If there was a book called: Recruitment, How not to do it, these Chelsea owners would be the authors. Their so-called vision is a confusing mess
TI WOULD have put my house on Manchester City beating Wigan Athletic in the 2013 FA Cup final only for Ben Watson to score the winner. You’d never have then anticipated Wigan knocking out City again in the sixth round the following year. I can only see a City win today against Manchester United. But cup surprises do crop up to remind you of the old adage — never apply logic to football matches.
HERE’S no doubt that Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly have been listening to the wrong people since the day they walked into Chelsea.
I’m not sure they even listen to each other.
It has been clear from day one in 2022 that the co-owners have been getting the wrong advice over recruitment. Now they are in a position where, after parting with Mauricio Pochettino and with just over £1billion spent on players — plus more to come – they are looking to appoint their sixth man in two years to run the team at Stamford Bridge.
I’ll say it until I am blue in the face: recruitment is the most important part of running a football club. But if there was book written, recruitment: how not to do it, Chelsea would be the authors. I’m not sure what roles the sporting directors Paul
Winstanley and Laurence Stewart play but, in search of nirvana, these owners have had their pants pulled down when it comes to the money they have spent.
There is a premium to pay if you are a ‘Big Six’ team from the Premier League and more so if you are chasing the Champions League. But there’s been no common sense applied here.
When the Clearlake Capital consortium took over Chelsea, chairman Bruce Buck, chief executive Marina Granovskaia and technical adviser Petr Cech all left. They should have been pressed to stay at the club and help the new owners on their learning curve. But this group seem to think they know everything. Former owner Roman Abramovich listened to the wrong people at first but he was a quick learner.
These guys are talking about coaches not sharing their football vision. We are also hearing names such as Kieran McKenna, Enzo Maresca and Thomas Frank suggested to replace Pochettino.
The boardroom has been so unpredictable in applying that football vision so far that you couldn’t guess who they would pick. And, regardless of the qualities of these so-called up-and-coming managers, in the modern game, their appointment is still secondary to identifying the right players.
Chelsea paid a combined £221million for Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, who haven’t gelled as a midfield pairing. Yet they want to sell their captain Conor Gallagher.
Talking at a recent forum in Qatar, Boehly spoke about building a young team and said: ‘I would argue that the investments that we’ve made continue to hold their value, and really we’re not spending the money, we’re investing the money.’ Well, let’s see. Time will tell if ‘investing’ should be replaced by ‘blowing’ all that money.
Chelsea fans are used to success. They want it next season, they wanted it last season. They don’t want it in five years’ time. And on current evidence, there aren’t many players the hierarchy have bought who you would take on that five-year journey, with the exception of Cole Palmer.
It’s even too early to class him as a great player. The challenge is for Palmer is to replicate this season for the next decade.
They’ve kidded themselves that their impressive end-of-season results are indicative of progress. End-of-season wins never give you a true picture, as some of the opposition are already dreaming of being on a beach.
Whoever comes in, don’t be fooled. The problems are still very much there.