{"id":571909,"date":"2020-11-11T10:38:39","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T15:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=571909"},"modified":"2020-11-11T10:38:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T15:38:39","slug":"report-chelsea-defender-kurt-zouma-negotiate-new-long-term-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/11\/report-chelsea-defender-kurt-zouma-negotiate-new-long-term-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Chelsea Defender Kurt Zouma to Negotiate New Long-Term Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a very impressive start to the season, Chelsea<\/a> will look to reward Kurt Zouma<\/a> with a new long-term contract. According to Fabrizio Romano<\/a>, talks are imminent between the two parties, and manager Frank Lampard<\/a> will lock down one of his favorite centre-backs for years to come.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Defender Zouma to Negotiate New Contract<\/h2>\n

New Defensive Leader<\/h3>\n

While Zouma did get some playing time last season, he was not at the top of the queue. For a few months to begin the season he started along with Fikayo Tomori<\/a>, but then his playtime faded as the season went on.<\/p>\n

Antonio Rudiger<\/a> and Andreas Christensen<\/a> became the first-choice pairing, leaving Zouma on the bench. Zouma did start again after the Coronavirus-induced restart, but the defence was still unimpressive.<\/p>\n

This season, it’s been made clear that he wasn’t the problem; the real problems were Kepa Arrizabalaga<\/a> behind him, Christensen alongside him, and Marcos Alonso<\/a> to his left. All three of these have been replaced, but Zouma has remained, and the defence now looks solid as a rock.<\/p>\n

Edouard Mendy<\/a> and Thiago Silva<\/a> have completely stabilized the backline, with Ben Chilwell<\/a> also far more reliable than Alonso. Reece James<\/a> is the man on the right, and he’s been excellent as well.<\/p>\n

The only problem, though, is that Silva is 36, and he won’t have too many years left at the top. That means Lampard still needs a new leader at the back, and apparently, that leader is Zouma.<\/p>\n

Difficult Route to the Top<\/h3>\n

If there’s one thing that we can’t say about the 26-year-old, it’s that he’s had it easy. In his first full season with Chelsea, he was the one bright spot in an otherwise horrible year, where Chelsea finished 10th.<\/p>\n

However, midway into the season, he suffered a torn ACL against Manchester United<\/a>. The injury was so gruesome that his screams could be heard through the television. He was out for a full year, and never really re-established himself in the Chelsea backline.<\/p>\n

The following season, he went out on loan to Stoke City<\/a>, and then again to Everton<\/a> a year later. He got consistent playing time for a scrappy, win-at-all-costs, relegation-threatened Stoke, and also started for midtable Everton. Those experiences made him battle-hardened, and he was ready to return to his parent club.<\/p>\n

Many Chelsea fans had suspected this all season, but towards the restart, Lampard finally realized Zouma was his best defender, among several other inconsistent options. He started every minute of the restart, and he has played in all but one game this season.<\/p>\n

Despite all the challenges he faced, he looks set for a fantastic career at Chelsea, and a new contract beckons.<\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a very impressive start to the season, Chelsea will look to reward Kurt Zouma with a new long-term contract. According to Fabrizio Romano, talks are imminent between the two parties, and manager Frank Lampard will lock down one of his favorite centre-backs for years to come. Chelsea Defender Zouma to Negotiate New Contract New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3607,"featured_media":571916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,30,3],"tags":[46,6537,660,2610,40,1922,136],"class_list":["post-571909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-news","category-premier-league","tag-chelsea","tag-edouard-mendy","tag-frank-lampard","tag-kurt-zouma","tag-premier-league","tag-thiago-silva","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Mikael Weinsteiner","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}