Danny Welbeck: Conflicted Feelings

 
Oh, Danny Welbeck, I wanna kno-o-o-w why you went to them.

It's happened. Danny Welbeck has done what so many have done before him and flown from the Seagulls' nest into the ravenous jaws of Stamford the Lion. And we don't exactly know how to feel about it. Gutted, of course. Concerned that we haven't got a player to score the number of goals he has done for the last few years, yes. He's hit double figures for us in the previous two seasons and last year, only eight players scored more goals than him in the Premier League. He feels irreplaceable. It feels like we've drifted five places down the table with his departure.

But how do we feel towards him? Before I answer that, I want to explore how we feel towards all the players that leave us when we wish they wouldn't. Each time, it feels like there is an accepted narrative created about the player that has left. They might be a money-grabbing egotist who used us a stepping stone. They might be a fractious brat who's fallen out with their own shadow. Or they might be someone who's honourable, has done it the right way and will forevermore, get a warm clap from the Falmer crowd. I don't need to tell you where the recent departures fit. The narratives we create are never particularly complex. We feed off of the scraps of information given us and whether to boo or clap is reached by a common consensus. 

I find this simplistic and difficult - I don't want to boo someone that did a good job for us, even if it was for a short time. As fans, we are unflinchingly loyal and we often demand this of players, not really considering that the club will only be loyal to them for as long as they are good enough at football. Most of us accept the reasoning behind Solly March departing the club this summer and as a football club, it has to be this way. The club have to make tough decisions about squad balance and who they need. However, players know this and in a business where no loyalty is shown to them, it can't surprise us that they put themselves first when another club comes in for them. We can quibble about the motives of why a player left, but they are likely to be nuanced and complex and our support of our club is never those things.

Why has Danny Welbeck chosen Chelsea? Money? Possibly, he's sure to be getting paid more. Trophies? Possibly, as much as we hate to admit it, one day, Chelsea will probably be challenging for honours again and having the likes of Welbeck and Jordan Henderson around a young squad, in my opinion, makes that more likely. A better fit at this stage of his career? Perhaps, he knows his own body and recognises that he isn't a 90-minute week-in, week-out striker any more and being an impact sub suits where he's at. Or maybe he just really loves Joao Pedro. 

What I feel is definitely true, rather than the conjecture of why he is moving, is that he has been an incredible servant of the club since he signed in 2020. He has been a role model and leader as well as a goal-scorer. He has played for us with a smile on his face and came to embody who we are as a team. There has been a whole lot of love for him and that love, for me, isn't dying even though it hurts the most that he's joining the corporate machine, the antithesis of our club, Chelsea. Let's applaud him and giving Chelsea a couple of thrashings next season.