We're all exhausted. So let's just back our young team

Chelsea fans have been through a lot. We need some stability...

I was chatting to some Chelsea fans recently, and one of them said, “we’re all exhausted”.

It gave me pause, because it rang so deeply true.

Chelsea fans have been through a LOT in the last two and a half years. Of course, its not remotely comparable to the victims of war and injustice in the world. However, in the context of our privilege and as football fans, its a LOT.

Chelsea fans saw the club we love dragged through the mud by the media and politicians alike. Articles opening saying we should be relegated, almost celebrating the possibility we might go out of business completely. Hyperbole, scaremongering and myth making to scare fans. I remember headlines talking about children who were Chelsea fans being attacked or bullied at school for it, almost as if Chelsea Football Club and Chelsea fans were solely responsible for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

I know myself, my stress levels, my anxiety, all went through the roof. Every day, waiting for news to secure the club's future. Every day reading headlines saying we might go bankrupt and what would happen if this happened.

All of us felt the emotional strain of it.

I remember the sigh of relief the day the sale closed, and sanctions were lifted. I breathed a sigh of relief.

But then, in the last two years, we’ve had a huge amount of change. It was necessary change too. There are charges hanging over the club from the previous ownership, and my own view, is the new owners club decided to do a huge turnover of staff in order to get as much distance as possible from them.

The club had almost no business or sporting structure. Co-owner Behdad Eghbali wasn’t actually wrong when he talked about that in his infamous comments from 2022.

For example, in 2020 our books showed a loss of £90m, within PSR rules, but they also showed Roman had put £243m cash into the club, to cover losses. Without him, our losses would have been well over £300m and we’d have been in serious trouble for financial breaches, for years.

Bottom line, we weren’t well run as a business. But in truth didn’t need to be, we had a generous owner who loved our club and was willing to bankroll our success, and we all, rightly, loved him for it, and will always be grateful.

In terms of sporting structure, we had the infamous Scott Mclaghlan running our scouting. It was reported at the time, there was barely any data sharing at the club, and not much data stored. We had been generally poor in recruitment for a few years. We’d spent the same as Manchester City between 2017 and May 2022, but been consistently 25-30 points behind in the league.

So, the owners had to rebuild the whole internal structure of the club, at the same time as the club had lost two top CBs on frees, and the squad needed a rebuild. They took over during a transfer window, so had no time to plan ahead or build a sporting structure before their first transfer window.

This, of course, in hindsight, led to a hugely unstable season. We finished 12th, spending a lot of money, sacking two managers and it looked a mess. Change was going on on the pitch, off the pitch, and behind the scenes. It was basically a new club. Again, there was so much change, so quickly, it was tough for us fans to keep up. Mixed emotions and several legends left and new hires were made, whilst results between Jan-May 2023 were a disaster.

Last season saw another new manager, more new signings, and a tough first half of the season, which again, was hugely draining for fans. One bad season was understandable or we could deal with, two wasn’t expected. We also had an unimaginable number of injuries to deal with. From December onwards we turned it around, being the fourth best team in the Premier League in that time. But the uncertainty remained, with speculation around the manager almost from January/February onwards and many fans turning on him (including myself, for a while).

Now the structure behind the scenes, with sporting directors, global scouting directors, and scouts of various kinds all in place and stable. Joe Shields, is the shining light of that, proving his talent ID is world class. Yet, it has been still another summer of change.

We have yet another new head coach, Enzo Maresca, and lots of signings. Many fans are confused. A lack of communication from the owners directly to the wider fanbase, other than some letters in programme notes (which I’ve shared before) has meant many many fans have no idea what the plan or strategy is, or the ambition of the owners, apart from their own reading of what they see.

The bottom line is, Chelsea have not had stability from the day we were sanctioned back in March 2022. Not for a single moment.

This isn’t just about the manager either, its about the squad, the staff, results, everything.

That’s what I believe all of us need right now. Some stability. Stability in the squad. Stability in the head coach’s office. Stability in our sporting and business structure. And above all, we need a team we can believe in, who can deliver consistent results. We need to feel some hope again. We all put hope in the new ownership, and for many reasons, some have lost all hope, Some no longer believe in the project, and that’s their right. Some of us still do, me included, but many don’t.

We may have a transfer ban soon, which may give us some breathing room with the playing staff. It sounds like Behdad Eghbali really wants to give Enzo Maresca time, even if we don’t achieve Champions League football. I hope that’s the case. Changing coaches every 12 months doesn’t achieve anything.

I think this emotional exhaustion we all feel just adds to the anger and frustration, and makes us less patient, even lethargic. That’s totally understandable. Many fans have never seen us in this position before and we’ve been through a lot. I think the desire to give up might be less about support, but more about emotional exhaustion and lack of stability. Fans have maybe lost the emotional and physical will to be patient, and let's face it, weren’t used to being patient anyway.

If you dislike the owners and directors, that’s OK

If you don’t like our new head coach or his style of play, that’s OK.

If you’re concerned about the clubs future, that’s OK.

If you’re sick of excuses and just want to win again, that’s OK.

And if you’ve had enough and are just lethargic and apathetic

We’re all entitled to our views. I believe they all ultimately, in the main, they come from our shared love of Chelsea.

I personally believe wherever we stand, the best we can do for our club, is forget about the owners and directors and any gripes we have with them. Instead, lets just focus on supporting the team who go and represent us on the pitch, even the players we don’t necessarily rate or want. This young team who proved many times last season, with the comebacks, that they do care. And back our new head coach who’s been in post a month, and one competitive game, against the world champions.

The old song goes “Cheer us on in the sun and rain, cos Chelsea, Chelsea is our name.”. Maybe for some of us it is raining hard right now. But we need, in my view, to cheer on the team regardless.

I believe our time will come again, in time. In the meantime, let's support our team and do our part in helping bring those times back to Chelsea.

The Score