Chelsea FC is fighting against decline. There are several reasons for the crisis – a lot also has to do with the major renovations ordered by the new club management.
The stadiums of Chelsea FC and Fulham FC are just two kilometers apart. In the Premier League table, too, there is currently not much separating the two clubs from West London: there are only three points before the direct duel on Thursday evening (01/11/2023). The fact that Chelsea are three points behind their small neighbors from Fulham is likely “Blues”who count themselves among Europe’s football nobility, see it as an absolute impertinence.
After just one win in eight games, Chelsea have slipped to tenth place in the Premier League – closer to bottom Southampton than leaders Arsenal. Up to the Champions League ranks, actually the ancestral home of the club, the gap is already ten points.
Defenseless Chelsea vs City: “Absolutely unacceptable”
The 4-0 defeat in the FA Cup against Manchester City last Sunday marked the preliminary low point in Chelsea’s downward slide. Especially the performance in the first half, when Chelsea looked defenseless and didn’t manage a single shot on goal “embarrassing, pathetic, absolutely unacceptable”judged England’s storm idol Alan Shearer, known as an expert at the BBC for his equally well-founded and unsparing analyses.
Chelsea believed that the worst was over with the takeover by the new owners around the US investor Todd Boehly in early summer 2022. Previously, the sanctions against long-time club patron and Kremlin intimate Roman Abramovich had brought the club to the brink of incapacity. Quite a few had at the Stamford Bridge jubilant after Boehly’s arrival: The manager has had some success with the clubs he has managed in US sport, with squad planning often touted as innovative, which is mainly based on data-driven player analysis.
Major conversion under new owner Boehly
At Chelsea, however, Boehly’s management style was more reminiscent of the old management: first a quarter of a million pounds was spent on new players in the summer, a new record even for the traditionally generous club. Then Thomas Tuchel was chased from the farm shortly after the start of the season: the coach who took over the team in January 2021, then in a similarly disoriented state as now, and led to the Champions League triumph in just over four months.
Graham Potter, who was considered Boehly’s preferred candidate, came in for Tuchel. And Chelsea’s new boss pushed ahead with the major restructuring in other respects as well: almost all positions in management and in the sporting staff were filled, most recently two more scouts left who were responsible for talent scouting in Europe.
Global club empire – and also a new stadium?
Boehly’s big goal, the Guardian reports among others, is to build a global club empire at Chelsea, along the lines of the “City Football Group” of the rival from Manchester: With club branches in South America or in Portugal, which should supply the headquarters at Stamford Bridge with well-developed talents , a completely new stadium for 60,000 spectators in Earl’s Court is also under discussion.
Tuchel chants from the Chelsea fans
But this is all pie in the sky, the present looks all the more dreary. Coach Potter, who previously built amazing things at Brighton with comparatively few resources, has yet to prove that he can also take a big team forward. In the debacle against City, the coach had to listen to chants from his own fans, who wished predecessor Tuchel back. There is already speculation in the British media about how much patience the executive floor will have with the coach.
It is above all the squad that is in need of renovation, seems to be showing its age and no longer meets the high standards. Especially on the offensive, which the newly committed Raheem Sterling could not revive. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is already the next failed striker, after 110 million men Romelu Lukaku. Kai Havertz is still the most accurate offensive man in the “Blues” in the league – with four goals.
Chelsea coach Potter: “The whole club is suffering”
In addition, there are the many failures and fitness problems of important players such as N’Golo Kante, Reece James or Ben Chilwell, whose power and stability are visibly lacking in the team. “I can understand the frustration of the fans”said Coach Potter after the cup defeat. “The whole club is suffering at the moment. But this is our situation and we have to accept it now.” A win at Craven Cottage would at least put them back on par with their Fulham neighbors.