UK Edition
One of the strange consequences of Chelsea’s rapid turnover of managers over the past 15 years has been an accumulation of staff from different regimes, stowaways from voyages long since abandoned and still drifting around the training ground. No one is quite sure what they do although, like all super-wealthy institutions, the impetus to clear out has never quite seized the club as it should have done.
Those who know the place say that this is one of the first things Frank Lampard should do as manager; streamline the staff, and re-energise those he deems crucial. If Maurizio Sarri does depart this summer, he will doubtless take his extensive first-team staff with him, but it is those who have joined in the tailwind of various new managers, in less front-line roles with the first team and academy, who clog up the system.
It is in this environment that cliques emerge and players at all levels, always attuned to power, become well versed in who has influence and who does not. Those who are identified as the outsiders are easily ignored, the mood sours and so the structure of the club frays. There are easy excuses for those players who do not want to be good professionals. It is a problem that a succession of managers should have addressed but, given the brevity of their time in charge, have left to fester.
There could hardly be a better time for Lampard to come in than this summer, hard though that will sound for those Derby County fans who hope he negotiates the play-off final for their club on Monday. Their famous manager lived Chelsea’s strange politics for 13 years and knows the problems. His two key staff, assistant Jody Morris and first-team coach Chris Jones, have both worked in the club’s first-team building and academy at Cobham and know what works, and what has failed.
The imminent arrival of Petr Cech is another case in point of the great Chelsea piling on of names and titles. There is little question that their most famous goalkeeper is to return – but as what? Unless he has a clearly defined role, in recruitment or coaching, then for all the brave claims to follow the model of Ajax and their network of old boys returning to the club, the idea is pointless.
If Chelsea are seeking a new recruitment expert they could do a lot worse than promote Neil Bath, their long-standing head of youth development, who has presided over a golden era at the club’s academy. A natural recruiter and developer of young players, as well as young coaches, Bath’s success has never truly been recognised by a succession of managers in the first-team building.
At a club who are about to face their first transfer embargo and potentially lose Eden Hazard, their best player, there has never been a better time to be bold about change. They have won everything over the past 14 years and their fan base is prepared for something different. Certainly, success will always be important, but there is also the patience to wait for the development of what could potentially be a team featuring a core of home-grown players working under a much-loved former great.
Not every prospect will make it through to the level expected of a Champions League club, but there is some interesting potential. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi already have a strong claim to play and there are at least six more who could come into the first-team squad next season starting with Ethan Ampadu, who has struggled under Sarri. Reece James and Fikayo Tomori, on loan at Wigan Athletic and Derby respectively this season, are two more obvious contenders.
The pair were voted their respective clubs’ players of the season and it is tempting to think that were they not already Chelsea players then the club might be looking at signing them. Mason Mount is another who has thrived in the Championship at Derby. The left-back, Ola Aina, played 29 Serie A games on loan at Torino. Jay Dasilva has played 28 games for Bristol City in the Championship. Not all would necessarily be regulars but would add to a squad that already carries a lot of older, well-paid, lightly-raced professionals.
Chelsea’s domination of youth development could all have been for this moment when at last the cycle of their financial supremacy of the past decade has been toppled. The transfer market has been broken anew by wealthier rivals. Whatever it is Roman Abramovich actually does, the geopolitics of 2019 mean he can no longer do it in London.
Clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Manchester United have won much less at youth level in recent times than Chelsea but have produced first-team players from their academies.
If Mateo Kovacic starts for Chelsea in Wednesday’s Europa League final ahead of Ross Barkley there will not be a single English player in their starting line-up, injuries to Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi having ruled them out. It will be little better at Arsenal, where Ainsley Maitland-Niles is the only home-grown player with a realistic chance of starting the match. Even with injuries taken into consideration, that seems a sad state of affairs for two clubs who have in the past produced great England internationals.
Lampard does not, of course, have the managerial track record to demand the kind of influence that was given, for instance, to Pep Guardiola when he came to Manchester City. Yet at some point Chelsea’s board, those invisible aides to Abramovich, will have to trust someone with the club’s direction.
If Sarri does go to Juventus then he will have served the club’s purpose in the short term. Third place in the Premier League and two cup finals, still with the possibility of a European trophy, is hardly a catastrophe. Even so, the club are facing major challenges. Now would be the time to make a real change.
What's the Spanish for chutzpah?
Julen Lopetegui wants a management job in English football – and who can blame him? The money is sensational and no doubt his new agent, Jorge Mendes, should be able to get him a meeting with a few clubs. Quite what story he will be able to tell about his career is another question altogether.
This is the man who managed to destabilise Spain’s national team and then make such a mess of Real Madrid that he lost both jobs in the space of four months. Even before that he drew a blank at Porto in the 2014-15 season despite a big transfer budget.
You might have thought that given such a track record, Lopetegui would consider rebuilding his reputation with a job lower down the pecking order. A reconnection with the game after that dreadful decision to negotiate with Madrid behind the backs of the Spanish football association. Not a bit of it. Apparently he fancies a crack at Chelsea.
After 15 years of relentless change at Chelsea, the time is right for Frank Lampard to lead them into a brave new era