Chelsea uncomfortable on the outside, looking in
These are odd weeks for Chelsea; weeks that are as horrifically uncomfortable as the 3- 0 defeat away by Arsenal last weekend; weeks when they have to endure not being in the Champions League.
It is an unusual experience in that it is the first and — they hope — only campaign under Roman Abramovich’s ownership when they have been bumped off the top table while others feast. But there is a fear that already it is not a one- off.
Abramovich, a Russian billionaire, acquired a football club for big midweek nights in Barcelona, Madrid and Munich. Not watching while others prepare to make those trips.
Chelsea are about winning. It is why Abramovich brought Jose Mourinho back in 2013. After three years without a Premier League title, and despite the misgivings of some, he told those close to him: “I just want to win again.”
And Mourinho did that, before last season’s meltdown which has left Antonio Conte picking up the pieces.
The Italian will have had time to work the players this week at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground — and he will work them hard — because they are not involved in European competition.
That will hurt Abramovich even if he knows that the landscape of the Premier League has changed since he arrived in 2003 and altered it so dramatically himself.
At that time, the then Arsenal vicechairman, David Dein, memorably spoke of Abramovich parking “his tanks in our front garden and firing £ 50 notes at us”. Fifty million pounds, in fact, which is believed to be the fee that Dein turned down for Thierry Henry.
Times changed again when Sheikh Mansour decided that he wanted to buy into the Premier League, with Abramovich dispatching his trusted lieutenant, Eugene Tenenbaum, to ascertain whether the Abu Dhabi investment was here to stay or whether the newcomers would be a flash in the pan. He was dismayed to hear it was the former.
Abramovich will also have seen the money flow in from the United States, and how the Chinese want to invest heavily in the league, and how the new television deals have strengthened the buying power of all the clubs, and he will know that his financial supremacy has gone forever.
If that is the bigger picture, it does not mean that Chelsea cannot be competitive on the pitch. The club surely should have the advantage of all that Abramovich investment for the past decade, eventually reaping a dividend under the right coach.
But Conte is no magician. Structurally, he has done all the right things since he arrived at Chelsea, and staff have been impressed by his methods, his professionalism and his passion.
But already, after thumping defeats at home by Liverpool and away by Arsenal, Chelsea look like a team in transition.
Evidently the defence is the major problem, which will frustrate Conte, given he identified that when talks opened with Chelsea. A quick crunch of the numbers shows that they have the oldest back four among the “big six”, with an average age of 30.75. It is bumped up by the injured 35- year- old John Terry but, quite frankly, he is their best defender. It is the only defence with an average age of more than 30.
Questions continue to be asked about Chelsea’s buying and selling and who i s taking control of that. There may be a brighter future but that will not happen until next season. It already feels like a campaign in which Chelsea will struggle to make the top four.
And a second season outside the Champions League would be very hard to take for Abramovich.