In our latest tour diary entry, Chelsea’s Marcus Bettinelli explains why our tours to the USA are key to building squad unity and discusses the growing importance of the more experienced goalkeeper.

Tours are hugely important when it comes to building togetherness.

We are such a young squad and a new group, because we have signed a lot of players over the last few years, so it takes time and you have to know players off the pitch before you get to know them on the pitch.

There is a lot of team bonding that takes place while we are away. We are together for the huge majority of that time and tour is a chance to really get to know the lads on a personal level. That then transcends onto the pitch.

 

The players have been winding down with a bit of darts and table tennis

 

With things like playing table tennis and darts together and going out for team meals, there has been plenty of time for us to get to know each other and it is huge for developing personal relationships on the pitch as well.

Once the season starts, especially when you are in Europe, it is difficult to spend this amount of time together as some of the lads have children or there are certain things they have to get home for whereas here we are in a bubble.

We are also able to have lots of meetings as the head coach looks to implement his new style of play which is different to how we have played in the last couple of years so we can take it all in.

At different times in my career, there has been a real togetherness in squads off the pitch, everyone was like a family, including the staff, and it was like one big family and that genuinely transcends on to the pitch.

 

Bettinelli is an important member of the Chelsea squad

 

It is something that takes time to build and it feels like we are going in the right direction for sure.

We have a leadership group who try to help build that sense of togetherness but we want everyone to be captains and be leaders in our squad. It is everyone’s responsibility.

We try to hold each other to high standards and if we stick to our morals and we keep our togetherness, then it should be evident on the pitch.

I don’t play as much as the other lads so I don’t have the same pressures or stresses that the other lads have in some respects, so it is easy for me to look at things off the pitch and see where we can improve certain aspects. It is a role I enjoy and it is nice the head coach trusts me to do that role.

Sadly, at 32, I am the oldest in the squad now, which is the first time that has been the case in my career, so I am trying to improve myself when it comes to that role.

 

Betts stressed the need to keep performing in training

 

The role of being third or fourth choice goalkeeper in a squad has definitely grown in importance. Before it used to be the position of a young lad but in recent years it seems more clubs are going with the older goalkeeper in that role.

You still need to be a really good goalkeeper to be able to train and keep up with the standards. You can be a great person but first and foremost you still have to be able to train at the level expected and perform in the way the head coach wants you to.

When you are third in line, you still need to be ready to step in if there are a couple of injuries. But after that, you have to be a good person, be fair and try to help all the lads.

So it is important to have all those attributes and it is definitely a growing position in football.

 

Marcus Bettinelli and Reece James thanking the fans in Ohio

 

When I look at this squad, Reece and I were talking the other day and we were saying it definitely feels like this is the closest the group has felt over the last couple of years.

We have experienced some really tough times over the last two years, some really bad moments, and I think we had a good season last season, we finished well and now the new head coach has come in and we are all really enjoying his ideas and the way he wants us to play.

The closer we are off the pitch, it is only going to transcend on the pitch and both Reece and I were saying this feels like the closest and the most family-like it has felt over the last couple of years.

We are definitely building something and I think you are starting to see that on the pitch. Pre-season results are not always the be-all and end-all and the head coach has been saying the whole time that this is about the process and the plan.