Chelsea’s Chaotic Season: Unraveling the Disastrous Campaign and the Search for Stability

Now that the international break is over, the Premier League buzz resumes as excitement builds for the new season. A lot of the focus will be on Chelsea as they look to recover from their worst season in almost 30 years. Already back dominating the back pages with their transfer activity, the coming promise to be hectic for the Blues, but before looking ahead, it’s important to address what has been a disastrous campaign.

A lot has happened in SW6 over the past 12 months, making it difficult for casual observers to assess the situation. There have been many half-baked opinions and criticism, such as calling Thomas Tuchel’s sacking ridiculous or branding chairman Todd Boehly as an American idiot. So I’m here to give the definitive lowdown on Chelsea’s long and messy season…

Let’s go back to last summer when Clearlake Capital, the consortium led by Boehly, won the selection process to buy Chelsea. For most fans, it was a relief after months of uncertainty regarding the ckub’s fate due to the sanctions imposed on former owner Roman Abramovich. When it came to Boehly and co, supporters were divided — like a group of kids, separated from their guardians who could no longer be trusted to look after them and were placed under the care of a new set of parents. Naturally, some clamoured to be back in Abramovich’s arms, looking at the past 20 years through rose-tinted glasses. Of course, the club has lots to be grateful, having reached the pinnacle of football by winning every trophy available to them. Yet those memories paper over the cracks that have stopped Chelsea being a juggernaut in the league, falling behind the likes of Manchester City and, to a lesser extent, Arsenal and Liverpool, and instead becoming a team that can only truly compete in cup competitions thanks to tactical masterclasses by the coaches.

I know it sounds snobby — fans of most clubs would do anything for any kind of silverware. This level of success is acceptable to many Chelsea supporters too, but it relied on quick fixes which usually involving sacking one manager and bringing in someone else to galvanise the squad and deliver in the short term. That means paying ridiculous amounts in compensation to sack and buy out coaches at the drop of a hat. This approach prioritised instant results from all incoming managers and prevented sustained development in the men’s first-team setup, which was reflected in the recent poor recent track-record with transfers — how many of Chelsea’s big-money signings really worked out over Abramovich’s final 10 years?

In other words, it’s not surprising that the new board wanted to approach things differently. As such, when Clearlake took over, their first decision was to remove the interim staff who were meant to oversee the transition, leading to a lack of football expertise within the new board. Certainly a risk given the lack of football knowhow among Clearlake’s ranks.

The preseason US tour — just weeks after the likes of Marina Granovskia and Petr Cech left — didn’t inspire confidence, with a series disjointed performances including a 4–0 loss against Arsenal and a string of injuries being picked up by key players. In star-man Reece James’s case, he never truly recovered all season. The Premier League campaign started with a similarly dismal performance against Everton, narrowly won thanks to a Jorginho penalty. Thankfully everyone was more fired up for a heated game at the Bridge against Spurs — a match that ultimately ended in a draw — but that was followed by back-to-back away defeats to now-relegated Southampton and Leeds, as well as a frustrating encounter with Leicester City.

Despite notable additions to the squad, such as Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly, the on-field issues persisted from the previous season persisted. Last summer’s transfer policy came under due criticism, with the lack of senior football personnel in the building leading to a scattergun approach which did resemble someone playing Football Manager for the first time. Of course, Tuchel is a coach who has managed at the very highest level, but when Boehly and co-owner Behdad Eghbali approached him to discuss transfer plans, the German told him that he did not want to be involved and rather just stick to the coaching players.

This must have hardly been helpful for the board, who had to continue going about business alone, which naturally meant they were going to be ripped off by some parties (I’m looking at you, Barca). It might have been accepted, if things were going well on the pitch, but clearly the slump that had started before the summer showed no signs of stopping. Lots of former attacking talents like Kai Havertz, Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic showing no signs of progress under Tuchel’s leadership. Rumours of some rather unsavoury behaviour also risked throwing the club into disrepute. With the situation heading south, Clearlake acted to try and steer the ship in the direction they wished to be headed.

In steps Graham Potter. Appointed in a matter of hours after Tuchel’s exit, the decision seemed obvious to the Americans — the Englishman received great plaudits for his work with Brighton over three seasons. The only glaring gap on his CV was a lack of experience competing in top-level European football posed a risk. The board hoped that Potter could whip the squad into shape, seemingly prepared to be bold and happy to wait for results, hoping that the patience shown to the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta by their chairmen would pay dividends with Potter.

Yet it seems all parties underestimated the scale of the mess inherited from Abramovich and exacerbated by their own summer spending. Put bluntly, on Saturday afternoon, the dressing ground was more crammed with sweaty geezers than the Tube to Fulham Broadway.

I won’t spend too long reflecting on his tenure as its story is a relatively simple one. The long and short of it is that it was a bit too much too soon for poor (well, not financially) Graham . Managing huge squads well is a sign of an elite manager — but Potter, being the character he is, seemed keener to keep everyone happy with gametime than consistently fielding the best XI capable of beating the opposition. Pep Guardiola tinkers in a similar way, but Potter sadly could not cast the same spell nor command such trust from many of Chelsea’s senior internationals.

It was a decisiveness, sticking to largely the same personnel that saved brought him back from the brink following February’s home defeat against Southampton to March’s second-leg comeback against Dortmund in the UCL, the highlight of the season. Yet, after making decent progress in that period he shot himself in the foot by tinkering too much in back-to-back league matches against Everton and Aston Villa, which ended up being his final game in charge.

It might have made sense to have a more experienced head to lead the dressing room during this turbulent period to sort out the deadwood, but Boehly wanted to kickstart a new era and it is likely that most managers would have faced the same issues. Fans needed to understand that the club is trying to run itself more sustainably and cannot be chasing instant success forever. However, the board’s inability to stick to their guns — pulling the plug on Potter’s five-year deal after just six months due to fan pressure — only make them look as triggerhappy as Abramovich and screams hypocrisy.

It seems sensile that longer thought has been given to finding Potter’s permanent successor, but what was not needed was an interim appointment steeped purely in sentiment as they did when selecting Frank Lampard. The situation required a specialist footballing staff to make key appointments and decisions, rather than sentimental choices like Frank Lampard’s interim appointment; not, as we’re led to believe, James Cordon.

In his first tenure in the Stamford Bridge dugout, his credentials of developing young players into the first team was befitting of what the club needed amid the transfer ban of 2019. However, his career progress since leaving first time round showed no signs of being capable of arresting the particular conundrum that Chelsea found itself in, one that needed addressing quickly with a crucial Champions League tie on the horizon.

His disaster of a stint emphasising the need for specialized footballing staff. The success of Chelsea’s Women’s Team, led by Emma Hayes, demonstrates the benefits of leaving football-related decisions to the experts. This appears to be closer to truth following the arrivals of co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley who conducted most of the January transfer business and the search for a new manager that culminated in Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival in recent weeks.

Does Poch have what it takes to solve the problems we’ve discussed. We’ll dive into that in the second part. For now, hopefully the landscape is at least a bit clearer. I’m not expecting any tears — no billionaires were harmed in the making of this mess.