The Fan View: 25-years supporting and 15-years as a season ticket holder!

The current situation at Chelsea - A contribution article

This is a contribution article by Danny Windsor, a Chelsea fan of 25 years and a season ticket holder of 15 years.

I would like to apologise because this will be a fair amount of reading as I have a lot to get off my chest!

Like myself, a lot of long standing Chelsea fans and people who sit around me in the Matthew Harding are falling our of love with Chelsea, and that is concerning. So I have written this article on my take as a Chelsea fan of over 25 years and a season ticket holder for over 15 years detailing the areas I think we need to improve on. In this article, I will cover all areas of the club - the good the bad and the ugly (sadly most will be bad and ugly).

I will cover the below:

• The owners

• The board

• The manager

The Owners

Firstly, I want to say that the Todd Boehly consortium was who I wanted to take over Chelsea from the minute we knew the candidates to buy the club. I will admit I am not the biggest fan of the MLB and don’t follow the NBA closely, but I knew that Boehly had been part of building a very competitive MLB side in the Dodgers, and part of the Lakers, who are one of the best NBA sides in recent years. Everything I had heard was that he wants to win and dominate in everything he was a part of, including business. This coupled with Clearlake, and having Chelsea fans involved like Daniel Finkelstein and Barbara Charone involved, gave me every confidence that we would be in great hands after being owned by the best football owner in history.

One thing you cannot dispute and have to applaud is the ownership group has very ambitious plans with the multi-club model, the new stadium, and the player investment.

The multi-club model – I think is a good idea and will allow us to do what Red Bull has done with Salzburg and Leipzig in capturing young talent, giving players we sign a pathway either through Strasbourg, or sending Chelsea players on loan there. It is far too early to judge the success of this, but the idea is solid. My only slight concern is should we be concentrating on getting Chelsea back to the top before devoting any attention to a 2^nd club? However, I understand if opportunities like Strasbourg present themselves then you have to take it.

The new stadium – it has been clear for nearly a decade that Chelsea have fallen behind the competition with their stadium, which is why Roman got planning permission back in 2017. Tottenham have now overtaken Chelsea in terms of revenue and this is mainly down to the new stadium and shows why it needs to be addressed ASAP. I am not naive in the fact that these things take time to plan and it is not easy to build a stadium in where Chelsea are based. However, we are now 18 months in and as fans we have no idea what is going on behind the scenes apart from a couple of briefed stories here and there. One of the things this ownership briefed when they joined was keeping the fans in the loop and being more communicative. We have Jonathan Goldstein on the board who is meant to be running this project, why cant he do an interview for the website giving us an update and keep us informed?

Player investment – I cannot fault the amount of money that has been made available to buy players at all, and I like the fact we have overhauled a lot of that had been stuck at Chelsea for a while. The issue I have is the under-25 rule that was strictly followed the whole summer meaning we missed out on signings like James Maddison. It has not been made clear if this is an ownership only led rule or part of the board, but it is needs to be removed immediately. I love a young players more than most to be completely honest but you can not win with kids alone, no one ever has and no one ever will. Have a youth policy sure, sign young talent, but you have to have quality and proven experience around them otherwise it will never work.

We have heard countless stories that the owners like what Arsenal have done and want to do similar. However, if you look at what Arsenal did in their first season under Mikel Arteta, they signed experienced players like Willian and Thomas Partey as well as younger players like Martin Odegaard and William Saliba. In the second season they signed young but premier league proven talent in Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale. In the third season they sign winners in Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, more PL experience with Leandro Trossard and Jorginho, and this year added more experienced with Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and David Raya. In that time, they had brought through and integrated younger players like Bakayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Saliba and Emile Smith-Rowe (before his injury). None of these players they have signed are over 30 and a lot of were signed at around 25 and have PL experience.

Communication – As a fan when I heard that the club was going to communicate more to us I was thrilled because for all of Roman’s benefits, we never heard him speak once. I do however believe that the new owners have not lived up to this promise. We have never heard the plan for the club or what is going on apart from a few business interviews that been done in America which Boehly and Behdad Eghbali had been a part of none deliberate interviews. Do an interview on the Chelsea site, give the fans something to believe in, let us know there is a plan because there isn’t much positivity or anything to be excited by at club at the moment.

Conclusion - Overall I am happy with the ownership, but would ask for more communication, and if  you are driving the u25-only strategy please drop it now and get some proven and quality experience on our side to allow us some success now and not just in the future.

The Board

This is where my biggest gripe comes with Chelsea currently.

Before going on to my negatives, the biggest positive I can say is the money they got for players they sold this summer was very good and they managed to shift players that have been hanging around Chelsea to long and previously we had struggled to sell. The other positive is the wage bill is now much more under control, which is a big positive too as a lot of players were previously stealing a living!

My issues are:

• Squad planning

• Negotiations

• The manager search

• Are we talent spotting?

Squad planning –   In my opinion, we have spent nearly a billion pounds very poorly. There have been positives, but also a lot of negatives involved. I wont mention any of the bad signings in the first summer because the board where not in place and Thomas Tuchel’s lack of talent ID is to blame. However, since January last year, it has looked like an utter mess with no plan in place at all.

January 2023:

• Enzo Fernandez – Was pretty obvious as one of the best up an coming midfielders around and he just won the World Cup. Per reports, Paul Winstanley was in charge of negotiations and it completely blows up. So Boehly and Behdad have to fly out and save it at the last minute. He’s a quality player but not a scout-type signing and poor negotiations involved.

• Mykhailo Mudryk – Looked purely like an Arsenal hijack and a PR stunt, and he hasn’t lived up to be anything but that so far. Overpaid and underperforming.

• Benoit Badiashile – Smart signing and good price. Performed well last year but injury prone and not recovered from his injury this year yet.

• Noni Madueke – Good price but hardly played and not convinced he is Chelsea quality. Another injury-prone player signed.

• Malo Gusto – Great signing - price and player. He was on project 2030 so can we give the board credit for the talent spotting?

• Andrey Santos – Good timing on the signing as probably saved 10 million, but how could you wait all summer, have so many loan options and then send him to a club that brought 3 or 4 new CMs that window? And now we send him to Strasbourg which is what could have happened in the summer and have 6 months experience of European football.

Summer 2023:

• Moises Caicedo – Spent all summer negotiating, then overpaid on the original asking price because you took too long.

• Romeo Lavia - Spent all summer negotiating, then overpaid on the original asking price because you spent too long.

• Cole Palmer – Great signing, great player. In Joe Shields we trust!

• Axel Disasi – Okay value, has been needed this year due to all the injuries, but when all of the squad is fit I think he is 4^th/5^th option.

• Nicolas Jackson – Okay value, there is a talent there, but should have never been our starting number 9.

• Robert Sanchez – Reported to be as a way to sweeten the Caicedo deal and then still overpaid. Should now be our number two.

• Lesley Ugochukwu – Far too raw to be playing for Chelsea currently.

• Deivid Washington – looks like an expensive u21 signing as he never plays.

• Angelo Gabriel – Good young signing, could have what it takes to make it here.

• Djordje Petrovic – In my opinion, the only good scouting-type signing we have done. 10/10.

January 2024:

So January comes in a pivotal part of the season where we could push for the Europa League spots, have an outside chance of Champions League, and potentially win a cup. We have such obvious holes in the squad with no left back to rely on and no one scoring goals. On deadline day we loaned out a striker option and signed no one. How have you had 6 months to plan to understand what Pochettino and the squads needs and yet you still sign NO ONE?

Overall, the squad planning has looked messy and sporadic; like everyone in the recruitment team gets to sign two players each without any idea of how a squad fits together, and zero experience signed. On the experience point, Pochettino has asked for experience to be signed all summer and that has not happened.

Negotiations – I touched on it above with Enzo, Caicedo, and Lavia. But how many times can you screw up negotiations and over pay? How times will reports come out that you have messed around in contract negotiations like Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher? How can you want only a loan with an obligation for Armando Broja all window and then look to let him go on a loan only on the last day of the window and look weak, as well as have no replacement? The briefings that have come out the club on the Broja deal have gone from being no sale without replacement, to Chelsea want £50m, to Chelsea want £35m to allow loan + obligation, to straight loan with £5m fee, and then ending up with a straight loan for ZERO (reportedly) and only goes up to £4m if he plays less than 50% of games! Chelsea are getting bullied when we buy players from Brighton and Southampton, and we get bullied when loaning players out.

Manager search – We spent April to July on deciding who should take over, and the reported options in the end where Vincent Kompany, Ange Postecoglou (which now look like the best option) and Pochettino after two elite managers in Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique walked away because they apparently didn’t believe in what we were trying to do in signing under 25 only and wanted some control over the transfers?

Talent spotting – It was briefed that Chelsea want to have a data led model, the best in football, a recruitment model that makes smart signings. Yet most of the players we have signed haven’t performed and haven’t yet looked up to Chelsea's standard. A lot of them have had history of injury issues but were still signed when we have had an injury crisis for 5 years and seemingly no thought into this. The ones that have looked good have either been overpaid for like Enzo and Caicedo, or not a board signing in Nkunku and Carney Chukwuemeka. What are Winstanley and Laurence Stewart bringing to the club?

The situation of Gallagher makes 0 sense either, rightly or wrongly he has been Pochettino’s most used player and most important, yet you would of sold him in January, and to Spurs? I personally don’t think Gallagher plays long term once players all return, but selling a managers most important player and to a big rival should of never been thought of and certainly not in January.

Conclusion – Not good enough at all, we need an experienced DOF in place who has experience building a squad and being able to negotiate with clubs. Paul Mitchell, *Micheal Edwards, and Ramon Planes are all there and available.

*Edwards has recently been reported to not want to take a senior job again yet.

The Manager

I will be honest, I was never a fan of the appointment of Pochettino and I doubted if it would work. However, I was behind him once the decision was made, and there were positives in preseason making me think that maybe I was wrong. But I haven’t seen anything I saw in preseason since the start of the season, and the mistakes he has made this season has been infuriating.

He has been playing players out of position all the time and the utilisation of players has been terrible. Ben Chilwell as a left winger, Levi Colwill as a left back, and Enzo as a 10 with Gallagher as a 6 to name a few? How are players meant to perform, thrive, and improve when they aren’t played where they are best suited? That would be tough for experienced players let alone the players we have.

The regression in talent has been apparent, and the only player improving from last year is Gallagher. Enzo is one of the best up and coming midfielders in the world but has at times looked like a shell of the former player. Being used higher up and not allowing him to use his progression has been criminal. Colwill was one of the best CB’s in the league last season but has mostly been played as a LB all year means we haven’t see that same form from last season. Caicedo was one of the best 6’s last year but has been completely isolated and having to do all of the defensive work and ball progression on his own.

His absolute obsession of playing Gallagher week in and week out for 90 minutes has been detrimental to the team. Don’t get me wrong I think Gallagher is having a good season and has been one of our better players, but he is nowhere near one of our best number 10’s - he lacks the technical ability and vision. He is also nowhere near one of our best 6’s as he lacks control, discipline and progression, so why are we forcing him in the team every week?

Pochettino’s tactics are nowhere near good enough and a lot of the time he has had to make changes to what is happening very early because his initial tactics have been so wrong. Like in the Newcastle away game when we lost 4-1, the Spurs game before the red card, and the Liverpool game in the week. He is consistently leaving Caicedo isolated and pushing Enzo on, which negates Enzo’s best qualities and exposes Caicedo. The photo I saw on Twitter yesterday [below] where Caicedo was surrounded by 7 Liverpool players and no other Chelsea midfielder in site was hilarious.

There is a lack of clear identity or plan on the pitch apart from running around like headless chickens and slowly passing the ball from RB to CB to CB to LB, and back again. We keep hearing we need time, but Spurs have a clear difference in how they are playing since last year and are creating chances for fun even without their best players. Unai Emery took over from Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa in October and with no preseason, took them from 16^th to 7^th .

Another thing that has frequently annoyed me is his contradictive nature. He hasn’t been playing Madueke all season as he must learn to work harder, press, and track back, but Raheem Sterling plays 90 minutes most weeks and saunters about not pressing, not tracking back, and losing the ball all the time.

Conclusion - We have improved a bit on last season, but we couldn’t of been any worse, and I think a lot of it is because the players have less uncertainty this year as last year half the squad was leaving in June. Pochettino is not doing a good enough job at all and other managers would get more out of these players. I don’t think he is the guy to lead Chelsea forward and think he is very lucky to still be in his job. I mainly put this down to two factors. The first being we have already had four managers in 18 months under the new ownership. The second point is there is a lack of an obvious replacement.

Please Pochettino, start playing players in the positions they play and let them thrive in what they do best.

I am really concerned that with all of the manager upheaval like Jurgen Klopp and Xavi leaving, we will miss out on any top manager if we continue with Pochettino. My choice would be Roberto De Zerbi, for what it is worth.

The players also need to step up as they now play for Chelsea. There is too many of them that go missing on big occasions, too many of them that don’t step up and take responsibility, too many individual errors, and too many injuries. Spend time and money on recovery; how can a near 40 year old player in Thiago Silva be more available than someone who is under 23?

I do have to cut the players some slack as a lot of them are inexperienced and there aren’t many in the squad you can rely on week in and week out to get us out of situations. But. step up and be that guy for your teammates, you have made it to your dream of playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, don’t waste the opportunity.

In conclusion to all of the above, there is not one singular person or department to blame for the situation that we are in right now, but collectively you all need to step up and do better, or the owners need to replace the people making the football decisions.

I sit in the Matthew Harding Upper surrounded by people who have followed Chelsea before we were elite. We will always love Chelsea, but we are tired of being mediocre and we need to return to the top.

Thank you if you have read all of this, I would love to hear your opinions below and debate in the comments section.

Danny Windsor