The Transition: How the rapid change in system has affected Chelsea and the expectations of fans

A consortium led by American billionaire Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital acquired Chelsea on the 30th of May 2022 after a long running saga.

But, a lot of both positive and negative circumstances have surrounded the club since then from the sacking of well appreciated coach, Thomas Tuchel and a lot more. To much larger part of the Chelsea supporters, the transition seem to be limited only to the change in ownership but there is more to it. 

With then club director – Marina Granovskaia and well respected Advisor – Petr Cech leaving after the takeover was completed, a significant change happened almost immediately after the summer window of 2022 closed.

The coach that led Chelsea to the Champions League glory more than a year ago at the time was sacked. This caused a lot of uproar between fans and the club as most felt it was an unjust sacking. Many felt it was because of the inconsistent run of game at the time which was still not bad as it is now but from the clubs point of view, they did not both share the same vision which led to his sacking.

A lot more sacking would follow which even extended to the club’s ground caretaker. Only a few are left who were employed under the ownership of Roman Abramovich.

The vision the new owners shared would be totally different from what every Chelsea fans were used to before under Roman Abramovich. And this is the real transition, following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea hired Graham Potter from Brighton giving a five year contract which is not a really common number the club would offer coaches.

The deal also means Chelsea made Potter the most expensive coach ever, thanks to a clause Brighton had in his contract. Extending this to their transfer targets, Chelsea, led by Todd Boehly would go all out in the January transfer window and pull one of the most shocking move in football.

Eight players were signed and that includes a six month loan deal for João Felix and the mega signing of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in a deal worth over £106m, while Mykhaylo Mudryk also joined from Shaktar in a deal which could rise to €100 million.

One thing was evident in these Chelsea moves – going for young players, all eight players signed have come under the age 23, and the strangest of them all is the length of the contract. Eight or more years. This strategy has shown how the new owners view things differently from what it as been before.

How things have changed in the space of the ten months will also affect the club negatively, a lot of pressure have since then mounted on the club as their performances was not telling as their spending’s. A petition that gained over 48,000 signature calling for the Chelsea head coach to be sacked shows how bad the situation was, at the club having be sitting tenth on the league standing .

The danger of missing out of the UEFA Champions League next season is now of high possibility. It is hard to trust “A Process” without results but maybe it will be right to stick to the new plan of a long term vision. Only time will tell maybe it was right to do things this quickly as regard spending and hiring.

Author : Fasuyi Boluwatife