Chelsea need to raise standards & act like a serious club...with serious people!

We've lost the standards we had - and that comes from the top

Two terms I don’t like at all regarding football generally, “standards” and “unserious”. They are such sweeping statements without context and I try to avoid using them.

But right now, I’ve been taken to my limit. What I’m seeing from Chelsea Football Club right now, in particular from the people running the men's side, is a complete lack of standards, and completely unserious.

Look at the photo above. Remember how it felt. An elite squad. A world class manager. Winners. Leaders. They didn’t need to talk about their ambition and tell everyone how good they were. Their actions demonstrated it. No one doubted the ambition, the standards or the levels required.

Peter Kenyon, who’d successfully run Manchester United, who was a winner who knew what was needed, and the standards expected, someone respected in the industry, was the CEO who ran the club and handled the signings.

I said this recently and I’ll say it again. Chelsea’s two current sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, and the Head of Global Goalkeeping Ben Roberts, simply aren’t up to those standards.

The makeup of the squad, the energy coming from those at the top, the way we treat our own players, the way we conduct business, is simply not serious. It's not how big football clubs act.

These three behave like over-promoted amateurs who think they’re big time and know it all, but in fact, no one takes them seriously and aren’t remotely at the top level. They are wannabe big times who simply aren’t to the level required at global giant with serious ambitions, like Chelsea.

And others keep letting them believe they’re big time because it means they’ll keep their jobs and Chelsea will remain a top 6 team instead of competing at the big table.

Look at Manchester City in January 2025. They saw they had problems. They weren’t even planning on January signings last month, and yet they’ve signed 3 top players two weeks before the deadline. They were ruthless, swift and didn’t try to do swap deals with every transfer. They just got the deals done.

Meanwhile Chelsea, who desperately need a GK, experienced CB, ST, have spent 3 weeks negotiating the £12m transfer out of Cesare Casadei, and think signing a winger is going to suddenly stop Robert Sanchez being a crap goalkeeper and help Nicolas Jackson up top.

One player we signed in the summer, Renato Veiga, has gone on loan and we have no backup to Marc Cucurella, who needs a rest. Two others, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Joao Felix, seem both to be for sale only 6 months after joining, and we’re meant to believe these guys are doing a good job?

This is not how big clubs operate. Its not how serious operators do business.

This is not hard to figure out. Literally everyone knows this. There’s no excuses for this. Its simply not the standards that Chelsea should have. Period.

I rewatched the season review of the 2016/2017 season, under Antonio Conte, when we last won the Premier League. As I watched it I realised how my own standards have slipped since then, under two ownership groups.

I’m a patient guy and I would rather have a long term project for sustainable success, and managerial stability, than the opposite. But patience doesn’t mean you don’t set standards.

Standards of performance, standards of team building, standards of conduct. And you make very clear publicly you want to win. The goal for everyone has to be clear - to build a club and a team to win trophies consistently, to compete for the Premier League and Champions League every single season. To be the best in every aspect. And you sign players and appoint people at all levels to achieve this.

The three people I mentioned are the ones who lead the football side, they set the standards, they set the example. They don’t convey to me that they’re winners, leaders, people with class and authority who belong at the big table. And I’m 100% certain they don’t convey that to ANY of the fanbase.

Maybe to Clearlake, new to football, they were impressed with all their talk, with all their experience and knowledge, so they put their trust in them and thought these were experts. Some would say they liked them as they would do what Behdad Eghbali wanted and not question or challenge it.

Here are some world class sporting directors and proven winners. Michael Edwards, Luis Campos, Andrea Berta (pictured), Monchi, Tixi Bergstein, Hugo Viana , Ralf Ragnick, Michael Zorc.

Its no shock the two clubs who’ve won the most in England in the last decade, Liverpool (Michael Edwards) and Man City (Tixi Bergstein & Hugo Viana) are the ones who have an elite sporting director. These are serious operators, with high standards in all areas. They don’t need PR to show how great they are. Their actions speak louder. Their signings all come off. Their clubs win on the pitch consistently. They look, act, and behave like a serious club with big ambitions who are serious about being the best in all aspects.

And we don’t right now. I frankly don’t care what they think they do or using the successes in the market as proof. The proof is the results on the pitch, the balance of the squad, the mentality we demonstrate as a club and as a squad.

Ambition isn’t just about money you spend. Anyone can spend money. Its mentality, its conduct, its treating players, staff and fans with class and respect. It’s making sure there is a “best in class’ standard throughout all aspects of the club. Everything has to be geared towards winning on the pitch.

If the ownership wants to win, they need to change things fast. They need to start acting like a serious, ambitious club. Employ serious, ambitious people. Stop employing yes men in all positions, and employ proper people who will challenge you and you can learn from.

Quite frankly, with respect, Clearlake are not football people and don’t have a clue how to run a big football club successfully. So they need to employ people who have done that and listen to them.

Fans have had enough. For 7 years under two ownerships, we’ve got used to being a top 4 team only, a team who wins cups but not PL titles, with the one CL title in that time being an outlier. That has to end now. The players, the club as a whole, need individuals who are winners, who set high standards, who know how to build winning clubs and squads. Who will drive the club forward and raise the bar.

We need that in the boardroom and we need it on the pitch.

We need a sporting director who has done it all too and can still do it, not someone past their best. Andrea Berta, who built the successful Atletico teams under Diego Simeone, is unemployed and apparently wants to work in England.

We also need some players who’ve won things, who are proven at the top level, leaders, captains, winners with some experience, who he can identify and bring in, to help all our young talent develop.

This is Chelsea Football Club. We’re not a top 6 club, not Brighton or West Ham. We’re not acting like a serious football club, we’re not setting the standards high enough. And I don’t think we’re perceived as a serious football club - certainly our own fans don’t see us as one right now.

This is simply not good enough. Sort it out. Stop with the wannabe big time attitude and start ACTING like a big, serious club. Fans have had enough of being top 6, of being far from the conversation about competing for the biggest trophies. And fans won’t continue to be silent if things don’t change soon.

Oh and if anyone at the club is not serious or ambitious, they are welcome to leave. This is Chelsea, not a free ride to a big wage. I’m done with us being so unserious.

The Score