Chelsea FC: Football Project or Waste of Time?

If there is one topic in football that has everyone divided right down the middle, then, it surely has to be the matter of Chelsea Football Club. The Russia-Ukraine war crossed so many borders and even into sports, so much so that, it had far reaching consequences on Chelsea as a football entity. How so? Its owner, the Russian Oligarch, Roman Abramovich, had strong ties with the Russian government which was waging war against the beloved darling of the West, Ukraine, and so, heads began to roll and several Russians involved in sports suffered casualties as a result. Till date, Russia is ousted from participating in the Euros and Russian teams are excluded from UEFA competitions.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before the UK government turned their threats of sanctions against Abramovich into concrete enforcement. Soon after, the billionaire was forced to sell off the club, with the proceeds designated for victims of the Ukraine war. With the sale came the end of the Roman Empire in London. After close to two decades in charge, one of football’s richest clubs changed hands and in came Clearlake, a consortium of owners, some from America, with ownership of Dodgers, one of the most successful baseball sides in recent American history.

Clearlake, with Todd Boehly as its face, made quite a splash, signing so many players and spending a staggering 1billion pounds in a little over a year at the helm of affairs. The owners were in for business, or so fans thought. Chelsea were the Kings of the transfer window, albeit, losers in real life. “This is a project,” the owners were quick to point out to fans and so, every money spent in the transfer market helped console fans and shield them from events happening in real life.

While Chelsea fans are famously known to be an impatient lot, they, surprisingly kept faith with this “project” they were sold on for quite some time. But, then again, there is a limit to patience and when, 3yrs into the reign of the new owners, the club was yet to taste Top 4 spot, talk more of winning the Premier League or any title at that, the groans and moans became loud. For a 3yr project, at least, tangible evidence had to be shown to fans in order to keep the believing. At Chelsea, sadly, no is the case.

A peep into the club’s transfer activity becomes cause for serious anxiety. For starters, pundits scratch their head as to why, after spending over 1.5billion, the club still lacks a top Striker like Haaland or Harry Kane. and still lacks a top Goalkeeper as well. That is mind blowing on its own, if not disappointing to say the least.

The club appears to have focused on signing relatively untested players, as well as very young talents that they hope can grow with the club and perform for decades to come. While that long-term vision appears beautiful on paper, the reality is that you need a short-term plan to keep that dream alive. You can’t plan for dinner without trying to grab breakfast, or, at least, lunch before then. There’ll be an uproar, if not a civil war.

Ex-Players like John Obi Mikel, Drogba and co have stressed on the need for an interim plan while the long-term plan takes shape. The squad clearly lacks leaders like in the old days when titans like Lampard, John Terry, Drogba and co ruled the dressing room. Young players coming in had senior figures to look up to and help them integrate seamlessly. Right now, it looks like chaos, a clear case of the blind leading the blind. It’s just a group of kids trying to hold their hands against the storm. It all feels so chaotic watching from the outside.

Then, we go back again to the issue of an unavailability of a top striker and top Goalkeeper. Arsenal have got two top Goalkeepers (Ramsdale and Raya) and a very well drilled forward line. Man City boasts of Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez (before his departure). In Germany, Bayer Leverkusen boasts of Victor Boniface, Patrick Shick and their likes. It is no, therefore, no surpise to see these teams win trophies or, at least, come whiskers away from doing so (in Arsenal’s case). The striker Chelsea currently possess used to be the second choice at Spanish side, Villareal! Think how crazy that sounds. How do you challenge for the league with a calamitous Goalkeeper in Robert Sanchez and without a recognized hit man in attack. The plan is for Jackson to, someday, become world class out of nowhere? Wow. What a gamble that is.

Now, I do get the excitement and belief the owners have in some signings they’ve made for the future. Teenage sensations, Estevao Willian and Kendry Paez (both in South America), look ready to take the world by storm, but, then again, how many “next big things” have we seen crumble under the pressure at big clubs and fizzle away into oblivion? So many. Now you get why the label, “gamble,” came up. It all feels like a huge risks. It may or may not work and quite frankly, the odds of it not working appears even higher that the famed China wall.

It would have sufficed to have, at least, one top quality Goalie like Maignan or Diego Costa to marshal this young defence, as well as a deadly goal scorer like Victor Osimhen of Napoli to lead the attack. Those two signings, alone, could prove to be the difference, but, no, they keep faith in shaky Sanchez in goal, while refusing the chance to sign Osimhen permanently, seeking, instead, for a loan move with an option to buy. Astonishing that a struggling club can take this kind of transfer stance.

During the start of their English Premier League opener with Champions, Man City, the mood of Chelsea fans was summed up when, 5-10mins to the end of the game fans had already started trooping out of the stadium in their thousands. It was a sight for sore eyes. The fans appear to have had enough of this “project” turned mediocrity. They want results and signing more untested infants with “potential” is just not going to cut it anymore.

Mikel, in a recent interview, said he quizzed one of the Directors at Chelsea and the reply he got was that the project is a “5-10yr project!” 5 what? Mikel was livid just as many fans are. This is not Brighton or Sheffield Wednesday. This is Chelsea and in 5, or even 10yrs, what you’d have is a full blown war if the trophies haven’t started rolling in. No big club should demand patience from its fans for that ridiculous amount of time.

It begs the question yet again: Is this still a project or just a waste of everyone’s time. Quite frankly, the owners look clueless to me. I would have, maybe, believed in this project if the club hadn’t sacked 5 Coaches already. How do you preach “project” on one hand and show such inconsistency with Managers on the other. It took Sir Alex Ferguson almost five years to start winning trophies at Manchester United, fine, but, at least, United didn’t go sacking one million Coaches within that time frame. They earmarked a Manager for the project, gave him free reins, believed in him and weathered the storm. By sacking Managers left, right and center, Boehly and his Clearlake friends have shown how confused they really are. It screams “trial and error,” more than it screams “project.”

These owners have got to get their acts together and pretty soon at that. Fans are at their wits end. They must show signs of competing in the now in order to get the club fans behind them. If they lose the fans, they lose everything. The club is nothing without the fans. Pursue your project, but, then, put in place short-term measures that inspire belief once again.

Roman Abramovich also had a project at Chelsea and that made him spend an obscene amount of money on teenagers, but, even he knew that Chelsea would have been doomed if he didn’t acquire the Drogbas, Ashley Coles and Hazards of this world. Clearlake need to do the same as well if Chelsea is going to survive the next 5yrs.

This is Chelsea and 5yrs is too long a time to go trophy-less. There is loyalty and there is naivety. Blind loyalty is naivety and Chelsea fans will not choose the latter indefinitely.