Chelsea have spent £274m on new players and changing coaches since the end of last season, but somehow they have made their team worse. Those are some of the achievements of the club’s new owners, a consortium headed by partial owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Todd Boehly. But at least for now, it is coach Graham Potter who is under fire for his poor results and unattractive performances.
That’s the way it’s always been, and Potter, who are eighth in the Premier League, are seven points behind fourth place Manchester United, will have no illusions that his fate will always be directly related to results on the pitch. Right now, the results are terrible (two wins in seven, including four losses) and with two games against City of Manchester this week — in the Premier League and FA Cup — it could get much worse before it gets better.
When Potter arrived from Brighton as the successor to the sacked Thomas Tuchel in September, the Chelsea hierarchy, led by co-owner Boehly, sold him their vision of a new Chelsea. It is a club that will look long-term and plan accordingly, will adopt a more collective approach and allow the bright young coach time to apply his methods to the team.
Roman Abramovich’s old Chelsea, which saw coaches hired and fired regularly as they won major trophies, seems to be a thing of the past. But perhaps that idea is as naive as Chelsea’s recruitment since the change of owners. That innocence is now starting to make Potter’s job a whole lot more difficult. The 47-year-old is struggling to overcome the challenge of leading a club as big as Chelsea and he needs help, but he is not the only one to learn from his work at Stamford Bridge.
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Boehly has personally overseen Chelsea’s player recruitment and coach changes since taking control of the club in the summer, and even his most avid fan will have a hard time. when he thinks the team is in a better position after six months he’s in charge.
Recent recruitment of former employees RB Leipzig Technical director Christopher Vivell takes on a similar role at Chelsea that should bring expertise to the football department, but for now, Potter is still facing the problem Boehly has tackled: an unbalanced squad. with too many defenders and despair. lack of scorers. The manager can be blamed for not getting many of his players to achieve the desired results, but it can be argued that he would have signed many of them in the first place.
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Mark Ogden is worried about Chelsea’s season after a disappointing 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest.
In a 1-1 draw at Forest of Nottingham on Sunday, Chelsea looked like a team that was assembled without a coherent plan or strategy. And that’s not far from reality.
Potter has nothing to do with the club losing Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen as free agent to Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively in the summer. Boehly was also powerless to prevent defenders from leaving the club, but the new owners have accepted the £97.5m striker’s departure on loan. Lukaku to Inter Milan and Timo Werner£25m permanent return for RB Leipzig. That left Chelsea without a recognized goalscorer until a last-minute decision to sign the 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for £10m from Barcelona at the end of the summer transfer window.
Boehly also oversaw a £171m spend on defenders Kalidou Koulibaly (33 million pounds), Marc Cucurella (63 million pounds) and Wesley Fofana (£75m) after kicking off his regimen with the £47.5m signing England winger Raheem Sterling from Man City.
The club are now hoping to sign RB Leipzig Christopher Nkunku and defender Josko Gvardiolalthough sources say Chelsea have agreed a £32m deal Recruiting a 21-year-old midfielder Benoit Badiashile from Monaco. They are also preparing to activate 21 years old Enzo Fernandez£106 million release clause at Benfica after Argentina midfielder in the World Cup.
Under Boehly, Chelsea overpaid for the majority of their signings, and none of them did enough to justify the money spent. All of the above suggests that a new owner is playing fantasy football rather than a club with a clear strategy of what is needed in the transfer market. So far, Potter has kept a dignified silence on player details, but with Chelsea on a goal difference of +2 and Sterling and Kai Havertz With their top scorers in the Premier League with just four each, it’s clear where Chelsea’s priorities should lie in the January transfer window.
Potter has been hired to coach the team and delegate the recruitment of players, so he will have to work with what he has and what his superiors believe he needs. But there are too many question marks about this Chelsea squad and too many players who are not performing. Potter bears some responsibility for that, and he simply has to do better with the tools available, but his bosses need to do better, too.
Football is inundated with clubs and owners who think throwing money at a problem is the fastest way to success, but the successful ones are often the ones getting value for money with smart contracts. , not expensive contracts. Potter will certainly pay the price if Chelsea don’t learn that lesson, but he won’t take full responsibility if things don’t go well for him at Stamford Bridge.
