Questions surrounding the next steps forward for struggling Premier League giants Chelsea continue to mount in the wake of the Blues’ heavy 4-0 FA Cup third-round away defeat against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium last night, adding fuel to the fire to what has already been a difficult domestic campaign.
Despite reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League, Graham Potter has been unable to push the club forward on the league front as Chelsea currently sits a lowly tenth in the table while having netted just a single win in their last six fixtures in England’s top flight competition.
The poor run of form has not seen Potter’s position at Stamford Bridge come into question among Chelsea’s hierarchical structure, however, as co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali of Clearlake Capital Group remain committed to what has now been transitioned into a long-term plan in the west end of the capital.
Story on Chelsea/Potter @AdrianJKajumba & @MattHughesDM:
– Potter retains immediate support
– Concerns some players not buying into his philosophy
– behind the scenes recruitment upheaval
– concerns over landing priority targets https://t.co/J3uUr4vw2U— Sami Mokbel (@SamiMokbel81_DM) January 9, 2023
Per reports in Mail Sports, much of the upheaval at the club has delayed the club’s ability to correctly focus on improving the senior setup under Potter – and Thomas Tuchel before him – but steps currently being taken by Boehly and Eghbali are meant to arrest the current situation before it turns into an unrecoverable flat spin while also focusing on the club’s long-term picture.
Boehly and Eghbali have already brought in a number of key names into positions of relative power at Chelsea this season, with the likes of Christopher Vivell (technical director), Laurence Stewart (co-technical director), Paul Winstanley (director of global talent and transfers), Kyle Macaulay (recruitment specialist), and Joe Shields (co-director of talent recruitment) have all been brought into the fold this season but the number of changes in the club’s structure has reportedly been one of the leading causes of the current “teething period.”
The long-term picture certainly does seem to be the focus now at Chelsea, however, especially with the track records that the aforementioned staff additions bring to the table. As such, some of the deals the club has sought after – and completed – during the current winter window are hallmarks of the staff additions, with moves for FK Molde’s David Datro Fofana (20), AS Monaco’s Benoît Badiashile (21), and Vasco da Gama’s Andrey Santos (18) falling in line with a long-term building project.
But such heavy spending in such a short space of time certainly rings home truths about the state of the senior setup under Potter, with Sami Mokbel’s report hinting that the former Brighton manager feels that some in his camp are not taking to his tactical preferences and what he trying to rubber-stamp on the pitch. The club’s loan for João Félix certainly supports this notion as well.
All told, it is rare that such a heavy overhaul in one season will bear fruit if all the pieces do not fit the same mold, and there is no question that the current situation at Chelsea is a veritable hodge-podge of scrounged-together equipment in the hopes that it may do enough to get the club back into the European places. But what remains of vital importance is that Chelsea avoids relying on just their checkbook to solve equations else could reach a point of no return.
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