When will Chelsea finally start operating like an elite football club?

The cowardly scapegoating & backbiting by the hierarchy needs to stop

I had another article written today but I’ve ditched that one. Because of the things I’ve heard in the last 48 hours, from various reliable people including our own Simon, that all changed. And honestly I feel more disheartened about Chelsea’s future than I have for some time.

Head Coach Enzo Maresca’s comments about the worst 48 hours of his Chelsea career, and the subsequent reports from Simon, Ben Jacobs and others, have made clear there’s some major issues at the top of Chelsea FC. There’s disagreements and fallouts between Maresca and the heirarchy and they seem to be getting worse.

The response of the club was to dismiss them as an emotional overreaction, reiterate their commitment to their strategy, and also things which I took as a brief against Maresca.

I read a brief saying they’d recommended a rotation policy to Maresca which he supported and enacted. But when it didn’t work, suddenly they put all the blame onto him for the rotations….ones THEY recommended.

Maresca feels hung out to dry and scapegoated, and rightly so. The clubs rotation policy, they share the blame, simple as that. Maresca publicly took responsibility for Leeds, rightly so. But he expects those above him to take responsibility for their mistakes and not make him the sole scapegoat for it. We’ve seen this before with the current Sporting Directors, so its no surprise.

They had also briefed, separately, last Thursday, that Maresca will be pressured to make the most of what he has for the rest of the season. Basically shutting down any requests for January signings (which we need, but who cares, its not like we’re trying to be successful, eh?).

Not to mention there was a briefing saying “Maresca is expected to address these comments in his press conference on Monday”. Which to me suggests he’s being pressured to toe the club line and say he was being emotional.

By the time you read this, you’ll know whether he did or not. But either way, its clear things are very tense at the top.

Now first, lets be clear. I believe in the clubs overall long term strategy. We’ve signed some excellent players, built a top 4 squad which can win cups and appointed an excellent manager in Enzo Maresca. Fair play to the owners and Sporting Directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley for that, credit where its due. That’s good work.

But I’m just done with the at times shoddy man management and abysmal treatment of certain players and staff by the Sporting Directors, and their overall conduct.

It seems they like claiming credit for anything good, and taking no responsibility for their failures. They have now fallen out with and failed to adequately back multiple head coaches, all whilst keeping their jobs and getting longer contracts. Not to mention very publicly trying to force talented, respected players out of the club multiple times, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. Then there’s the constant insults to fans’ intelligence with their ridiculous briefings which everyone knows are complete bullshit and media spin. They’ve broken trust with fans, most of who don’t trust them anymore and never will.

Finally of course there’s their complete and utter inability to build a squad capable of competing for Premier League titles, which is or should be the ultimate goal. Because if they think adding more raw, unproven young talent with no PL experience next summer to a squad which already has tons of raw players, is going create a title challenge next year, they’re kidding themselves.

The two people running the football side, have yet to show they have a clue how to do that. Neither have ever worked at a big club before, never been in an elite performance environment in their life. Because of that, we don’t have one at Chelsea yet.

They DO deserve credit for getting us back to being a steady top 4 squad who can win knockout competitions. That’s where we are right now. They can spot and sign young talent well. Fair enough. I’m always happy to give credit where its due, this isn’t an agenda driven post and I won’t make personal attacks, this is a professional critique.

I don’t believe they have what it takes to help Chelsea take the next step, and quite frankly I don’t like the way they conduct their jobs and treat players and staff who are not wanted, as I mentioned above.

They are not the best in class. Best in class prove it before they join Chelsea.

We’re not a work experience program for aspiring sporting directors who’d never won a thing before they came here and worked only at smaller clubs. We’re Chelsea, we hire the proven best. Simple as.

Even now, when so many can see it, even pundits, they won’t accept or acknowledge they’ve made mistakes or shoulder responsibility.

Enzo Maresca has won two trophies, got top four, beaten several of the top teams and top managers in Europe, and got us 4th in the PL this year, third highest scorers, third best defence, without Levi Colwill, Cole Palmer or a 9 most of the season, and with a litany of injuries leaving us to overplay Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, combined with fatigue from the Club World Cup and a short pre season. He also wasn’t given the CB we clearly needed and he asked for.

Yet they want us to blame HIM for all the problems at the club and with the team? Give me a break. Maresca HAS made mistakes and bad decisions, but I’d be surprised if any coach could do much better this year given the circumstances - some circumstances directly caused by the Sporting Directors.

It’s become clear the club heirarchy don’t care at all or listen to what fans think, they don’t even respect us or our views, or listen to us. The Sporting Directors time at Chelsea is littered with stories of appalling treatment of fans, players and managers, and multiple examples of abysmal man management.

If they did their jobs, and they treated people as human beings, with honesty and dignity, admitted their mistakes and corrected them, they’d have my respect, and I’d happily apologise to them. It takes a better man to admit he was wrong and learn from it, than one who passes the buck to someone, and damages the club in the process

My dream for Chelsea is becoming consistent PL challengers and winners again, and a dominant side in Europe. With the money spent, that’s where we should be heading. If we’d signed the right players in the last two summers, we might be closer than we are.

The number of awful signings in the last 18 months beggars belief. We have wasted so much money that probably would have made us contenders now, and we could still have kept within our strategy of signing under 25s too. That’s what’s so annoying, is the strategy from the club CAN work, but they’ve handled it awfully.

I’ve always been patient. I felt 2026/2027 - four years after the takeover, season 3 of Enzo Maresca, was the season we should be making a serious challenge for the title. Not winning it maybe, but in the race till April or so, finishing 2nd ideally, or 3rd, single digit points off the top.

If we’re not in a position to challenge next season, the people who’ve overseen this rebuild and recruited two managers so far to oversee it are the ones solely to blame. A head coach can only work with the tools he’s been given. They have little influence over recruitment.

That’s why Maresca is so frustrated, because the potential is there in this squad, but there’s some gaping holes which remain unaddressed, and which will remain so at least till the summer, and then they’ll sign more raw talent which will mean whoever is head coach will have to develop them, rather than go for a title. Signing raw talent is bad, but bringing new raw talent into the squad for more proven players every year will keep you stagnating, not win Premier Leagues. You need a balance - some elite raw talents, and other under 25 players more established and proven who can “plug in and play”, like Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto and others.

In almost any high performance organisation, an employee cannot remain in post if they have had time, money, authority to make big decisions and not delivered. It’s as simple as that. And with the target of dominating Europe and the PL, if we don’t start delivering soon, then things need to change right at the top.

Even the most patient and understanding fans will eventually lose patience and become frustrated, and turn on the owners and sporting directors. The media are already noticing it, thanks in part to Maresca’s statement, as well as their own feelings on our recruitment, so eventually, there’ll be nowhere to hide.

Sadly I’m now resigned to the prospect that Enzo Maresca will probably go by the summer, either by his own volition or “mutual consent” (sacked), and if it’s the latter, no doubt the PR spin will lump all the blame on him.

I won’t buy it, but some will. And it will a complete shambles however it happens.

There’s no good, football based reason for Enzo Maresca to leave Chelsea, not backing him, hanging him out to dry and letting him go is absolute madness and unless we hire someone of the calibre of Thomas Tuchel, Xabi Alonso or Oliver Glasner, could set the club back a year or two.

If the SD’s stay in post with the next manager, I’d bet good money we’ll be here again a couple of years with the same issues, and it will be the same people to blame, undoubtedly. Then they’ll try to scapegoat someone that manager, without a doubt. Anything to avoid showing some actual cajones and genuinely taking responsibility for their actions.

The day they are shifted to other roles and Dave Fallows takes their job, I will feel some hope of being a major force again. Because the groundwork is there, the structure is there. It just needs the final step, and that needs to be led by someone who’s done it before and knows what it takes. Dave Fallows is that. He’s been at Liverpool. He’s built a squad which won the Champions League and Premier League. He uses data properly. He’s proven he’s a winner, and a best in class operator, and that’s what Chelsea need in charge now.

THAT’S how serious, elite football clubs operate.

The Score