For a long time, home wins by Chelsea FC against a newly promoted Premier League player were hardly mentioned. They had become commonplace. Even the club itself saw such achievements only as fulfilling a duty.
But since the oligarch Roman Abramovich was forced to sell his shares in the club in the spring because of his closeness to Russia’s ruler Vladimir Putin (which he disputes), winning for Chelsea is no longer a matter of course. Before the World Cup break, there were five unsuccessful league games in a row, including three defeats. And so it was almost breaking news in England on Tuesday night that Chelsea beat relegation-threatened newcomers AFC Bournemouth 2-0.
But despite the victory, the newspaper wrote Times, the Londoners felt “the familiar feeling of defeat” because regular defender Reece James, who had just recovered, was injured again. His replacement put a similar strain on the mood as the numerous victories of the top Premier League teams on this matchday. The Blues are stuck in the middle of the table and are in danger of missing out on qualifying for the Champions League. That scenario would hurt the ambitions of Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and his fellow campaigners. Their goal is to raise club sales to over one billion in the foreseeable future. Most recently, the balance sheet did not even show half.
Unlike Abramovich, who offset ongoing losses with his own loans and would only have made money from a sale of the shares (if the proceeds had not been withdrawn from him), the new Chelsea management have regular profits in mind. The owners – a consortium of investors led by US billionaire Boehly and his business partner Mark Walter, behind which is above all the capital vehicle Clearlake Capital, which contributed the bulk of the £4.25 billion club takeover – see the growth potential in the television revenues, which have been rising so far, and in the Expansion of the fan base, especially in the USA. For this, however, sporting competitiveness and a renovation of the ailing stadium at Stamford Bridge would be almost mandatory. And: a drastically changed transfer balance.
For this venture, the former investment banker Boehly turned Chelsea inside out within half a year in an unprecedented way – not only by completely replacing the management team, but also the technical director Petr Cech and the trainer Thomas Tuchel. In addition, Boehly signed numerous new players as interim sports director in the summer. Such an upheaval in such a short time is a novelty.
The Londoners spent a quarter of a billion pounds on eight players
A new era dawned at Chelsea in May with the change at the top of the club. At the end of the season, the owners parted ways with the four-person board led by general manager Marina Granovskaia, who was closely associated with Abramovich. Instead, the body now includes nine other members in addition to Boehly, all of whom have business acquaintances with the chairman. In this context, the former Chelsea goalkeeper Cech resigned before Boehly dumped the German Tuchel after exactly 100 days in London – because of different opinions.
The rift became apparent in the summer preparations when Chelsea had to strengthen the squad under time pressure. Serious season planning was not possible because Chelsea was only allowed to maintain emergency operations until Abramovich left. This is one of the reasons why the Blues lost their defensive leader Antonio Rüdiger to Real Madrid on a free transfer. To compensate for the departures and to satisfy the ambitious Tuchel, who feared for his team’s competitiveness, Chelsea made expensive purchases, even very expensive ones.
A quarter of a billion pounds was spent on eight players. Professionals came for every part of the team: Cucurella, Fofana and Koulibaly in defense, Chukwuemeka and Zakaria in midfield, Aubameyang and Sterling in attack – as well as a reserve goalkeeper (Slonina). Before a powerful eleven could develop, Tuchel had to go. Chelsea brought in Englishman Graham Potter to succeed him – for a further £15m from league rivals Brighton & Hove Albion. Potter, 47, had earned a good reputation there with construction work. In particular, the attractive style of play and a remarkable start to the season helped him to the lucrative Chelsea offer. But things are not going as hoped for Potter there, he has tried out all sorts of players and formations with moderate success.
After Rüdiger’s farewell, an emotional leader is still missing on the pitch. The less and less playing captain César Azpilicueta, 33, is not. An alternative would also be needed for midfield clearer N’Golo Kanté, who is only available intermittently due to injury and whose contract expires at the end of the season. And Chelsea have been looking for a reliably hitting attacker for some time. German international Kai Havertz played in the front position against Bournemouth. He did score a goal (1-0/16th) and an assist for Mason Mount (2-0/24th), but his total of five goals this season in 21 games are not enough for the club’s title claims.
Squad planning is now the responsibility of the newly acquired Technical Director Christopher Vivell, 36. Just in time for the upcoming winter transfer period, Chelsea confirmed his commitment last week. The search dragged on for months because several candidates dropped out, including Christoph Freund from RB Salzburg.
The fact that Chelsea reached an agreement with the German Vivell, 36, reveals a lot about the future strategic direction. Because Vivell has spent the past seven years in the Red Bull football department. He initially held various positions in Salzburg, most recently as a strategist for Leipzig until October. And club boss Boehly recently praised nothing more extensively than the approach of the beverage company in football and reported that they wanted to orientate themselves on their club model with branches at several locations.
In order for things to work out at Chelsea, Vivell should discover extraordinary talents as early as in his previous RB stations. According to reports, attacker Christopher Nkunku and defender Josip Gvardiol are at the top of the transfer list – both from Leipzig.
