Chelsea’s owners want to see improvement, and they are seemingly expecting more right now.
Behdad Eghbali was in the stands watching the Newcastle game on Saturday, and I am sure he is still just as angry as we all are about the result and the god awful performance.
They want more….
Fabrizio Romano:
“Chelsea want to see improvement – they are not happy with the same disappointing results, the same mistakes and these kind of things. They want to see a better level, like they saw against Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City.”
Romano’s next line was “but with a young team you have to be patient.”
So does the long-term vision and project align with the expectations of the club? Does patience bring you UCL qualification?
Seemingly, they want and need Champions League football this season, so has the squad they have built given them any chance of doing that?
I think it’s a bit of both. I think they are maybe a couple of more experienced players and Premier League proven players away from challenging for UCL this season. But with the current squad, perhaps that is a stretch too far and was always going to be?
So why have they set these expectations yet only signed young players who are developing and unproven in this league? That will ALWAYS carry a risk. Maybe they expected a bit more from some of their signings? Maybe they didn’t expect many of them to still need this much time to develop?
Players like Mykhailo Mudryk, who has almost been here a year now yet is still ‘developing’ and is still a ‘raw’ player. We say that about a lot of our current players, and maybe that is the issue? We have signed too many raw players and not enough for the here and now?
But the club are in catch-22 because they wanted to build a young squad for the future but at the same time, the financial rewards that European football brings means they also need UCL football.
But with a new manager and a new and young team, why would anyone realistically think that would be achievable this season?
I do believe that with the squad they built they did feel that it would be good enough to at least challenge for UCL football. And as I said yesterday, until the defeat against Newcastle we actually still were, and arguably we still are challenging for UCL football. But I don’t think there are many Chelsea fans who now at this point feel we have any chance of getting it.
We’ve had some good performances, some very good performances, and some very bad performances. It screams out a lack of maturity and a developing team.
I think fans might have been a bit more accepting of that if we heard from the owners and had their vision and expectations spelt out to us all at the start of the season, rather than hear it through briefings that seem to change for the moment/s we are in.
Again though, we go back to that catch-22 and the fact that they have spent almost £1billion on new players since they arrived here. When that happens, and when UCL football is so important, there is only so much ‘developing’ that you can do.
I think we have recruited some very good players and spotted some very good talent since the new owners and directors have come in. Talent I.D levels have increased a lot. But some of them are just a bit too raw for the here and now, and the here and now is also important.
Personally, I feel we just need more balance and we have been unable to strike that balance in our squad. I’ve felt that from the start of the season so again, this is nothing reactionary from me.