We seem to be already at that stage under a new manager - one or two bad performances or results - where certain people in the fanbase start to talk about the manager not being good enough. Some people even want him out already (which is utterly crazy).
One thing which continues to stagger me is despite seeing what 3 managers in one season can do to Chelsea - twice in the last four years - some fans still think sacking a manager as soon as things get tough is what “standards” looks like. For these fans, its like a manager has to be winning almost all the time, be in title winning form from the get go and never stop, just to keep his job. This simply isn’t realistic for any manager at any club.
One thing I am seeing is fans start bigging up managers of other clubs doing a good job, like they could do better or they want to play that kind of football. I’m seeing it right now with Cesc Fabregas at Como, and Fabian Hurtzler at Brighton.
This to me is the problem. So lets look at these two managers (and a few others).
First, Cesc Fabregas. He became Como manager in July 2024. He has had two full seasons working with that Como side. Building his squad, implementing a style of play, growing the right mentality and character of that side. In his first 5 league games in charge, he won ONE and in his first league game in charge, he lost 3-0 to Juventus. If he had that start at Chelsea, fans would want him out instantly. But our fans think he’s going to come in and have us playing like Como are in year three, on day one. Again, that’s simply not realistic. There’d be the same rough start, same teething problems, and some of our fans again wouldn’t be able to cope with it.
Fabian Hurtzler, similarly, became Brighton manager in summer 2024. He also has had two full seasons at Brighton. Even 6 months ago, media reports were openly speculating he could lose his job, that things weren’t working at Brighton. Now after a good PL start, he’s suddenly flavour of the month. In his first season, he won only 2 of his first 6 PL games, and at one point went 8 PL games without a win. In his second season he had a run of 1 win in 9 PL games, including 3 defeats. Again, at Chelsea, our fans would absolutely turn on a manager with those kinds of results.
In both cases, it’s taken these managers time to build a style of play, implement the right mentality and culture, and get the squad how they want it to be. If either came to Chelsea, they’d need years to get it right. Any manager would, given our situation.
Giving managers time is a pattern which has been followed at every club who’s had any kind of relative success recently. Bournemouth, for example. They hired Adoni Iraola, now Liverpool manager, back in 2023. In his first 11 PL games, he had 1 win and 7 defeats. But they gave him time and backed him, and in his final season they were unbeaten from January, beat some of the best teams in the country, got into Europe and had their manager poached by Liverpool. And because he was given time to lay those foundations, it made it much easier for another manager to come in and continue his good work.
Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp is another example. In his first season, he finished 8th. His squad wasn’t complete, some players with bad attitudes needed to go, and Liverpool couldn’t stop conceding goals. It took 3 years to build the squad he wanted, and get them playing his way consistently. He needed the right personnel, and time. There was no other way Liverpool were going to get back to the top again. Fans wanted him out. They erected banners to get him sacked, Klopp Out trended on twitter. But Liverpool knew what they had, an elite manager, and gave him time and backing. From 2018 to when he left 6 years later, they won every major competition, 7 trophies in all, challenged for the title 4 times (including the time they won it) and he left a legacy which Arne Slot picked up and continued by winning the title in 2025.
Then of course, Arsenal. They hired Mikel Arteta in 2019. In his first full season, 2020-21, they had a run of 3 wins, 8 defeats and 3 draws in their first 14 PL games. It was Arsenal’s worst start to a season for 40 years. By mid December they were 15th in the league and some even had them as relegation candidates. But they turned it around, relatively speaking, and ended up finishing 8th. They didn’t sack Arteta, they spent massively in the next window to back him. He then proceeded to begin the next season with 3 successive defeats and they were bottom of the league and in their first 8 games, only won 3. But they continued to back him, got rid of toxic players and deadwood in the January window, and ended up finishing 5th and only 5 points behind Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea in 3rd. The following season was the first of their 3 successive 2nd place finishes before finally winning the league last season.
Even Pep Guardiola in his first year, only managed to get top 4 in the very last game of the season. He had his worst season as a manager, and was called “Fraudiola” by many people.
At one point he went on a run of only 3 wins in 9 games and another of 2 wins in 8 games. Again, they backed him, gave him time, and we all know what happened next. 20 trophies in the next 9 years and a great legacy to leave to Enzo Maresca.
I hope you can see a pattern here. Every Premier League club who has had success in the last few years, without exception, whether its Arsenal or Bournemouth, has had managerial stability. They have hired the right manager, backed them in the market, and given them time, even though some poor performances and runs of form. Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal have all spent less than Chelsea since 2011, and since Pep arrived in 2016. All of them have been more successful. Its not just because of better recruitment either, its because they identified the right manager and gave them time and backing.
The two big clubs the England with the most managerial turnover in the last decade are Chelsea and Manchester United. Two clubs who’ve not had serious title challenges, had seasons out of the Champions League, or even out of Europe altogether. Chelsea’s two worst seasons in the last 30 years, we had 3 head coaches. Changing managers all the time no longer works. In fact I don’t think it worked as well as we think under Roman Abramovich. It might have won us some knockout competitions, but the constant change definitely harmed our chances of challenging for the league. Since 2011 we’ve had 13 permanent managers, and only challenged for the league 3 times. Man City and Arsenal have had 3 managers in that time, Liverpool 5.
If people think any manager in the world can come into Chelsea and make us instant title challengers, and get us up to 80+ points, without going through some difficult periods, runs without a win, or bad results or performances on occasion, they’re kidding themselves. Living in a fantasy world. It simply does not happen in football now.
The evidence is in and conclusive, constantly changing managers hinders success, it sabotages any chance of building a dominant team which challenges for the league or Champions League every season. Every time a manager is sacked and a new manager comes in, you start again. It sets the process back, so it delays success even longer. Fans should really think about this the next time they demand a manager sacked, especially when its an elite manager like Xabi Alonso.
Chelsea really have hired one of the best young managers in world football in Xabi Alonso. He’s conclusively shown he’s elite. He won the Bundesliga, a league dominated on and off the pitch by Bayern Munich, with a club who’d never won the Bundesliga, a squad not as good as Bayern’s, a much smaller budget than Bayern’s and he did it unbeaten with the best defence in the league. He also won the domestic cup, and got to a European final in the season. He followed this with the German Supercup and finished 2nd in the league the next season. His win percentage at Real Madrid was 71%. He’s an elite coach and a winner, who knows what it takes to achieve success, in every aspect.
If we as fans and a club can’t give a coach of the level of Xabi Alonso time, we may as well quit with any aspirations of success.
Being “serious” about success now, to me, means hiring an elite coach, building the squad and club around him, and giving him time to implement his ideas and mentality. It means allowing time for bad runs, mistakes, teething problems, and to develop the squad and character of the team. By time, I mean years, not months.
To me, clubs who sack managers every time there’s a bad run, they aren’t serious clubs. They’re not interested in sustained success, just a short term hit to appease fans, and they fundamentally don’t understand how success is achieved in football in today’s game.
It takes more character and toughness to stick with the right manager when its not going so well, than it does to just sack another manager and start over.
Chelsea currently have a squad good enough to achieve 67-70 points, which will be enough for a top 4 position. We have a squad who with a bit of luck could win a domestic cup. Chances are we add a midfielder in January, and another in the summer, maybe with another CB and another attacker at least. There’s a legacy of a weak underbelly, low confidence, low belief and poor mentality at the club, which Xabi Alonso, Jordan Henderson, Danny Welbeck for example, are all at the club to help fix. The people in charge know about the issues we do and are working to address them. It’ll take time to do that, and build a high performance, winning culture with a strong mentality, but we have people at the club who can do that. But it needs time.
Yes, there will be some low moments and we’ll have to endure mockery, as Arsenal and Arteta did. But in time they’ll stop mocking, when the consistency comes, as happened with Arsenal.
The ownership has to give Xabi Alonso time and maybe even look beyond where we finish this season - I still think we’ll make the Champions League, even more so if 5th is CL football again. Because that work is key to getting us back to the top.
But it’s all about patience and time. Many complained we were giving time to the wrong managers, well now we have an elite manager, and we should be giving him time. Not months, but years. Drop the addiction to the dopamine hit of a new manager, if we’re serious about wanting success, give Xabi time - because if we do, recent precedent suggests it WILL come.
The Score
Amazing write up!!
My FAVORITE PART
football in today’s game.
It takes more character and toughness to stick with the right manager when its not going so well, than it does to just sack another manager and start over.
THANK YOU!!
great article!