Chelsea have lost six games in a row. Photo: Reuters/Matthew Childs.
Chelsea fans who endured yet another humiliation. were probably grateful to Cesc Fàbregas for trying to justify another miraculous championship success next season by declaring it «doable». But even before he signed the dotted line, proposed new head coach Mauricio Pochettino should already know that's not the case. Not with these players, and certainly not when everyone in the club is still learning on the job.
Fabregas, pundit in Sky's coverage of Chelsea's embarrassing sixth successive defeat to Arsenal, said: «We had a very bad season with Chelsea six years ago. We finished 10th if I remember correctly. Jose Mourinho is gone, [Guus] Hiddink has come. He started playing with younger players, [Reuben] Loftus-Cheek, [Andreas] Christensen, Tammy Abraham to give them experience for next year.
“And I remember in April they signed [Antonio] Conte, who came to the training ground, talked to us individually, planned what he wanted to do with us to start the new season anew. And we won the Premier League against [Pep] Guardiola, against [Jurgen] Klopp, against Mourinho at Manchester United. I mean, it's not impossible.»
Even the ever-grinning former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink didn't look convinced, but Fabregas added: «I know you'll tell me what's come up. many new players; it's difficult. But that happened six years ago, and I was there, I experienced it. If you bring in someone with experience, with character who can bring everyone together, who can give a clear idea of what they want to do and work hard and get everyone involved… It's doable.”
The former midfielder Fàbregas is an attractive, brilliant pundit who gives an excellent view of games and players, but in this case he was very wrong. Chelsea have not performed poorly because the players are fed up with Thomas Tuchel, or Graham Potter lacked Conte's aggression, or even because goalkeeper Frank Lampard is tactically inferior to the Italian. This season's impressive turmoil cannot be magically resolved by appointing a new manager, as co-owners Todd Boli and Behdad Egbali must have realized by now.
Assuming he doesn't change his mind after watching Chelsea's latest defeat, Pochettino will have to become a miracle worker just to secure Champions League qualification in his first season in charge, and that in itself is more like for a two-year job, at least.
Mauricio Pochettino rebuilt Tottenham — can he do the same for Chelsea? Credit: Getty Images/Silvestre Szpylma
The 2016-17 class of which Fabregas was a part had of course already won the Premier League title two years earlier, and those in senior positions such as technical director Michael Emenalo, director of Marin Granovskaya and chief physician Paco Biosca, have achieved numerous successes, created and worked in a winning structure.
Pochettino doesn't have the luxury of relying on someone with Emenalo's experience, who would no doubt advise Boeli and Egbali not to make faux pas like entering the locker room and addressing the team after defeats. One of Emenalo's key responsibilities was to help control ownership impulses, as he did when he opposed Roman Abramovich's original plan to sack Carlo Ancelotti in the Old Trafford dressing room after the loss to Manchester United.
The Italian, in Emenalo's eyes, had earned the right to end the season, and since the current owner didn't have him when Potter was fired, there was no immediate plan to fall back on. That's why by the time Mourinho was sacked for the second time, in December 2015, there were already «club staff» such as Steve Holland, Eddie Newton and Christoph Lollichon to help Hiddink, who returned as interim manager.Lampard can currently be seen in the Chelsea dugout alongside Joe Edwards, Ashley Cole and Chris Jones. But they haven't been named publicly because the club is still paying some of Potter's old staff whose status, working, on leave or otherwise, hasn't been confirmed. This summer, Pochettino will bring four of his staff with him, providing his fourth behind-the-scenes overhaul in 12 months.
The fact that Boeli became interim athletic director last summer was, in retrospect, an early red flag for what was to follow, and we hope he and Egbali recognize that the role now shared between Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart much more than flying. to Barcelona for fancy dinners, trying to recruit players and counting the numbers.
There is a huge job ahead of Winstanley and Stewart in securing Pochettino's support and building relationships with the owners and perhaps even with some of the players. Emenalo, in the league season referred to by Fàbregas, was supposed to resolve a serious disagreement between Diego Costa and Conte that threatened to lead the striker to move to China in the middle of the campaign.
Fabregas will no doubt do just that. Recall that he was one of four players, along with John Terry, Cesar Azpilicueta and David Luiz, whom Emenalo called in to carry out a plan to convince Costa to stay until the end of the season and help his teammates finish another Premier League. winner's medal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's behavior at the Emirates on Tuesday night, when he was substituted at half-time in his first start in six months, shows that not enough effort has been put into the problem .
Emenalo identified Conte. as a brilliant manager who has already proven he can instantly influence teams of talented, proven players. Pochettino is more of a builder, a nurturer: his history at Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain suggests that he needs time to create the right environment for his methods to succeed.
All indications are that it will take a long time for this Chelsea team and those in power around Pochettino to fix things. As bad as the 2015-16 season was, the club have never lost more than two games in a row in this campaign, and their longest winless streak was four matches. In the 2022-2023 season, Chelsea not only lost six games in a row under Lampard, but also went unwinnable in nine.
Emenalo famously noticed «palpable divisions» over Mourinho's sacking, with the disparity between the Portuguese, the Chelsea players and the club being the obvious cause of the alarming downfall. The results were not reversed by Hiddink's setup for the remainder of the season, but mood lifted and the team assuaged some of the dissatisfaction among the fans by denying Tottenham a chance to win the title despite having ended the campaign without winning their league title. last four games.
Antonio Conte led Chelsea to the Premier League title with 93 points in 2016–17 . Photo: Reuters/John Sibley. this did not happen at Chelsea this season: Tuchel earned 25% of club points despite being sacked in September.
Tuesday night's trip to Arsenal likely represented Chelsea's last chance to salvage some sort of pride from what should be the club's worst Premier League campaign. They had an opportunity to kill their opponent's title hopes and earn their own bragging rights, and they squandered it within the first 35 minutes.
Look at the side Conte beat Manchester United 4-0 in October of his first league season. Fabregas wasn't even on the bench, as the Italian initially relied on N'Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic in central midfield, with Eden Hazard, Pedro and Costa at the front. Behind, Conte had the experience and leadership of Gary Cahill and Azpilicueta, while Terry was on the bench and in the dressing room. Thibaut Courtois, now the best in the world in his position, was his goalkeeper.
As for their rivals, Manchester City were going through a transitional season following the appointment of Guardiola, Klopp was still far from revolutionizing Liverpool, champions Leicester City had fallen like a stone and Arsenal were in the final throes of the Arsène era. Wenger. Chelsea's biggest rivals this season have been Tottenham Hotspur, under a certain Pochettino, whose young side lacked winning experience.
This doesn't detract from Conte's accomplishments, which have yet to be properly appreciated. But the conditions for him at Chelsea, where the environment was already set for victory, were very different from what Pochettino would find.
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Consider also the competition Pochettino will face. City arguably stronger than ever with striker breaking records, United getting their house in order, Liverpool still ahead of Chelsea and gearing up for a big summer, Arsenal are now strong again which must be reckoned with. and rival clubs are concerned about how fast Newcastle United's project could be accelerated by Champions League qualification.
These are five clubs that will all start next season in a better position than Chelsea, while Tottenham will restart and Brighton and Aston Villa are looking to fill their noses again under great managers.
Tottenham finished fifth in Pochettino's first season, qualifying for the Champions League by finishing third place at the end of his second campaign. A repeat of what happened at Chelsea would represent realistic, healthy progress, while dreams of repeating the 2016/17 season are fantasy. Sorry, Cesk, it's not possible this time, no matter how dejected supporters would like to hear it.
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