Chelsea FC- The Art Of Shooting Yourself In The Foot

By Shivam Chaturvedi
12 years Ago

Do you hear the laughter coming from the end of the corridor? Itai??i??s not one of those David Letterman jokes, its Chelsea they are laughing at. Not that it is anyway unwarranted, in-fact for the past few months Chelseaai??i??s board and management (pronounced as Roman Abramovich in Russian) have made some wonderfully thought-out decisions( read trigger happy) with the sole aim of establishing Chelsea as the biggest laughing stock in world football. Evidence would suggest that the plan is working.

However those who follow the fortunes of theAi??Blues of ai???Sarfai??i??-West London are well aware that going out of the way to spoil the all good work done over several seasons in a moment of madness has become a norm rather than an exception at Chelsea Football Club. Since the arrival of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have presented a managerial circus so entertaining and fascinating that you might as well turn off your daily dose of entertainment and cast a look to your heartai??i??s content Ai??at the laughable mess that has been created.

Back in 2003, Chelsea as a club was still in its infancy when compared to the giants of the English game; Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Abramovich arrived with the intention of not only challenging this domestic triopoly but also embarking on an ambitious drive to make Chelsea a European powerhouse. A decade on, Chelsea have managed to win everything in football, have as good a squad asAi??they’veAi??ever had but still find themselves on crossroads. There is no definitive plan for the future; there is no certain direction that the club looks to be moving in. And this has not happened for the want of opportunities. Several times in the ten years of Abramovich era, Chelsea have had the chance to achieve something special in terms of longevity and continuity but they have managed to shoot themselves in the foot every single time, with surprising and yet regular stupidity.

The first of these was the one that started it all; the unceremonious departure of ai???The Special Oneai??i??, the man who had built THE Chelsea

team. On that day, the reasons given were something on the lines of ai???unsatisfactory resultsai??i?? and ai???mutual consentai??i?? but the actual reasons remained all too apparent. Mourinho had failed to incorporate Andriy Shevchenko, one of those infamous ai???Abramovich Signingsai??i??, in his starting eleven. Sheva was a wonderful talent but he had injury issues from the very beginning in his time at Chelsea and it justAi??wasn’tAi??meant to be for him. However this was only the tip of the iceberg. Abramovich continued to meddle in everyday affairs of the club, which was never going to cut through with a personality like Joseai??i??s and the appointment of Avram Grant as director of football did not help either. And so Chelsea parted company with Jose Mourinho.Ai?? As one Chelsea fan pointed out, ai???He was supposed to be our Alex Fergusonai???. Sir Alex or not, he was unequivocally loved and respected at Stamford Bridge by the players and staff alike and his departure shook the club to the very core. This was a hard one to recover from.

Then after a couple of ai???not so successful seasonsai??i??, Chelsea appointed Carlo Ancelotti to take over the reins at Stamford Bridge. Carlo guided the Blues to the first Premier League and FA Cup double in their history in his first season at the club. Under his tutelage several youngsters made their first team debuts and with the departure of senior figures in Ballack, Carvalho and Joe Cole among others it seemed Chelsea were willing to make that stride forward towards stability. Midway through the season, Ray Wilkins was bundled out and Michael Emenalo was brought in which created tensions at the club and proved decisive in the Premier League as Chelsea slipped up dramatically. Twelve months on from winning the domestic double, Carlo was sacked in the tunnel at Goodison Park after losing out to Manchester United in the race for the title and failing to get Fernando Torres, another of those ai???Abramovich Signingsai??i??, firing. The chance to build on success was lost again.

Chelsea were left feeling blue as the disastrous Andre Villas Boas reign unfolded. Things were bad and it almost looked like the club was spiraling downwards before a club legend came out of nowhere, just like he had scored the 30-yard screamer out of nowhere all those years ago in an FA Cup final that changed Chelsea forever, to rescue the club from its predicament and guided the Blues to their first Champions League triumph in a memorable campaign. Di Matteo then had to wait for weeks to be given the job full time while Chelseaai??i??s board flashed false smiles towards Guardiola. He took such blatant indignity in his stride and settled down to the job. There was a general air of patient anticipation towards the Italian as under him the team began to adapt to a new style of play. There was always going to be a rough patch, but the man who deserved nothing less than a heroai??i??s departure (if at all), was sacked in the Cobham training ground at 4 in the morning after returning from Turin.

And to top this most disgraceful of actions, Chelsea chose to appoint former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez. While the animosity between Liverpool and Chelsea over the last decade is nothing new, the incredible stupidity ofAi??bringingAi??in Benitez certainly was new. Benitez is a good hard-working manager but he can never be the right man for Chelsea, not even in the capacity of an interim. From the day of his appointment to the 3-2 defeat at the hands of Newcastle, it has been a consistent downfall in terms of results, the desire, the attitude of the team to win, of the mood at Stamford Bridge. There have been flashes ofAi??brillianceAi??in between but it is not enough for a team hoping toAi??competeAi??on all fronts. Chelsea are no longer a team that can win the league title, they have become a ‘Cup side’ at best. In a season when Chelsea finally had a chance to put in place a structure and a vision, to achieve stability, itai??i??s back to picking up the leftover crumbs and fighting for much less than this squad is capable of.

Benitez was never the right man for Chelsea

Chelsea currently have 22 youngsters out on loan to various clubs throughout Europe. Some of them such as Courtois, De Bruyne, McEachran and Chalobah are doing incredibly well at their respective clubs. So how exactly is the Chelsea looking at their situation? Does Benitez get in touch with these players on a regular basis? Does he discuss their progress with them personally? Does he care about Chelseaai??i??s youth and future? YouAi??wouldn’tAi??want to bet your money on him, who knows that heai??i??ll be gone at the end of season andAi??isn’tAi??particularly known for his love for Chelsea. This could not only be a potential hindrance to Chelseaai??i??s progress but also to these youngsters.

Sadly none of it matters to Abramovich, who probably just wakes up some day and decides that he wants his team to play like Barcelona; Angels dancing on the bylines and poetry being written down by playersai??i?? movement. There is nothing in place to replicate Barcelonaai??i??s, or for that matter any othersai??i??, success model and yet the ai???big-nameai??i?? manager he appoints must achieve it all. He, along with the board, does not care about developing a long term vision but will throw money at every short term fix. In a desire to see a team built around ‘his signings’, he has sacked managers who could have taken Chelsea forward. He has let his ego and a football brain the size of a humming-bee come in the way of the success of the club he loves.

And this is the reason why Chelsea will continue to underachieve no matter how good the players in their squad, if they continue down this road. They might still win a trophy at the end of this season, but will it actually have earned them anything, will Chelsea have made any progress? A year that should have seen a gradual progress towards a goal bigger than a trophy cabinet is now one to forget and Chelsea must start all over again the next season.

A few months on from their greatest triumph to the shambolic mess now, you just could not have made it up, unless it is Chelsea ofcourse. They know how to shoot themselves in the foot at just the right time.

Categories: Chelsea FC, English Premier League, Features
Tags: Abramovich Chelsea FC Rafael Benitez

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