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Robert Sanchez is adamant Chelsea are "going to do very well" in the future and be a team that "wins a lot" as their young players develop in the years ahead. Fresh from securing the UEFA Conference League crown in May, Enzo Maresca's side lifted the FIFA Club World Cup on Sunday evening with an extremely impressive 3-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain.
Chelsea's transfer approach during the Todd Boehly era has been questioned but the Blues do have a very youthful squad who can grow together and potentially dominate for years to come if they continue to go from strength to strength. Sanchez believes that will indeed be the case.
"We have already shown the world, so what we have to do is keep it the same. We are only going to get better," he told Chelsea's official website.
"The boys are young, 21 years old, 22 years old. Imagine when these players are 24, 25, 26. We are going to be a solid squad that wins a lot and does well. We’re going to do very well."
Not many people had Chelsea down to win the Club World Cup going into the final against Paris Saint-Germain due to their Champions League triumph and recent demolition of Real Madrid. However, the Blues sprung a major surprise with a Cole Palmer double and Joao Pedro strike giving them a 3-0 half-time lead.
Sanchez was always confident of Chelsea triumphing at MetLife Stadium and he made that clear to some of the team before the final.
"I was talking to some of the boys [ahead of the game] and I said we’ve got a great chance to make history here and win," he admitted. "We believed we were going to, but we couldn’t expect to win like this: 3-0, clean sheet, dominated the game, could’ve scored a couple more goals. It’s a dream come true.
"It’s all we wanted. We have been away from home – away from our families – for a month, and we have been working hard. People said we had the easier path [to the final], but it wasn’t easy.
"We worked hard and we deserved this win. In the final, we showed how good we are and what we can do."
Palmer may have grabbed all the headlines for his heroics but Sanchez also played a huge role in the victory with some key saves throughout the contest.
"The saves for me, they weren’t crazy hard, but they were difficult because the pitch was very sticky," said the Spaniard. "So they become more difficult because of that. There was a save from [Ousmane] Dembele, a shot from [Bradley] Barcola, a couple of saves in the first half. It was a clean game; I’m very happy with it.
"We are always going to be underestimated, but we know our quality and how good we are. We knew they had quality, but we knew we had more. And if we matched their pace and intensity, we felt we would win the game. That’s what we did."
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