When billionaire Todd Boehly took over Chelsea Football Club, he went on a player shopping spree, forgetting to consult the managers, who in the end would be accountable and responsible for the results of the team and the club in general.
He fired Thomas Tuchel, who had taken the heat during the tedious process of the Chelsea auction and its slight aftermath. This divided the fan base straight away because this was a manager who had just won their second Champions League trophy and had defended their club to the teeth when Roman Abramovich got sanctioned and Chelsea almost put under administration.
Todd went ahead and acquired Graham Potter to take charge as the head coach. He then started hijacking player deals and giving them extravagantly long contracts under the guise of finding a loophole in the rules. These excited Chelsea fans as they saw that they were huge and had a grab in the transfer market, little did they know that those “clever” actions by the owners would come back to haunt them. As of now, Chelsea is being investigated for alleged breaches of the Financial Fair Play rules.
After Todd had gone around getting his toys and rubbing other clubs the wrong way in the process, he was satisfied with his work. He splashed a clean billion on players like Christopher Nkunku, Enzo Fernandez, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, Raheem Sterling, Noni Madueke, Datro Fofana, Axel Disasi, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly, Carney Chukwuemeka, Nicolas Jackson, and several others.
He then hired Graham Potter, who was at the time a hot commodity, as the manager. The fans were happy, the club was happy, and everyone was happy because Potter had been “backed” with the best young players available in the market. What they forgot was that it’s always 50/50 with players; some are immediate hits, while some would need more time to get to perfection, and some can fail to make it.
Another thing Chelsea and the owners didn’t realize was that all those players had come from different leagues, and the team’s chemistry and adaptability to the Premier League would be tough. They went ahead to make another massive mistake by letting Chelsea veterans and legends like Cesar Azpilicueta and Petr Cech go, which meant that the owners now had a completely new manager with his stuff and a completely overhauled squad with no proper player leader who had that Chelsea DNA to help in the transition as Thiago Silva had not been at Chelsea long enough. I mean, everything was made difficult from the onset; this simply meant that any manager would have to struggle, and so did Graham Potter.
With the impatience of the Chelsea fans, who took pride in constant managerial changes in the past, a move that worked for them, the owners fired Graham Potter and brought in club legend Frank Lampard, who had already failed before, as their caretaker manager while they searched for a suitable one. This effort was to try and install the Chelsea DNA back into the squad, but in the end, it didn’t work out.
So, in comes Pochettino, who now has an even bigger role in convincing the fans, board, staff, and players that this time around it will work. Pochettino then has the rare privilege of taking the Chelsea squad on a preseason tour to work on the team. The squad looked okay in preseason, Chelsea won some important friendly matches, and again, the hope of a better season is back.
Then the season starts and reality hits again: the squad is struggling, Chelsea is hit with injuries, and they have already sent a dozen players on loan. Pochettino is left bare again, and he has to find a solution, but the solution that is bitter to the Chelsea fans is patience. Forget the past and what worked then. This is the reality at the moment. The squad needs time and careful nurturing, and that’s the gospel Mauricio Pochettino has been preaching.
Pochettino had the chance to influence the transfer window, and he got Chelsea Moises Caicedo, Robert Sanchez, Romeo Lavia, and Cole Palmer, who has been a shining star in this unpredictable Chelsea squad, perhaps suggesting a sign that with more say in the transfer market, the Argentine can turn things around for the blues.
While Chelsea commendably sold the likes of Mason Mount and Kai Havertz, it remains to be seen if their owners might have gone on a rampage with their acquisitions with the hopes of making profits in the future.
However, It is also worth noting that Chelsea’s former coach José Mourinho is available after his AS Roma dismissal. He might be seen as a worthy candidate to restore order at the unstable bridge in case Pochettino fails to hack it.
