the most bodily demanding home competitors of all of them.
Though strong and stuffed with operating, might he be focused at set items given the uncommon emphasis on this side of the sport within the fashionable Premier League? It’s a potential vulnerability, though it’s a problem that the tenacious Cucurella was capable of overcome.
Chavarria’s finish product in assault might want to enhance too. There was one spectacular strike towards Atletico Madrid in September however that was his solely purpose final season. Certainly, he had extra purple playing cards, together with one late on towards Actual Madrid within the Bernabeu.
Pep Chavarria finds the highest nook from distance for Rayo Vallecano towards Atletico Madrid
What the remainder of us don’t see
However Rodriguez is backing him to make the step up due to his perspective. What the tv cameras don’t choose up however the background checks do is that Chavarria has the correct mentality. “He is a team player who gives 200 per cent every day,” he reveals.
“He is a very good team-mate who creates a very good atmosphere and every team-mate wants to have him in the dressing room.” These qualities are harder to measure however Alonso might be acutely conscious that extra resolve is required from this Chelsea squad.
Chavarria typifies that. “When he was with us in Zaragoza and there was a time when the team was not doing well at all, he was the player who took on the responsibility of wanting to improve, of wanting to do the right things, of never making excuses.”
Lamine Yamal of FC Barcelona and Pep Chavarria of Rayo Vallecano compete for the ball throughout a sport in LaLiga in February 2025
Man to assist elevate the requirements
How Chelsea supporters would welcome a participant like that who will keep requirements when these of others would possibly slip. That is neither a teenage sensation nor a transformative celebrity, however Chavarria might nonetheless be a cut price who’s emblematic of a shift in id.
“When he went to the second division, the demand increased and it increased again in the first division,” says Rodriguez. At each step alongside the way in which, Chavarria has proven that he can deal with it. “This mentality makes you think that he could reach a higher level.”
If the Premier League is the following step, Chavarria must show folks incorrect once more. However he has performed it earlier than and his previous coach is backing him to do it once more. “If he goes to Chelsea, it is because he deserves it.” Not your typical signing. However perhaps the correct one.
