Rebuild 3.0, in 4 years.....

Yet the same people in charge of it?

Good Morning Ladies and Gents,

Off the field the noise of the weekend was largely dictated around reports suggesting Chelsea will be selling upwards of 8 players this summer. It’s needed, but lets take a deep dive into it….

Firstly, how the F**K are we in a position of a third rebuild in just 4 summer windows under this ownership? The first summer was left down to Thomas Tuchel’s talent ID which is probably the weakest part of his managerial attributes, I love that man but that summer was horrid and a lot of that in hindsight but Marc Cucurella has been the only real positive to come out of it, and that has only been the last 9-12 months.

In addition to Tuchel’s summer window we then had the chaotic and semi-fun winter window of 22/23, I enjoyed it at the time and it felt great to go out and be signing top young players, little did we know that would continue for 5 windows…... Some good signings were made but there were a hell of a lot of wasted transfers in that period and awful squad building as we know.

Only 6 of the 14 arrivals are actually regularly involved when fit, with 7 of these players playing their football elsewhere.

Coming onto summer 23/24 and the arrival of Pochettino. A little bit more refined during that season but also still so many wasteful signings and poor money and decisions spent. Too many players being signed in similar positions across 2 seasons, no experience bought, no leaders and failing to address the need of a world class goalkeeper and striker which we have been without since 2018 & 2017 respectively.

More wasted money with the odd good signing thrown in….

Now this season and another new manager, meaning new ideas and now styles to be implemented, that doesn’t concern our SDs though, lets continue to buy younger players, no leadership and not address key areas of the pitch.

Our good friend Mr. Danny Windsor asked a question in our SPTC group chat over the weekend.

“Can you name 1 player signed in the summer you wouldn’t refund if you could?”

The only possible answers I came up with were Pedro Neto (I believe in him) and Marc Guiu. Harsh on players like Penders who we wont know for a few years yet whether he was worth it, but you get the jist.

Can you all answer Danny’s question above in the comments?

This moves me on to the point of this article, We are going into our 6th window with these SDs in place and the 3rd rebuild in 4 years under this ownership.

How are we in a position leading to a third rebuild under this ownership with the same SDs being in charge for 6 windows??? In any other line of work they’d have been sacked a fair time ago.

Unless the transfer style and project is tweaked then we will be in the position next year and the year after, it is just a vicious circle. I understand building for the future to a degree but you cannot forget the present and the here and now.

Some people are calling for the managers head, I understand it the football is really poor and unexciting, that is being kind, the issue for me is that whichever manager is in charge we will be having the same conversation year after year unless one of a few things happen;

A) We sack the SDs and replace them.

B) We hire an elite director to come in as CEO of Football or a title along those lines and have the SDs work underneath them.

C) All of the above and change the transfer/recruitment strategy

I personally think the SDs actually have good Talent ID and seem to be able to get younger players to buy in to the ‘project’, but they cannot be in charge of a corporation like Chelsea, they cannot build a squad and any player with any reputation doesn’t end up joining because they cannot close a deal for a player older than 19!! Look at Olise…..

In my opinion of the 38 signings above 11 are good signings, finances aside;

Enzo Fernandez

Wesley Fofana

Marc Cucurella

Malo Gusto

Andrey Santos

Moises Caicedo

Romeo Lavia

Cole Palmer

Nicolas Jackson

Pedro Neto

Marc Guiu

I am being kind with a couple as we haven’t seen them play too much, but these are the players I deem as good signings, personally.

This was an overall rant about the SDs, Ownership and transfer policy.

I personally am trying not to judge any manager that manages Chelsea too much until things mentioned above change or are tweaked, but, Maresca is making it really hard to back him at the moment with the woeful brand of Football we are playing. Like I say I believe that we will continue in this vicious cycle no matter which manager is in charge until things above change.

Thanks for reading and please answer Danny’s question in the comment below, I am very intrigued!

Luke Rushbrook