Premier League giants Chelsea are just minutes away from a make-or-break night in the Champions League as they welcome German outfit Borussia Dortmund to Stamford Bridge in the second leg of their round of 16 tie.
Eden Terzić’s Die Schwarzgelben arrived in west London with a 1-0 aggregate advantage after German wunderkind Karim Adeyemi scored a spectacular solo goal to give the Ruhr valley-based side a vital home win at Signal Iduna Park amid their own uptick in form on the home front as they continue their renewed drive to oust Bayern Munich from the top of the German pyramid.
By stark contrast, a loss tonight in front of home support in the capital would be yet another moment of frustration across a season that sees the former Premier League and Champions League winners sat in mid-table under former Brighton boss Graham Potter, despite the mammoth sums of money that new co-owner Todd Boehly has mobilized across both transfer windows with expectations of seeing immediate returns on the pitch.
“You can’t buy teams and win immediately!”
Former Chelsea boss @GullitR thinks the new owners don’t understand that it’s hard to gain immediate success in the Premier League and Europe. #beINUCL #UCL #CHEBVB pic.twitter.com/e4agXU3Rpy
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) March 7, 2023
That has not come to pass for the American billionaire, who seemingly took an approach akin to MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL franchises when it comes to the mass acquisition of talent in the hopes of star power coming to the fore to challenge upon arrival. For former Chelsea player and manager, Ruud Gullit, the Dutch football icon ran the rule over Boehly’s remit, detailing why that approach is hardly guaranteed to work in a league as competitive as the Premier League.
Chelsea now has a bloated senior squad of over thirty players, and their out-of-the-blue push for Ukrainian starlet Mykhailo Mudryk in a deal likely to reach €100m when it’s all said and done, has quickly fallen flat like a flan in a cupboard. Mudryk has already been ousted from the starting XI after finding life in the top flight of English football vastly more difficult in comparison to the Ukrainian Premier League, with the 21-year-old already seeming out of his depth.
Should the Blues be knocked out by Dortmund and fail to qualify for European football in any capacity next season, there are sure to be angry fans demanding the ship be righted in a more rational manner if Boehly’s ownership is to win over its growing list of detractors.
