Of all the tragicomic moments Chelsea have endured this season, particular derision should be reserved for the 57th minute of their 2-1 loss to Brighton. It signaled the most expensive substitution in Premier League history, with Enzo Fernandez (£107m), Wesley Fofana (£70m), Raheem Sterling (£47.5m) and Christian Pulisic (£57m) those replaced.
Whether assessed just on the basis of their insipid performances, or alongside the fact the Seagulls had built their entire squad for well under half that outlay, this was a true Blue nadir.
Those changes also made Hakim Ziyech the 22nd different player Frank Lampard has used in his three games back in charge – as many as Manchester City have used in the league this season. Chelsea’s seemingly interminable player pool gives each manager a litany of new and inventive ways to try and fail to save the club, to degrade both their own reputations and that of each unfortunate player.
An attacking triad of Sterling, Pulisic and Mykhailo Mudryk had never been utilised before for good reason. No-one has watched Kai Havertz’s travails in front of goal and thought “I reckon this team needs to try even less of a recognised striker as a No 9” except for Lampard.
That Chelsea managed to score their first goal 387 minutes was down to a Brighton lapse and lucky deflection. They were outgunned, outpassed, outfought and outfoxed by the model student for football club organisation.
Of course, little to none of the blame should fall on the shoulders of Thomas Tuchel, or Graham Potter, or Frank Lampard, or even the unfortunate Bruno Saltor, but on those of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
There are plenty more names involved in Clearlake Capital’s ownership of the club, but Boehly and Eghbali’s efforts to make themselves so public and so involved, are part of the problem.
Football club owners, like Victorian children, should be seen and not heard, and ideally not often seen. Boehly being photographed exchanging choice words with fans mid-game is just the latest in a line of gaffes and genuine failings from a man so arrogant he appointed himself sporting director on arrival.
Let’s call this what it is – egregious mismanagement. Boehly and Eghbali are the lottery winners who splurged their fortunes on Bugattis, champagne magnums and Enzo Fernandez. Now they are left alone in a mansion with talking toilets and gold wallpaper when they can’t even pay for the electricity.
Supported by Chelsea’s historic success, the assumption lingers that the club’s next decision will be the right one, that parity will naturally be restored after some bad luck.
Yet there remains no evidence that will be the case or that those in charge possess the common philosophy or know-how to right this listing supertanker. Boehly’s masterplan so far has been to lob copious amounts of excrement at the wall and hope some sticks. Stamford Bridge appears to have very slippery walls.
Lampard’s side are 10 points away from the European places and 24 hours from a likely Champions League exit to Real Madrid. Clubs often look at a season without European football as an opportunity to rebuild and focus on the league, to take advantage of fresh legs and more training time.
Yet this will not be the case for Chelsea, who will have a 40-strong first-team squad once loanees return. Remember Tiamoue Bakayoko and Baba Rahman? Both are still on the books until 2024. The group ideally needs halving by September, which simply isn’t going to happen, with 15 players on five-plus-year contracts.
This leaves the domestic schedule to find enough game-time to satisfy each of the 40 disparate egos at Stamford Bridge, to convince each that they are special little angels. This will likely remove significant agency from the incoming manager and leave the squad constantly teetering on near full-scale revolt.
The 11 games Lampard will oversee would have provided a long-term manager the perfect opportunity to assess the squad and shape it to their will ahead of the summer, to influence the necessary outgoings. This is now unlikely to be the case, and the impossibility of the task ahead has been exposed for exactly what it is.
Graham Potter’s greatest strength was that he wasn’t another ego to mollycoddle, but a balanced force amid the chaos. The new manager will need to be both sufficiently self-aggrandizing to view the current situation and believe they can fix it, but also work alongside co-sporting directors Lawrence Stewart and Paul Winstanley and technical director Christopher Vivell.
Whether they exist, and whether Boehly and co could even identify them if they do, remains to be seen.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/wg1DkNQ
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