Chelsea FC spent more than 600 million euros on new players this season. But the Blues are racing into nothing – and in the Champions League on Wednesday evening (9 p.m. / live ticker at sportschau.de) Real Madrid are waiting for the quarter-final first leg.
A look at two team rosters and the associated coaching staff shows how you manage to tear down everything that has brought you to the top of European football within just under two years. On May 29, 2021, Thomas Tuchel was sitting on the Chelsea FC bench when the triumph in the premier class was achieved at the Estadio do Dragao in Porto with a tactically and mentally outstanding performance: 1-0 against the superstars of Manchester City with Pep Guardiola, it was a sensation because Tuchel had taken over the team in ninth place in the Premier League just four months earlier.
The starting XI included the three German internationals Kai Havertz, who scored the winning goal, Timo Werner and Antonio Rüdiger. The goal was guarded by Edouard Mendy, Jorginho and N’Golo Kanté held the midfield together, the defense was made up of Rüdiger, César Azpilicueta and Thiago Silva, who was replaced by Andreas Christensen after his injury in the first half.
Two coaches fired, fall in eleventh place
Of the players that Tuchel had one at the time “incomprehensible will” and “great willingness to suffer” confirmed, there were only two left in the starting XI at Wolverhampton Wanderers last Saturday (April 8th, 2023): Havertz and Reece James. Frank Lampard, who had been fired before Tuchel due to lack of success and allegedly poor training quality, was surprisingly again on the bench. Lampard now came for Graham Potter, who despite a five-year contract with an annual salary of more than 20 million euros is already history at Chelsea.
Rüdiger, who is now playing for upcoming opponents Real Madrid, is also history, as is Christensen (FC Barcelona), Werner (RB Leipzig), Jorginho (FC Arsenal) and Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan). What they have in common is that when they left, they brought either nothing or very little income. Werner was by far the most expensive departure at 20 million euros.
Little income, horrendous expenses
Otherwise, 20 million is not worth mentioning for the consortium around US billionaire Todd Boehly. Roman Abramovich’s successor as owner of the club has spent money in his short tenure as if he urgently needs to empty some accounts: even moderately well-known middle-class players like Malo Gusto from Olympique Lyon cost 30 million, Noni Madueke (PSV Einhoven) 35 million, Benoit Badiashile (AS Monaco) and Kalidou Koulibaly (SSC Napoli) 38 million each. Boehli had an unbelievable 65.3 million transferred to Brighton for curly left-back Marc Cucurella, 80 million for Leicester’s central defender Wesley Fofana, then another 247 (!) million in total for the trio of Enzo Fernández (Benfica), Mykhaylo Mudryk (Donetsk) and Raheem Sterling (Man City).
The balance of the seemingly chaotic current transfer year is minus 542.66 million euros. In the Premier League, Chelsea fell to eleventh place after losing at 13th Wolverhampton and will probably miss a European competition. In the English FA Cup it was already over in the third round after a 0:4 loss at Manchester City.
Julian Nagelsmann candidate for the coming season
So Chelsea would have to win the Champions League in order to be represented internationally in the coming season with all the expensive top stars, including Atletico loanee Joao Felix. But it is hardly to be expected that this formation of eleven individual players will survive a quarter-final against Real Madrid: The royals have won this competition five times in the past nine years and just played FC Barcelona 4-0 in the domestic cup competition.
Despite the nice words of welcome on his comeback, it is clear that Frank Lampard will not be the permanent solution in the minds of Chelsea bosses: “We are delighted to welcome Frank back to Stamford Bridge. Frank is a legend in the Premier League and a legend at this club.” The desired solution is said to have been Julian Nagelsmann, who was said to be not ready for the next ejection seat so shortly after his release in Munich – the world could look different in the summer.
Where are the blues going?
Should Nagelsmann seriously deal with this challenge, he will probably first ask himself about the idea, about the philosophy of this club. So far, Boehly has only been trying to attract expensive celebrities, and there is no sporting line: while the midfield around Mateo Kovacic and Enzo Fernández is focused on control and possession of the ball, strikers like Mudryk, Joao Felix and Havertz stand for quick switching and lightning counterattacks.
A strong central striker has been missing completely since Lukaku’s departure. Chelsea have only scored 29 goals in 30 league games, Erling Haaland is one goal better. Top-scorer Kai Havertz is 25th in the top-scorer list with seven successful completions, followed by Sterling in 48th with four.
Rüdiger doesn’t know what to expect
Antonio Rüdiger nevertheless warns his colleagues against underestimating his former club. “It’s not the team I played for anymore. It’s changed a lot and I don’t really know what to expect”, said the Real central defender. Chelsea have many professionals of high individual quality and be “unpredictable“.
Lampard tries to encourage his ensemble with a look at history and recalls the success story of 2012, when he fought his way into the final as a midfield driver with the Blues as a blatant outsider – and ended up defeating Bayern Munich in the “Dahoam” final. “A team will always go through difficult moments to get to great moments”said Lampard. And Chelsea are now very familiar with difficult moments.