Chelsea football club, a football team in crisis?
The Blues have spent over £1 billion and currently sit 14th in the Premier League, with just six wins in the whole of 2023. Although Chelsea's new season has been dubbed a "New Era," it is obvious that there are still issues that need to be resolved.
Rebuilding The Rebuild
Unfortunately Chelsea are once again in a rebuild process. Some fans may see this as a positive but the only reason they're having to rebuild is because the last rebuild they tried is currently failing.
Due to the club spending so much over the last year or so, they had to sell the dead wood during this window. Big players such as Kai Havertz and Mason Mount left the club for Premier League rivals, only to be replaced by the likes of youngsters: Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer.
The London club are rebuilding the wrong way. They're spending big money on young and some unproven talent that may not work out in the Premier League.
Cole Palmer, a 21-year-old, cost Chelsea more in the end than Maddison cost Spurs, and Romeo Lavia, a 19-year-old, cost Chelsea an initial £53 million, or almost £20 million more than Ward-Prowse cost West Ham. Rice joined Arsenal and set a record for the most expensive British player, but Chelsea beat that by spending £115 million to acquire Moises Caicedo.
Long-term success of the plan is still a possibility, but Chelsea must face significant short-term suffering. With five cautions in his first six games and a subsequent ban, Chelsea's striker Nicolas Jackson best exemplifies how that carelessness has cost them.
Mixed Messages To The Players
All of this has added to the confusion, with Noni Madueke, a January addition, falling down the pecking order after being given a major part towards the end of the prior campaign, and Trevoh Chalobah wondering why Chelsea seems so eager to move him.
Given the summer's unclear messaging from the top, Chelsea players may be excused for not knowing whether they are staying or leaving.
Conor Gallagher believed he may be sold throughout the entire summer and up to the last day of the transfer window, but he has played every game this season and has served as captain when Reece James and Ben Chilwell have been absent.
Chilwell was named vice-captain but has started the last two games on the bench and is yet to make his preferred left-back positional debut. Mauricio Pochettino, the club's manager, gave Ian Maatsen positive feedback on his season prospects before revealing that Burnley had made a deadline-day offer.
Injury Crisis
Pochettino has attempted to play Enzo Fernandez in a more advanced role since Chukwuemeka's injury, but it has not been successful. Reece James, the right-back who provides such a strong attacking threat, has also been significantly missed.
Pochettino had to once again use an alternate strategy because Chelsea's 0-0 draw with Bournemouth had 12 players out injured. Due to injuries, Christopher Nkunku and Romeo Lavia have yet to make their club debuts, while the exciting Carney Chukwuemeka's knee injury vs West Ham proved more severe than initially thought. The suspensions that Jackson and Malo Gusto received against Villa last week will cause Pochettino more issues when they play Fulham.
Reasons Chelsea Fan's Can Be Optimistic
During this two year rebuild process the club have targeted a younger generation of talent, turning down the likes of James Maddison and James Ward-Prowse who have excelled at their new clubs this season. Bringing Moises Caciedo who came off an unbelievable season at Brighton last campaign. The club also brought in 22 year old world cup winner Enzo Fernandez for a world record fee at the time. Chelsea's new transfer approach has brought the teams average age down too 23.1 which gives them the youngest squad in the Premier League for this season.
The club are clearly building for the future rather then the present, a lot of fans may not like this but I do believe Chelsea have a plan under the Pochettino which will come together at some point in the near future.
Where do you think Chelsea's main problem is coming from? Let us know!
Written by Joshua Lucas
Twitter- lucas15_josh
Instagram- Josh_lucas15
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