Hupu, on May 5, The Athletic UK Chelsea and team reporter team wrote a crisis column.
Choosing the next head coach
This point is obvious at a glance, but it is extremely critical. The current boss has hired five official head coaches in four years. This situation clearly shows that they have not been able to find the most suitable candidate.
Burley took over Chelsea, and Clear Lake Consortium took over Chelsea. At that time, Stamford Bridge made a promise that the frequent changes of head coaches during the tenure of former owner Abramovich would become a thing of the past and would never happen again. However, their related records are actually worse than before.
Enzo Maresca, who only coached Chelsea for eighteen months, became the longest-serving head coach in team history. To be fair, Chelsea insiders stated that they did not want to change the head coach at the beginning of January this year, before Maresca left.
The lack of stability in such a crucial position will inevitably have adverse consequences. Unlike Abramovich's era, there is no "constant winner" in Chelsea's locker room who can continue to win.
What Chelsea needs is a coach who can inspire players and fans, a coach that everyone can trust. The club does not want to make impulsive appointments and will officially announce it after the end of this season.
Among the candidates are outgoing Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraura, Fulham's Marco Silva, and former Real Madrid coach Xavi Alonso.
Give coaches more voice/power
For Chelsea, there have been four previous head coach appointments, which shows that if a coach openly questions Chelsea's unique structure, in other words, questions Chelsea's decision-making methods, just like some coaches, such as Pochettino and Maresca, if they do so, it will lead to unsustainable tensions. However, those coaches who are willing to work quietly and conscientiously in this situation will lack enough authority, and thus will not be able to achieve the results that Chelsea expects on the court.
As a job that has always attracted much attention, coaching Chelsea has always attracted a lot of attention. However, for those coaches who meet the club's requirements, is coaching the current Chelsea attractive enough?
Most top coaches have distinctive personalities and have high demands on players, staff, sports directors and bosses. Many people could justly be called "high maintenance" people.
Over the years, Chelsea fans and journalists who have long covered the club have understood that retaining these managers is often worth it, they build elite cultures, they set winning standards and they win trophies. Many coaches will end up staying on because they are overworked or unpopular, but recent history shows that the junior, more cooperative coaches that BlueCo and sports management are concerned about may not be in such a long-term situation.
Giving absolute control to these elite coaches is not necessarily a wise approach. However, we have to find the right balance, allowing talented coaches to feel empowered to express their opinions and even challenge decisions internally, in order to improve Chelsea's overall standard. Moreover, those sports executives who are truly capable must be able to accept this slightly uncomfortable situation calmly.
Signings – Improvement in key positions
When you're spending well over £1 billion and there are so many people questioning the quality of your squad, it's obvious that the recruitment process needs to be improved.
Let's take a look at the situation on the bench against Nottingham Forest. The only offensive option that might turn the tide is Liam Delap. The other eight players include five defenders, two defensive midfielders and an absolutely indispensable substitute goalkeeper.
Although Chelsea has suffered from many injuries, the point of spending such a huge amount of money is to build a strong team that can deal with any setbacks, and the poor record just proves this situation.
Buy young players who have potential and can grow with their teammates. According to Transfermarkt data, Chelsea has maintained the starting lineup with the youngest average age in the Premier League for three consecutive seasons. However, this approach failed to achieve results. This is because football is not only related to the future, but also related to current victory.
Several unnamed sources told The Athletic that Chelsea will slightly change its recruitment strategy to introduce more experienced and stable players. This does not necessarily mean that the new players will be significantly older, but that they are more mature and better suited to the team's playing environment.
This shows that Chelsea are looking for players who have experience playing in the five major European leagues. These players are familiar with the method of participating in multiple competitions (including European games) in one season and can cope with the pressure and challenges brought by such a dense schedule. They regard this as the key.
Chelsea has already signed winger Giovanni Kunda from Sporting CP and forward Emmanuel Emerga from Strasbourg. The transfer agreements for these two players were reached last year. The club will also consider whether to promote goalkeeper Mike Penders, who is on loan to Strasbourg, to the first team.
Chelsea are still looking for at least one central defender, one midfielder, and one forward to supplement the lineup. However, without the prestige and financial rewards that come with the Champions League, their task of bringing in first-choice targets will become increasingly difficult.
Player sales – clearing out redundancies
A long time ago, during the Chelsea period of Blue Co, selling players seemed to have become an issue that had to be discussed every year. Later, because it failed to enter the Champions League for another season, this issue became more urgent. We have also encountered this situation in the early years.
Nowadays, among the players on loan, the list of players who are obviously too redundant is much shorter than in the past. However, if Chelsea is determined to implement reinforcement measures around the core lineup, then the first team is currently on the edge, and there are many players who can be considered for sale in order to raise funds.
Tosin Adarabioyo is a good choice, Benoit Badiashile is a good choice, Marc Giu is a good choice, Alejandro Ganaccio is a good choice, Delap is a good choice, they contribute to the team's playing time, they contribute to the team's influence. Key to all of these scenarios, and others that may arise on the market, is the ability to secure a transfer fee sufficient to improve Chelsea's budget.
But compared with selling big-name stars, it is much easier to sell marginal players to obtain a considerable amount of revenue, and it is also more acceptable to Chelsea.