Chelsea supporters pining for competitive action in the midst of pre-season might be tempted to tune into United States’ matches in the Olympic men’s football tournament.
Gabriel Slonina, signed from Chicago Fire in the summer of 2022, is unlikely to see much game time as the No 2 goalkeeper in Marko Mitrovic’s squad behind Patrick Schulte. Chelsea’s newest acquisition Caleb Wiley came on as a late substitute in United States’ 3-0 loss against France on Wednesday and, while he was left on the bench for Saturday’s 4-1 win against New Zealand, he may get another opportunity to show his dynamic qualities in their final Group A match against Guinea.
If the left-back does, it could make for an entertaining watch. Wiley, signed from Atlanta United for a fee of around £8.5million ($10.9m) this month with a view to spending the 2024-25 season on loan at BlueCo sister club Strasbourg, is a fast, direct runner capable of covering large spaces on the left side of the pitch to lead and support attacks.
The bulk of his six goals in three seasons in Major League Soccer were composed conversions of crosses or passes from the right side, having run most of the length of the pitch to make himself a scoring option. There were positive flashes of him surging upfield with the ball at his feet. At times in his Atlanta career, he was deployed on the left-wing, but it is at left-back that Chelsea believe Wiley will prove most valuable.
Much like the man himself, Wiley’s career has moved at dazzling speed. Six years ago he served as a ball boy when Atlanta won the 2018 MLS Cup and rode a parade float through his home city in the celebrations that followed. Two years later he made his professional debut for the club’s second team in the USL Championship, aged 15 years, six months and 21 days.
Wiley marked his MLS debut with a goal as a 17-year-old, coming on as a left-winger against Sporting Kansas City in February 2022, racing onto a through pass from Marcelino Moreno and poking the ball past goalkeeper Tim Melia. That campaign yielded 26 league appearances and the two seasons since have added 51 more, giving him significantly more professional experience than most footballers of his age (he is not 20 until December).
Chelsea regard this as a positive marker for Wiley’s future development and hope that a full season of Ligue 1 action at Strasbourg will put him in a position to stake a credible claim for a squad role at Stamford Bridge. One full-back being held up internally as a target for his progression is Malo Gusto, who arrived in the Premier League in January 2023 after a season and a half of Ligue 1 football at Lyon and shone.
Wiley has swapped Atlanta for Chelsea but will spend next season at Strasbourg in France (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Another is Alphonso Davies, who had two seasons of regular first-team involvement in MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps before joining Bayern Munich at 18 and quickly excelled. Wiley is expected to be an immediate starter for Strasbourg in 2024-25, working with new head coach Liam Rosenior and a coaching staff that will be heavily focused on player development.
Wiley, who made his USMNT debut in April 2023, has a lot of developing to do to justify such lofty comparisons. At this early stage, he remains an incomplete attacking player; among the 45 players in MLS who have logged 900 minutes or more at full-back or wing-back in the 2024 season, he ranks 41st for open-play crosses per 90 minutes (1.2), 12th for chances created (1.1), 20th for progressive carries (6.4), and 29th for take-on success rate (34.6 per cent).
He is also a flawed defensive one, ranking 45th in the same sample for duel win rate (41.8 per cent), 41st for dribble-past rate (38.2 per cent) and 24th for ‘true’ tackles per 1,000 opponent touches (5.3). In other words, his level of defensive activity was close to average for his position in MLS, but his attempts to win the ball were too often ineffective and he was too easy for dribbling opponents to beat.
Wiley’s general lack of defensive awareness made him a frequent target for Atlanta’s opponents and his inconsistent decision-making inside his own half at times created the impression of a young player overwhelmed by the fast-paced nature of MLS games.
This, then, can be considered another low-cost bet on high-upside talent by Chelsea, who are massively upscaling their investment in youth recruitment globally under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly. There are no guarantees Wiley will blossom into a Premier League left-back, let alone one capable of making a significant first-team impact at Stamford Bridge, but sending him to Strasbourg at least potentially affords a greater degree of control over the process.
Rosenior has been hired by BlueCo to implement a possession-based positional game similar to the one favoured by new Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca, bringing a greater degree of stylistic uniformity to the multi-club structure and — in theory — creating a more favourable environment for player development, with the two clubs sharing resources across their data and recruitment operations.
In the specific case of Wiley, it will be interesting to track how a relatively traditional attacking full-back prospect, compared internally to others in that position, adapts and develops within a style of play that places greater value on a full-back’s ability to invert into midfield or defend counter-attacks than surge forward on the overlap.
This move to Europe comes at a crucial stage in Wiley’s development. He was in danger of stagnating with Atlanta, who have declined on the pitch over the last three years, and he could make improvements by being exposed to a higher level of training and generally higher stakes as a professional.
Wiley’s journey on that developmental pathway will begin in France, so his Olympic adventure with the United States may be of as much interest to Strasbourg supporters as to Chelsea fans.
(Top photo: John Todd/ISI/Getty Images)
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