What exactly is wrong at Chelsea?

Premier League giants Chelsea have been on a roller-coaster ride for the past year and a half. The Roman Abramovich era came to a turbulent end as the war between Russia and Ukraine meant that the highly successful Russian owner had to sell the club.

In came the American consortium, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake capital, with concerns among the Chelsea fans whether the London-based club would continue their spending spree..

Those concerns were quickly rubbished as Todd Boehly and co went all out to back incumbent manager Thomas Tuchel, bringing in a host of big-name players, including Raheem Sterling from Manchester City, Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli and Wesley Fofana from Leicester City.

But things behind the scenes were far from rosy as there was a breakdown in communication between the new owners and the highly popular German manager. Amidst all the chaos, even the latest match predictions couldn’t have foreseen this outcome. Tuchel was eventually sacked from his position after a UEFA Champions League defeat against Dinamo Zagreb, leaving Chelsea without a sporting structure and an elite-level manager.

Graham Potter’s experience didn’t work out

The owners would quickly look to rectify that but there was now a complete U-turn in philosophy. Graham Potter from Brighton and Hove Albion, despite being relatively unproven at the top level, was handed a long-term contract, with the vision of him being the long-term head coach at the club.

The management structure was also set in stone, with Paul Winstanley from Brighton and Lawrence Stewart from AS Monaco being appointed as the co-sporting directors. Christopher Vivell from RB Leipzig was appointed as the technical director. All of these men had big reputations of scouting and signing unproven talents who had a high ceiling, a far cry from the Abramovich era where Chelsea would sign the best players in the world and more often than not blow out the competition when it came to signatures from the top talent.

After a steady start, Potter’s inexperience quickly came to the fore as results started to get worse and worse. His position was further compromised as Chelsea went on a heavy spending spree in the January window, going on a 300 million pound spending spree. This is despite Potter’s appeals that overcrowding an already bloated squad would come as a bane. The signings were all relatively unproven with high ceilings, led by the almost 200 million pound outlay on Ukrainian Mykhailo Mudryk and Argentinian Enzo Fernandez. Other arrivals included Noni Madueke, Joao Felix on loan, Benoit Badiashile, and David Datro Fofana.

This left Potter with the task of managing a bloated squad and reports started coming out that the club had to build a new dressing room to fit in all the players at Stamford Bridge.

In this enviable task, Potter could simply not rise to the occasion and after a string of poor results, was eventually sacked as Chelsea were left languishing at the bottom half of the table. Meanwhile, with Champions League qualification for the next season under question, issues of Chelsea meeting the Financial Fair Play requirements also started to rear their head.

After Bruno stepped in for one game against Liverpool, Chelsea brought back club legend Frank Lampard in a caretaker capacity, with the owners looking to pacify an increasingly frustrated fanbase and try to salvage their season.

It did not work out as Lampard faced the same issues that Potter did and his further lack of tactical nous only made things bad to worse. Chelsea looked shambolic at the back and toothless in attack as one of the worst seasons in the club’s history ended with them finishing 13th in the Premier League.

Insane amount of Spending by Todd Boehly

The summer window would be a big test for the owners who decided to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as the manager, after a long and exhaustive process. But the most important story was the squad clearance that the owners embarked upon, again leaving people questioning whether the owners had a plan for the club at all. Almost the whole first team was gutted down and shipped off, with Chelsea raising over 250 million from the sales of Kai Havertz, Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mateo Kovacic and N’golo Kante.

The spending spree would also continue with the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Nicholas Jackson, Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo, and Cole Palmer arriving. Chelsea’s spending spree in three windows under the new ownership had now crossed the 1 billion pound mark, in what was an unprecedented outlay.

Mauricio Pochettino was left with the unenviable task of basically making a completely new squad gel together in only one pre-season. The squad also lacks any form of experience apart from Thiago Silva, with most other players being under the age of 23 and having limited experience at the top level.

The results have reflected in Chelsea’s poor start to the season, though Pochettino can take solace in the fact that Chelsea have played well in most games.

But it has only raised further eyebrows on the Boehly and Clearlake ownership, who have taken a hasty approach with their transfer policy, basically both gutting and regenerating the squad in one single window. If Chelsea has a poor season again, the fans will certainly start to question whether these owners are fit to run a football club of the magnitude of Chelsea, as there has been a serious lack of direction at the club. The move to leave the squad without experience is also certainly baffling and investing in a number of wonderkids is a massive gamble. This season could well prove to be a make-or-break for them.

As for the question of what exactly has gone wrong at Chelsea, one simply can’t look beyond the ownership. Most of their decisions have been baffling and haphazard in nature, leaving the club and the Chelsea fans reeling and worrying about their future.