Xabi Alonso is barely in the door and it’s already been a dramatic summer for Chelsea. The on/off/on Granit Xhaka deal has become yet another saga (I’m writing this on Friday, just after the big Sunderland brief about him staying), when it didn’t need to be. I much preferred June when we were totally silent, and then appeared from nowhere to gazump Inter to Marco Pallestra, an excellent signing and someone Xabi personally requested.
The Granit Xhaka saga has felt strangely familiar. An experienced player, leader in a key position, personally requested by the manager. We low ball way too low, annoy the selling club and the deal almost falls apart (and still could).
If it does falls apart for good, by the way, its yet another on the evidence pile for our inept Sporting Directors to be sacked. If we sign him now, it will be through luck not judgement.
A lot of fans felt angry when the news came out from that Sunderland briefing, and it was perfectly justified. Because its really important to remember how the current Sporting Leadership at the club - the two lead Sporting Directors - don’t have any room for error this summer.
They should have been sacked in 2024, in 2025 and this year for abysmal performance. They’ve spent £1.6b, £800m net, to produce a team who won only one league game from March onwards, and ended up finishing 10th in the PL and not qualifying for Europe. At any serious, elite club, that’s a sacking offence. But at Chelsea, apparently, it’s not.
When they kept their jobs yet again (it genuinely feels like they could relegate us and keep their jobs at this point), many fans had a lot of anxiety that we’d see a repeat of the shambolic transfer windows of the last two summers. And this is totally justifed.
The arrival of Xabi Alonso as our manager reassured me and others, and we saw the first backing of Xabi with Palestra, which was a huge positive. But after two failed summers in the market, the SDs have no margin for error this summer.
No delays, no dramas, no sagas, no bungling deals, and backing the manager properly. That means getting all his key targets and not penny pinching on them, not annoying clubs, no mistakes. Getting one of his targets isn’t enough, especially when they’re yet another under 25 player the club were probably happy to have.
Any sign of what happened in previous summers, at any point this summer, and fans are going to get angry and rightly so. In the last 3 years, they’ve seen the SDs turn us into a mid table team with their appalling recruitment, and fans who love the club are afraid things could get worse with more of the same.
Many fans are still angry about last season, and won’t accept any hint of it happening again. Fans are sick of seeing managers not backed and excuses for failure to get key targets. No public excuses are going to wash with fans this time, none at all.
My main point is, fans have a right to be nervous about this summer’s window, and a right to fear the worst. They have a right to a response when things look like falling apart again. There is a lot of evidence to back up those fears too.
So the owners and directors need to get on this, get their act together, get deals done, and properly back the manager. They should get over their ridiculous attitude to experience, and pay a little more if needed to get the players Xabi wants. Xabi is smarter about football than literally any of them, he’s an elite manager, so back him properly, not in a half-ass “we tried” way. There’s no excuses whatsoever not to do so, and if he’s not backed properly, fans aren’t going to be quiet about it. And neither, I suspect, will Xabi Alonso.
The Score
For me so far there is no real indication of a change in approach. Palestra may be good but at the moment he’s just another young inexperienced player. I believe we have about seven centre backs or is it nine including the academy players but only two are of the quality needed and one of those they are selling to a club in Italy. I have given up trying to understand and logic in what they are trying to do. Maybe they really are just Spuds fans trying to ruin our club from the inside and it’s certainly going well so far.
What's not to like about this article.
It's good to have The Score around because it saves me from writing long posts.