The Long Game
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Loading ...Impatience is a virtue, taking your time is wasting your time. This modern philosophy fuelled a Samsung advertising campaign (a bit of brand Chelsea there, I expect a commission if you are reading this) and has largely seen Chelsea sweep all before them in the Abramovich era. Frankly speaking, I would not swap the past ten years for anything. However, this season has given rise to questions like never before in terms of the running of the club. Is the lack of any salient long-term thinking inhibiting Chelsea from building upon its recent successes?
While having a superbly run football club is admirable it does not beat the feeling of being the only London team to win the European Cup. Nor will it ever. Unless you are an Arsenal fan I cannot fathom sitting in a pub (or café with a pre-match latte and pastry) debating the merits of making a profit each season. For those in Munich we may have collectively sold our souls as Didier strode forward, but I would make that choice every single time. Football is ultimately less about tactics and chalkboards and more about experiencing what we went through last season.
The problem is that there comes a point where the pursuit of instant success leads to incidents of an Interim nature. The sacking of Di Matteo, rightly or wrongly, catalysed the deterioration in the relationship between the club and its supporters customers. Though, in truth, many would point back to the baffling sacking of Mourinho as the original gambit. Benitez has largely become the embodiment of the disenchantment felt by Chelsea fans – the ultimate act of betrayal.
Chelsea have lost their way this season. If the club did not fancy Di Matteo, why not properly say thank you and good bye in the summer? The appointment of Benitez merely highlights how out of touch the club are with its core support. Stumbling from one disaster to another without any real long-term plan is largely to blame here. The club lacks the direction that stability offers and it has culminated this year with a raft of ridiculous decisions.
We have picked the wrong fights time and time again, leaving us open to suspiciously questionable decisions from referees. Ask yourself this, when was the last time Chelsea had a player sent off against them? The debatable decisions league table puts us around 10 points worse off than we should be. It primarily looks at incorrect decisions that have altered the result of a game. I tend to ignore things like this, but double digits are a tad much.
Chelsea, unquestionably, now possesses one of the finest football academies on the planet. Consistently excellent FA Youth Cup performances coupled with some superb NextGen results are merely the tip of the iceberg. We are producing technically excellent sides that are consistently winning or starring in prestigious global competitions. We recently completely outplayed Barcelona’s U19 side, which typically went under the radar in the British press. (The full list, courtesy of Phil at the Chels or @ChelseaYouth to give him his more familiar moniker can be found below). Nevertheless, the transition from academy starlet to first team duties remains particularly poor.
These quality youngsters are probably less likely to feature for the first team than the majority of Premier League clubs. This simply stems from the instability that the club suffers from. The reality at Chelsea is that your contract as a manager actually means very little. The last manager who tried to utilise the better academy players was sacked for finishing second in the corridors of Goodison Park. What a nonsensical decision that looks in hindsight. If these are the standards you are being held accountable to, why on earth risk playing any academy player?
If you are not in contention to win the title by January, we will sack you. If you do not look like qualifying from the Champions League, we will sack you. If you do not take the Capital One Cup and FA Cup seriously by fielding full strength teams all the way through, we will sack you. Our first instinct in recent times is always to sack rather than back. No one, particularly me, is arguing with the success we have enjoyed while this culture has existed at the club. Every good run comes to an end eventually and there are no longer the gladiators of old to drag us through tumultuous seasons. We definitely need a rethink, spirit is no longer enough.
Our biggest failing this season has been the distinct lack of overall quality in the squad. For every Eden Hazard there is a Marko Marin and for every Juan Mata there is a… a… well, you get my point. While the concept of a football board should work, it currently looks increasingly aloof as it bypasses managerial opinion to simply fill the squad with players. Phil puts it very well indeed,
I get the impression that some elements of the board feel they have to justify their positions at the club by making expensive, marquee signings which contribute towards success, and so are inclined to go that way rather than dip into the academy. They get little credit if the kid makes it, but can pad their own CVs if a signing they’ve identified and pushed for makes the grade.
We currently have a hodgepodge of a squad combining vastly contrasting footballing philosophies: the last vestiges of the power based football of Mourinho/Ancelotti melded with the AVB/RDM/football board dream of a tiki-taka attacking unit. Lacking any robustness and the clinical precision of the Mourinho/Ancelotti days, we cannot rest key players because the overall quality of the squad is no longer good enough. We seem to be in footballing purgatory, only capable of the ridiculous or the sublime with no middle ground to simply grind out a routine victory. We have to play exceptionally well to win games.
Is there anyone in a decision making capacity at the club who really knows what they are doing? Our top earning director makes £911,000 a year. How do they remain in jobs given the calamitous handling of the club over the past 2-3 years? Surely if you are earning nearly £1m a year you can see that starting a season with Torres and Sturridge is asking for trouble? Or selling Meireles and loaning Essien with no replacement is a bit on the silly side? We are going to play close to seventy games this season with the smallest squad I can remember, particularly in terms of quality. With no clear direction from a manager likely to last beyond a season we are left with the dregs of several regimes trying to lend genuine support to star players they are incapable of helping.
This summer again will see another fresh start at the club for a manager under insane pressure from day one. Will he have enough backing to correct the obvious mistakes of previous regimes? More importantly, will he have the time to play some of these younger players without the fear of instant dismissal? Recent history and success says otherwise, but if ever there was a season to never repeat and learn from then it has to be this one.
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Rough list of academy honours over the past 6 years.
With thanks to Phil for his opinions, specifically on the academy structure and be sure to follow him on @ChelseaYouth. You can follow me on Twitter @JoeTweeds.
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Great article…I`ll be back.
Yes, your article was very pertinent. I will be brief. Chelsea are in trouble. The management structure is grotesque with no overview of future development. There is no balance to this side…. eg: We were completely over-run by Man City and desperately frightened of Tourre.
We definitely will not finish in the top four. You only had to see the way we lost points at Liverpool to see how we can not close games out…this has happened many times this season. Benetiz is not the manager we need because he has not got the nouse. He rarely makes effective substitutions. Do the players respect him?? So, we will not finish in the top four so it`s a europa league place again…more Thursday nights of travelling the far flung corners of Europe. Do we actually want this “trophy”? I don`t. The manchester clubs were right last season…just get out of it as quick as possible.
So, this season is a write off but what about next. Well, obviously, we need a long term manager…but who? I genuinely don`t know and the only candidate I can think of is Jose…on, at least a three year contract.
The team needs toughening up. We need a good second goalkeeper. Can you imagine if Chec had been injured this season? Hilarious and Turnbull are just not good enough….why is Coutois still out on loan?
We need big impressive centre half and bring Davey through from the youth team.
We need to ditch Mikel. I`ve seen him enough times..he is just not good enough. Maybe Fellani might be a good signing.
We need to get rid of Torres. He`s scored a couple but usually against weak teams. He is generally useless. How the team must sigh when they see his name up there as their main striker. I`m not sure about Ba….he hasn`t exactly had sterling service this season. How about Lukaka???
But aaaargh…this is the point!!! How can anyone shape and mould a team when they`re likely to be sacked at any given minute especially if they lose a game or two. What I seem to be arguing for is a stronger team with a strong spine through the middle. But I confess, I don`t know. Can we have this sort of team and still field all three: Oscar, Mata and Hazard. Do we go for power or subtly? Can we go for both? I do not know.
I watched Bayern dismantle Barca last night and today eveyone is saying it`s the end of tika taka football and it`s the new era of power football. Well, we`ve just bought a load of diminutive footballers. What do we do??
I am sorry all this is negative and yes I know we`ve played some excellent football this season (but mostly in the first three months).
I have supported Chelsea since the mid sixties, through all the ups and downs. I have seen us shoot ourselves in the foot time and time again…again, since the sixties and yes, like the writer of the article says, I would not swap the glories of the last ten years. Munich was wonderfully ecstatic for me ( I lost my voice for two days afterwards!) but now something needs to done. Here are my suggestions.
Appoint a manager with a clear vision of how the club is to progress in the next three years.
The manager should have a clear Plan A, B and even maybe, C.
Get rid of Emanldo and his crew.
Do not buy expensive over the hill players.
Sell the mediocre players…we all have our ideas who these are so I won`t go into this.
Look closely at our loan players…sell the one`s we don`t want.
Use the reserve players/youth team players in the Europa Cup.
Give me a free season ticket.
There, that`s it.
Brian,
Thank you for the comment! Agree with much of it. Do come back!
Joe
Excellent article especially about the depth of the squad: I’m of a similar generation to Brian and agree with many of his comments but not sure it’s the end of tika -taka; what we need is a blend of power and skill.look forward to the next missive!
I would agree with that joe.This summer, the signings will be crucial for the club.If fellani and falcao come as well as jose mourinho,we could be set up nicely in august to have a proper go for the league again.
Thank God….I was WRONG!!!!! And, congratulations to Frank!!