Not long after Clearlake took over from Roman Abramovich, one thing became clear. Things were about to change in West London. In the two years since there’s been a move away from the trophy-hunting and big-name signings that marked the previous era of success. In its place is a focus on signing the next big thing and stocking up on youth. Now on to a fourth permanent manager in just over two years, the question has to be asked. If Chelsea fails this season is it finally time to blame the ownership and sporting directors?
Who Is to Blame if Chelsea Fail This Season
Final Window of The Plan
There’s been a lot of talk, especially from journalists like Simon Phillips, of a four-window plan. This was designed to give the owners and sporting directors time to offload the older, high-wage players and instead put in place their own data-driven, younger signings to play a possession-heavy style of football.
This summer is the final transfer window of this plan, after this point, there is no more rebuilding or patience. This is THEIR squad, the statistically favoured, sporting director-approved squad that is meant to take this club back to the big time. Gone are Cobham graduates like Ian Maatsen, Lewis Hall, and Ruben-Loftus Cheek. Gone too are veterans like Cesar Azpilicueta, Edouard Mendy, Jorginho, and Mateo Kovacic to name just a few.
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Looking at the assembled pieces would lead you to believe that Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart have been playing football manager. There are at least three goalkeepers signed to long-term deals in the squad with no clear idea of who will be the number one option.
There is no proven, clinical striker and only the raw young Marc Guiu, an unimpressive Armando Broja, an impressive but unrefined Nicolas Jackson, and just for fun, there’s also young, unproven Samu Omorodion, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The left-wing spot is either a woeful Mykhailo Mudryk or a Raheem Sterling who’s so inconsistent he goes from dazzling to missing open chances at a moment’s notice.
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The midfield, oh the midfield is something out of a video game. Romeo Lavia, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Lesley Ugochukwu, and potentially Christopher Nkunku/Cole Palmer are all expected to be smushed together into some working configuration even though all of them have shown some defensive weaknesses during pre-season. Did the statistics available to Winstanley and Stewart not discuss defensive ability or was that just not in the brief?
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Speaking of the defence, it’s been an absolute mess all pre-season. For a squad seemingly designed to play out from the back, just about every configuration on display has been woefully incapable of bypassing a press. The amount of chances handed on a platter to opposition attackers was frankly embarrassing.
What has been assembled so far is a bloated unit full of young players, on long contracts, with very few game-changers or proven winners on hand. This supposed four-window plan is about to end with a squad still needing to trim the fat while a functional starting eleven still appears to be a mystery to everyone, even the manager.
Managerial Choices
After swiftly dismissing Thomas Tuchel and giving up on Graham Potter, the owners turned to Mauricio Pochettino. Why they turned to the Argentine when he did not play their preferred style of football is a mystery, but they moved on from him after just a year as well.
This is the fourth at-bat for the ownership, but it might be the most important one. Enzo Mareca is their guy, they themselves briefed the media that he “ticks all of the boxes“. No Ruben Amorim, no Xabi Alonso, no proven Premier League manager, no Champions League winner, a Pep Guardiola disciple who won the Championship.
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Ok, sure, this is the chosen manager of the ownership, but if he fails the heat won’t be on the manager anymore. Potter and Pochettino quickly drew most of the ire of the fanbase and were promptly sacked. This time around the sword falls on the higher-ups who wanted a fresh face to play nice tiki-taka football, even if he’s never successfully coached at the highest level.
With Maresca, it’s time to put up or shut up. This is Clearlake’s chosen manager, with their four-window planned squad, playing their style of football. If this goes up in flames and Chelsea fails, fans will be left with no choice but to blame the decision-makers.
Off-Field Failures Raise Alarm Bells
There’s always been a sense of arrogance about the Blues’ newer owners. They walked in and from day one promised success, that they’d improve the stadium, improve the teams to make them competitive, and they’d invest in the academy, all while bringing all the best talents to Chelsea.
In their eyes, the successful Abramovich era would be easy to repeat and even improve on. They’d simply buy good players, they’d just get the stadium decision done, and they’d just do it all with ease because they were better than those who took the Blues to two Champions League titles and multiple other honours in under 20 years.
Well, the stadium issue is no closer to a resolution than when Clearlake bought the team. As far as public knowledge goes, it was sent back to square one and there’s still no decision made on whether to rebuild on the site of Stamford Bridge or if they want to move.
They started the last campaign without a kit sponsor, and as of this writing, they don’t even have one for the upcoming term which begins in a grand total of ten days! New signings have been wearing the BingX-sponsored training kit instead of the actual jerseys.
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All the while, they’ve had to use loopholes to fund the side, some of which had to be legally closed to stop them from being exploited. Not to mention the sale of two hotels to avoid any financial problems.
Since being sold, the men’s team has consistently failed to deliver on the pitch, while the sporting directors play a game of EA FC and buy all the youngsters they can off the pitch. To cap it all off, the much-hyped stadium issue is stuck in the same mud as always.
The purchase of Strasbourg and interest in acquiring other teams was supposed to be a step in replicating what Manchester City have. Notice a common thread there by the way. But to date, there’s only been one other team bought that housed two loan players, one of which took months to even break into the first eleven. Even something as simple as the multi-club model appears to be beyond BlueCo who signed Caleb Wiley for Chelsea and not Strasbourg, despite his nonexistent chances of breaking into the lineup.
If things don’t change quickly, the tides will turn on Clearlake and their appointed staff. Failure at a team like Chelsea won’t be tolerated by the fanbase for very long and while the higher-ups have so far skirted most of the blame, there’s no doubt they’ll be facing the fire if the side underperforms for another season.
