Chelsea Can’t Buy Their Way Out Of Their Current Predicament

Chelsea Can’t Buy Their Way Out Of Their Current Predicament

James Caughlin

It feels weird to say that we are only three years removed from Chelsea being crowned champions of Europe considering what has happened to the London powerhouse club since then.

Compare that to this weekend just gone by as they began a new Premier League campaign at their one-time fortress of Stamford Bridge with a 2-0 loss to the reigning champions Manchester City.

Quite a lot has changed at the club between those two fixtures, most notably former owner Roman Abramovich was outed because… well we don’t need to go too far down that rabbit hole.

American businessman Todd Boehly bought the club for £4.25bn in May 2022 and it’s fair to say his time in charge has not exactly stabilised things the way many Blues fans were hoping for.

His first season in charge saw the club finish 12th in the Premier League, their worst top flight campaign since 1993-1994.

Their last campaign ended with the club finishing in sixth on the back of an impressive run home, combined with an FA Cup Semi Final appearance and Carabao Cup runners up medals.

But this is Chelsea, a club that expects to be competing for silverware, not being happy with small steps forward, just go back and find the TV cameras capturing the sour look on Boehly’s face during any number of their losses.

In an era where many owners of football clubs get criticised for not spending on their side, Boehly is certainly not guilty of cheaping out.

During the 2022-2023 season transfer windows, Chelsea brought in 20 players including: Raheem Sterling (£47.5m), Kaliiou Koulibaly (£33m) Marc Cucurella (£60m), Wesley Fofana (£75m), Benoit Badiashile (£35m), Mykhailo Mudryk (£62m), Noni Madueke (£29m), Malo Gusto (£26.3m) and Enzo Fernandez (£106.7m).

For most club’s that’s about three seasons worth of spending.

But the following year they doubled down by signing another 12 players including: Nicolas Jackson (£32m), Christopher Nkunku (£52m), Axel Disasi (£38.8m), Robert Sanchez (£25m), Moises Caicedo (£100m), Romeo Lavia (£53m) and Cole Palmer (£40m).

You don’t need a calculator to realise that is the equivalent to one metric crap-load of money to spend on a bunch of guys whose job involves running and kicking a ball.

Admittedly the net spend is somewhat levelled out by the sales of Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic to premier League rivals and brought in approximately £145m between them, although they have sent more than that to Brighton alone for three players.

If that wasn’t enough, Kovacic came back to haunt them on the weekend with this run for the game sealing goal.

You might think that some lessons would be learned by those in charge in West London, maybe just spending oodles of cash and adding more players is not the adequate solution.

Of course some lessons take a bit longer to get through than others.

With a couple of weeks left in the transfer window (at publish), the Blues have signed another nine players for their team, six have gone for ten-figure transfer fees and the top three are goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen (£20.7m), midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£30m) and most recently oft-injured attacker Pedro Neto (£51.3m).

Just like last year that expenditure has been offset by over £80m in sales, but it still has not solved the problem of Chelsea’s bloated squad.

All up there are 44 players listed as part of the first team on the Chelsea website, not including the 11 players out on loan.

So how exactly did it get to this point where they are dealing with almost three full sets of teams battling for 11 starting spots and five sub roles?

Well the answer to that question is also the answer to the one posed about 600 words ago, how did one of football’s most powerful clubs fall apart so quickly?

It’s really quite simple: the managers.

The fact that answer encompasses several different names shows where the Blues most need stability.

It’s a tired old cliché, but a new manager will want to put their own stamp on the squad and when you’ve had half a dozen different guys take charge of at least one fixture, it makes it hard to build any sort of identity.

German boss Thomas Tuchel was in charge when the Blues won the Champions League but barely three months later he departed the Blues in September 2022… right after that first massive spending spree.

Graham Potter was next in line and he could not even see out that season, removed from duty after 206 days in charge in April 2023… after spending over £200m during the January transfer window.

You can give a pass to caretaker boss Bruno Saltor who was in charge for one match and even Frank Lampard who came in as the interim to see out the remainder of 2022-2023.

July 1, 2023 saw Mauricio Pochettino come in and the high hopes were drastically lowered following a horrific start to the season.

But there were signs of improvement in the run home, losing just once in the final 12 matchweeks to climb out of the bottom half of the table and earn a spot in Europe for this coming season.

If nothing else, that should have given the Chelsea faithful cause for optimism ahead of the second season with the Argentine boss in charge.

But just when things were looking up, Pochettino left the club “by mutual consent” following the conclusion of the campaign, leaving them searching for an eighth permanent manager in six seasons.

Up steps Enzo Marcesca in what is just his third senior managerial role, having most recently steered Leicester to promotion.

As a disciple of Pep Guardiola, having two stints as part of the staff at Manchester City before taking over at Leicester, the Italian might just be the right man to steer Chelsea back towards a title challenge.

But first and foremost, he needs time.

It’s clear that the financial support is there from up top, but an understanding of just how damn tough it is to knock City off their perch at the moment needs to go hand in hand with that (just ask another former Guardiola apprentice in Mikel Arteta).

Even finishing in the top four, something that was once automatic for the Blues in the glory days of Jose Mourinho is no sure thing with Tottenham, Aston Villa and even Brighton all proving themselves worthy challengers for a spot in the Champions League.

Chelsea are far from the first club to fall into the trap of expecting immediate results from a new coach before moving on too quickly, but until they break that cycle, they are going to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Before they can become title challengers, they need to find a true identity and that will come from allowing a manager time to put his stamp on the squad both in terms of style and substance.

That means finding ways to offload the players who have no future at the club, even if it means taking some sort of short term hit on the balance sheet.

Best case scenario for Chelsea, this time next season we are talking about them as proper title contenders, but it will require restraint and clear thinking, rather than impulse buying, otherwise it will be more of the same.