STAMFORD BRIDGE — For everything Chelsea have done and continue to do wrong under the Boehly/ Clearlake ownership, it would be uncharitable not to say there’s a plan. Well, not one plan, but multiple. There’s Enzo Maresca’s plan, co-sporting director Paul Winstanley’s plan, co-owner Behdad Eghbali’s plan.
All these plans, all this supposed genius and cash and effort, leave 19-year-old Marc Guiu replacing Nicolas Jackson 52 minutes into Chelsea’s unconvincing win over West Ham, more than doubling his Premier League total to date. Jackson started furiously rubbing his hamstring halfway through the first half and hadn’t stopped.
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Read MoreHowever Maresca frames it, January has been dire. A month ago Chelsea needed reinforcements or upgrades at striker, winger, central midfielder and goalkeeper.
Through load management and luck, Chelsea have largely avoided significant injuries in 2024-25. Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo have started every league match, and Jackson, Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella, Noni Madueke, Jadon Sancho, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Tosin Adarabioyo and Christopher Nkunku have all been available for 22 of 24 Premier League games.
Both are perfectly good young players, but neither have ever started a Premier League match. George has six top-flight minutes. Whatever the long-term aims, in the short-term this squad is getting obviously worse. Right-back is the only completely secure position despite the remarkable turnover.
But Felix is also the crowning failure in a failing sporting director partnership, a signing which benefitted the balance sheet and nothing more.
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Read MoreGiven Pedro Neto’s struggles to assimilate, Chelsea’s last signing which unquestionably raised the level of their first XI is Cole Palmer, on 31 August 2023. They own eight goalkeepers below the required standard. For the financial outlay, this is not good enough.
There’s a reason no other Premier League side has co-sporting directors. It’s the same reason they don’t have co-managers, or the vast majority don’t have co-controlling owners. As The Office (US) quote goes, “Where would Catholicism be without two popes?”. Too many competing voices and egos nullify each other under the illusion of cooperation.
Victory over West Ham and a return to the top four should do little to cover this chaos with a veneer of calm. Last summer’s mistakes forced Chelsea to stagnate, frozen at the level Pochettino left them at. January’s failings could launch full-scale regression.
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