Premier League giants Chelsea have embarked on a winding road across the 2022-23 season that even the most cautious inside the club’s supporter base could never have dreamt up in their worst nightmare.
After initial success in the vein of a Champions League win with Thomas Tuchel in command, the Blues have declined at a rapid rate during the current campaign that first featured new owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali part ways with the headstrong German tactician in a decision that would ultimately prove to be the incorrect approach at the time of writing.
Replacing the now Bayern Munich headmaster with former beloved Brighton boss Graham Potter, Chelsea did well enough to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League but endured domestic form unbecoming of a club of their current stature across English football. As such, the Blues parted ways with their second fully-appointed manager in the same season for the first time in club history.
Chelsea midfield icon Frank Lampard was then called upon to steer the Stamford Bridge outfit clear of the shallows for the rest of term, and though the Blues ran out 3-1 winners at Bournemouth earlier this afternoon, it was Lampard’s first win after suffering six defeats after beginning his second stint in the technical area at the Bridge.
How the club goes from here during their managerial manhunt remains to be seen, but the defining storyline surrounding what has been a massively disappointing campaign – one that sees them sitting in 11th at the time of writing – has been the gargantuan ~£600m spent between two transfer windows.
With the sanctioning of sixteen new signings as well as a club and Premier League record fee for Argentinian World Cup winning-midfielder Enzo Fernández, only four Premier League sides have scored fewer goals than the Blues while a host of new men in the door have failed to make an impact commensurate with their collective reputations.
Ex Chelsea Director Michael Emenalo on the academy:
“My argument was that all big clubs had great academies.
Ajax, Barcelona, Real Madrid.
But creating a new identity at Chelsea, rooted in the academy, while his [Abramovich] ambition is to win trophies, was difficult.” pic.twitter.com/inQG9yVfRm— David (@undervalu) May 6, 2023
It was nearly three years ago that former club academy director Michael Emenalo sat down with the Guardian’s Donald McRae to delve into a footballing world that still struggles to give enough chances to Black and other minorities in senior club positions. During that interview, the former Nigerian international uttered words that cannot be forgotten if Chelsea is to avoid the pitfalls that come with ignoring the academy setup in favor of solely spending big on stars that may or may not come good.
My argument was that all big clubs had great academies. Ajax, Barcelona, Real Madrid. But creating a new identity at Chelsea, rooted in the academy, while his ambition is to win trophies, was difficult.
At first, everybody said: ‘Nobody’s come from the academy.’ But a kid who comes to the academy at seven won’t be ready to challenge Frank Lampard when he’s 19. It became key to look at that space between 19 and 22 where we can prepare him to be a Chelsea player. We did that with De Bruyne.
He was 18, a super talent, but the first time I mentioned that De Bruyne can eventually replace Lampard there was a guffaw of laughter. [Romelu] Lukaku was the same. He’s 18 and I say you have to put five years into him.
My scouts had identified something was happening in Belgium. Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Chadli, Vertonghen, Courtois. The manager looked at me and said: ‘When did Belgium become Brazil? Who’s this Kevin De Bruyne?’ I told him: ‘I don’t look at passports. I just watch the player. And this player doesn’t miss a pass. I don’t know if he will be a superstar but there’s something here.
[cont’d.] We signed Pedro from Barcelona for £30m. It was a good opportunity for me to say: ‘That’s why we need the academy. Either you put £12m into the academy and develop Ruben Loftus-Cheek or you pay £30m to Barcelona for a 28-year-old.’ It was the end of the discussion. The academy became even more important to Chelsea.
— Michael Emenalo during his interview with Donald McRae circa July 2020
The vaunted Cobham Academy pipeline has gone on to produce a swath of talents that have all reached the upper rung of Europe’s biggest footballing circles, with a veritable laundry list of products helping them rival production houses such as Barcelona, Ajax Amsterdam, SL Benfica, and Paris Saint-Germain.
Tammy Abraham (AS Roma), Armando Broja (Chelsea), Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea), Andreas Christensen (Barcelona), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Billy Gilmour (Brighton), Callum Hudson-Odoi (on loan at Bayer Leverkusen), Levi Colwill (on loan at Brighton), Reece James (Chelsea), Tariq Lamptey (Brighton), Tino Livramento (Southampton), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan), Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth), Jérémie Boga (Atalanta BC), and Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace) all ply their trade either as part of Chelsea’s senior setup, at other Premier League clubs, or on the continent in a club in one of Europe’s big five leagues.
It is a real testament to Emenalo’s work and the club’s commitment to player development, which they themselves have benefitted from in recent years, with Mount, James, Abraham, Gilmour, Hudson-Odoi, and Christensen all part of the senior squad to varying degrees during their Champions League winning run.
On the surface, some of the business conducted by the club this season has shown a willingness to keep faith in younger talents that can still develop into potential elite-level talent, highlighted by the moves for the aforementioned Fernández, Mykhailo Mudryk, Wesley Fofana, Benoît Badiashile, Malo Gusto, and Gabriel Slonina.
But with the club now facing the reality of no European football next term, and increased pressure to not only get back into the European places but challenge for Premier League honors as well, Emenalo’s hard work to help the club focus on the academy and the development of young(er) talent may also be in danger of falling by the wayside if the current owners become impatient along the way.
The temptation to secure more established talents that are bereft of the need for seasoning could become more and more attractive, and recent links with possible interest in Cristiano Ronaldo speaks to that fact.
If Chelsea is to restore their standing across both the English and European game, the balance it found to secure the biggest prize on the continent must be at the core of the promised hopeful new dawn that Boehly and Eghbali have thus far failed to deliver on.
