The elimination of Chelsea yesterday in the quarter-finals of the Champions League will not have surprised many people. Beaten 2-0 in the first leg in Madrid, the London team did not make the weight on the return and lost by the same score. The Blues have only 7 league games to play, including three clashes against Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City, before the curtain goes down. It will be a question of quickly drawing a line under this season, which will have been a real fiasco from start to finish. Since the arrival of Todd Boehly a year ago, the club has continued to sink. And other problems are still to be solved for next year.
Already on the bench. The ouster of Thomas Tuchel, winner of the Champions League in 2021 when Chelsea were not at their best after the first Lampard period, allowed Graham Potter to try his hand at this level of requirement. He took the Blues to 6th place in the Premier League and left them six months later in 10th place, already far too far from European places. Lampard returned as a temporary worker, having just been sacked by Everton after an 8-game losing streak. Here he is already at 4 consecutive defeats. This is a first in 118 years for a club manager.
More than €600m spent, 32 players used
The former Chelsea legend will no longer be on the bench at the start of the school year. If the Champions League left him a very small possibility of shining to keep the job, elimination this week put an end to this hope. For the rest, it is still the big blur. A time tipped as a favourite, Luis Enrique was joined and even overtaken according to The Telegraph by Mauricio Pochettino, Julian Nagelsmann and even Ruben Amorim. Whatever the identity of the next coach, the construction site is titanic. It will be necessary to manage a completely disunited and overloaded locker room after the 360 M€ invested in new recruits this winter.
Athlete management is a resounding hiccup. Chelsea had already spent €315m last summer. In all, 32 players have been used this season, including 16 who had never before walked on a Premier League pitch. Such a workforce obliges to satisfy a maximum of elements. Between the starting compositions and the substitutions during the matches, Sky Sports counted 112 team changes in the league. That’s 24 more than any other club. A quasi-imposed turnover, under penalty of making people unhappy, which does not create continuity. This is also what Thiago Silva criticized in his statements.
An unmanageable locker room
There are too many people to make a team. Finding the right balance without putting the economic future of the Blues will not be easy, especially as another problem backwards is brewing. The return of loaned players. They are 22 to have been sent all over Europe to regain playing time. Some weigh more than others. We obviously think of Romelu Lukaku, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ethan Ampadu, Levi Colwill or Malang Sarr, to which were added the players bought this winter and immediately left on loan in their club like Malo Gusto and Andrey Santos. A real time bomb for the future coach.
Since the departure of Marina Granoskaia, Todd Boehly has taken on the role of sports director, while waiting to find the right person for this position. This should not necessarily reassure London supporters because it is clear that the failure is complete. Chelsea have only collected 39 points in 31 games and are 17 points from a place in the Champions League. Barring a miracle, the Blues will not play in continental competition next year. There will therefore be no need for a plethoric workforce, forcing an even more massive degreasing. Despite Chelsea’s power, the future looks very bleak.
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