As I write this, Chelsea FC, the mighty Blues of West London currently sit 10th in the Premier League table, below the likes of Fulham and Brighton(ironically for Potter), and are out of both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. And they have done this all the while looking absolutely clueless on the pitch in terms of what they want to do. So how has it come to this, and will the future be better?
The Change of Owners
With the ruthless Abramovich gone, Todd Bohley is the club's helm. And the American hasn't done a good job so far. Sacking Tuchel after the season went underway, which was after Chelsea signed a bunch of players he wanted, was a big mistake.
Bringing in Graham Potter at that time, when everyone knows he is a manager that takes time to implement his philosophy was a bigger blunder. Potter in charge, with no pre-season and a squad of players that he didn't build, you can see the start of a disaster building there.
A Full Hospital Ward
Chelsea currently has 10 first-team squad members that are injured, which include the likes of Ngolo Kante, Reece James and Raheem Sterling among others. With such a long list of injuries, Potter, who was already playing it safe due to having no pre-season with the players, is left with a squad that is full of either inexperienced or out-of-form players. This means, he will have to play even more safely, which allows opposition teams to take advantage quickly and easily.
Disasterous Recruitment
Chelsea has always been known to spend a lot of cash on a lot of players, most of which might work only for a few seasons before either falling out of favour, form or falling out with the club. But since the transfer ban, almost every player Chelsea has recruited has failed to make an impact. Except for Thiago Silva, Edouard Mendy and perhaps Kai Havertz, all the other players have laughably failed at the club. And most of those that left after that, have done very well for themselves.
It remains to be seen whether or not Potter can bring out the best in all the signings made all summer and this January. But it isn’t looking all that well. At this point, it looks like Todd Bohley is looking at players that are making a name for themselves and just going after them, like Enzo Fernandes.
A Failed Cobham Experiment
Chelsea’s academy was known as one of the best, if not the best in the country. However, Abramovich and the string of managers he appointed very rarely trusted any of the graduates from there if any at all. He famously sent a large amount of them on loan every year, waiting to see if anyone did exceptionally well. That changed with the coming of Frank Lampard and the transfer ban. Chelsea was forced to work with their academy players and found a few gems, or so they thought.
Over the years, these gems, with perhaps the exception of Reece James, have just become mediocre squad players that take up money and space in the team. Mason Mount is a prime example of it. While a player with great attributes in most areas, he has specialization in any position, making him extremely useful for any new manager initially, but utterly useless after that. There are many other players like that, with potential for greatness that somehow they are nowhere near achieving. Either Cobham isn’t as good as we thought or Chelsea doesn’t know how to develop players in the first team.
__________________________________________________ what do Potter and Chelsea do? Well, the only answer right now is to wait. Wait till things settle down and players are back from the injury crisis. And hopefully, not make the situation worse by then\ Potter is using the January window to get in players that he wants. Perhaps by using them, he can whip up a system that saves Chelsea and gets them a Europa League spot at the very least. And with them going out early in the cups, they can utilise the extra time to train in Potter’s mysterious ways.
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