The defeat away to Fulham was the 6th defeat in the last 8 matches. The 25 points from 18 games this season is the lowest accumulated since the 25 in 18 under Jose Mourinho in 2015/16 in the palpably discordant season. The 6 points from the last 9 games is Chelsea’s worst spell of form since December-February 1994-95 when Chelsea were still getting their heads round the Hoddle revolution and adapting to a completely different style of football.
Of course, that all came good in the end, with Hoddle supplementing young home-grown players with some experienced senior pros and sublime foreign talent. Within 2 seasons, Chelsea had won their first silverware in 26 years and their re-emergence as a major force was underway.
Without Hoddle, there is no Gullit or Vialli. Without Gullit, Vialli and the trophies they won and style of football they embraced then arguably there would have been no Roman Abramovich. No Roman Abramovich and then we would not have witnessed an unparalleled period of success at Chelsea, collecting more trophies than any English club in that period.
Ironically, no Roman Abramovich and we, as supporters, would not be so entitled about winning trophies on a seemingly endless loop and right now spitting the dummy out at the prospect of a barren period under the new regime.
The new regime led by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have not exactly covered themselves in glory. A bizarre summer transfer window in hindsight, culminating in the sacking of the popular and successful Thomas Tuchel is set against a background of massive structural change at the club.
The new owners are clearly implementing a ‘rip it up and start again’ approach to running Chelsea rather than building on the foundations left by the Abramovich era. Eschewing evolution, they’ve skipped revolution and sent the bulldozers in. Frankly it seems like the chaos of the previous regime, but without the trophies.
Coupled with the poor performances and worse results this is all very hard for supporters who have dined at the top table for 25 years to stomach. The mood is getting febrile, which of course, is the last thing that the team and the owners need. None of this is helped by the fact that were Abramovich still in charge, we all know that Graham Potter would have received his P45 by now and a new elite manager would be taking the reigns and in all probability adding to Chelsea’s bursting trophy cabinet by the end of the season.
Poor old Potter. He looks like a manager in a maelstrom and in all probability he is. He’s inherited a mess at the most unstable time at the club for arguably 42 years. It must be like walking on shifting sands and right now he needs a secure foothold.
Apparently, he has been given one. Boehly and Eghbali appear set to stick to their guns that Potter is their man, no matter what happens this season. The trouble is that none of us believe them, so conditioned are we to anything other than instant success being instant failure with the manager paying the price. It will, of course, be interesting to see how steadfast the new owners remain should Chelsea not qualify for the Champions’ League (not impossible but unlikely) and miss out on the revenue it brings in.
Right now, they should be more concerned about avoiding relegation (not impossible but unlikely!). Chelsea are currently 14th in the Premier League form table having won 2, drawn 3 and lost 5 of our last 10 matches. This puts us below even supposedly relegation doomed Nottingham Forest and above only Bournemouth, Southampton, Leicester, Leeds, West Ham and Everton, all of whom should consider themselves to be in a relegation battle.
The reality is that Chelsea must change, despite all the trophy success we had under Roman. Most of us would admit that much of the success recently has papered over the cracks. The fact that we last won the Premier League in 2017, a season when we were unencumbered by European competition should tell you all you need to know. We’ve been a cup team, albeit a very good cup team, since then.
The game has significantly moved on in that time. Billionaire owners have been supplanted by oil rich nations all of whom have come with a strategic plan for world domination. Rather than scrap for 4th place season in, season out, Chelsea need to adapt to catch up and compete for league titles again, so the argument goes.
Having broken the mould with splashing the cash and ‘buying’ success, we are now attempting a financially well backed rebuild and steady growth built on sound finances.
Whatever Potter’s faults are perceived to be: too meek and mild; out of his depth managing a top club with elite players; not having the bearing and swagger of a ‘Chelsea’ manager, he is the man in possession and given the owners’ strategy, sacking and replacing him now is unlikely to have the same impact that Roman’s sackings did and anyway, it just doesn’t fit in with the rebuild strategy.
In my view the only issue I have with Potter’s appointment is that if you are going to rebuild a club of this scale and stature then surely you would give the job to someone with the gravitas and experience to do it. Metaphorically, we’ve given the keys of the Ferrari to a teenager.
Liverpool chose to rebuild with Jurgen Klopp and City with Pep Guardiola, both proven winners with European pedigree. Chelsea have chosen Potter. In mitigation, Arsenal chose Mikel Arteta, who had less coaching experience than Potter. Arteta had an awful start with Arsenal, winning five points from 10 games in 2020-21. And now they sit at the top of the table, with a realistic chance of winning the league for the first time since 2004.
Arteta’s secret was simple. Given the backing by the Arsenal board to implement a much needed rebuild and emerge from the long shadow of the Arsene Wenger years, he did so by weeding out the players who would not buy in to his philosophy and project and focussed on a group of home-grown young players. They may not have won anything, but they were keen and hungry and eager to listen to and learn from their young coach.
If there’s one thing that has plagued nearly every Chelsea manager during the Roman Abramovich era it was player power. Often, as in the case of Scolari, Villas-Boas, Sarri and Benitez it was justified, but the downing of tools in recent seasons by players not fit to lace the boots of the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech is another thing entirely.
Many supporters have long suspected that too many players in Chelsea’s recent history effectively down tools when they don’t fancy the manager or the fight to get us out of trouble.
Right now Potter is in trouble, but if he genuinely has a free pass from the new owners then perhaps he is in a unique position. Every manager at Chelsea under the Abramovich ownership felt the pressure and need to win games and pick up trophies at the end of the season. Inevitably they would put their faith in experienced players, rather than youngsters, and yet on many occasions these players would let the coach down.
Judging from some of the recent performances from players such as Ziyech, Jorginho, Aubameyang, Pulisic, Havertz and Koulibaly to name a few, Chelsea have a collection of players bought by several different managers, to suit different systems who are either not good enough anymore, or were never good enough in the first place or don’t even want to be here.
These are not the kind of players a manager should put his faith in to get the club out of trouble. If Potter’s short-term future is genuinely secure, then perhaps he too should buy in to this new version of Chelsea and select with the future in mind and hang the consequences. Weed out, bench or sell the players who want away, have proven to be not good enough and are not committed to the cause.
Maybe Potter could complete the process Frank Lampard started but under Abramovich was never likely to be allowed to complete.
In a season that may well be over in March, Potter has a golden opportunity to test just how good Chelsea’s academy really is and give regular game time to the likes of Gallagher, Chalobah, Chukwuemeka, Hutchinson, Hall and Humphries. If Potter can turn at least 2 or 3 of the current youngsters into regular starters like Mount and James, he’ll be doing Chelsea, the supporters and the new owners a great service.
Performances might not improve, results might still go against us, but supporters will get behind youngsters who have grown up with the club, get it like they do and will play their hearts out for it. Of course, this all depends on Potter, but I’m sure he’ll get more goodwill from the supporters if he goes down this route, rather than continually picking players who let us and him down.
After his first 19 matches, Potter has won 8, drawn 4 and lost 7 matches. This is exactly the same as Claudio Ranieri and John Neal. There are interesting parallels here, and it could go either way, but if we are having to rip it up and start again, I’d be happier with the John Neal path than the Ranieri one. Over to you Potter…
First published in cfcuk fanzine in January 2023
