In the beginning, there was a justifiable explanation for it all. The Chelsea team that started what ended up being a 2-2 draw with Wrexham in their first pre-season tour match was not the one that would be starting the Premier League season. Nothing like it, in fact.
By Ian King
The problem is that things haven’t improved very much since. And when that’s put into the broader context of the way in which the club has been run over the last couple of years, it starts to feel somewhat as though the problems that marred so much of last season at Stamford Bridge could be set to return again this time around.
They followed up the Wrexham match with a 4-1 defeat by Celtic, with their only goal coming from a Christopher Nkunku penalty kick in the 89th minute. Again, it was an understrength team, and they had 23 shots to Celtic’s 14. But that, again, is an issue. The porousness of their defence was ruthlessly exploited on the break by their opponents.
Next came Club América, and a comfortable 3-0 win with any nerves settled by scoring from an early penalty. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall made his debut in midfield as the presumed replacement for the Atlético Madrid-bound Conor Gallagher. This, it rather felt, was somewhat more like what this pre-season tour was supposed to feel like.
Then came Manchester City. Neither team were that close to full strength, but an Erling Haaland hat-trick sealed a 4-2 win for City while raising further questions about the Chelsea defence’s organisation levels. Things improved an iota against Real Madrid last night. They were two down inside twenty minutes before the European champions won 2-1 in North Carolina. Again, it’s a fool’s errand to read too much into pre-season friendly results, but there hasn’t been much positive to be taken from this tour.
Tensions are compounded by the fact that Enzo Maresca was a somewhat surprising appointment as the new manager. None of this is to say that he will be a bad one. After all, the next generation of managers has to come from somewhere. Why shouldn’t it be Leicester? And it can hardly be said that he’s just some bloke they pulled off the street, when his position before last was as one of the assistants to Pep Guardiola.
But he’s not a Big Name. He’s not the sort of heavyweight appointment to which Chelsea supporters have become accustomed. And while that doesn’t necessarily mean that he will fail at Stamford Bridge, it may reduce the amount of wiggle room he has should he start to look like an experiment that’s going wrong.
And should this happen, the owners of the club will only have themselves to blame should supporters start to turn upon them again. Mauricio Pochettino was evidently turning a corner with a dysfunctional and lop-sided squad throughout the final weeks of last season. That squad required work, and it was starting to bear fruit throughout the closing weeks.
The official reason given for his departure in May was “by mutual consent”, but that’s what they all say. It’s become clear since he left that Pochettino walked rather than being pushed in any way. He has been quoted as having called the club a “basket case” and, this doesn’t instil much confidence in the belief that those running the club will have the chops to make the right decisions, under pressure, should they need to.
The Enzo Fernández situation appears to have been cleared up to the satisfaction of all within the club. Indeed, it has even been confirmed that Fernández has not been fined further after making a charitable donation himself. It seems unlikely that rival fans will care too much for that this season, but football has little time for such sentiment. Setting aside any other considerations about that for a moment, his full involvement in the team is essential for Chelsea, and he returned as captain against Club América.
It’s all about the ifs and buts. The raw materials are there. A lot of money has been spent on very talented young footballers at Stamford Bridge over the last couple of years, and that always gives them the capability of getting them onto the sort of trajectory which saw them win five straight games to finish sixth in the Premier League season when they hadn’t shown much indication of finishing that high over much of the previous 33.
But it’s a tangled web, and it requires careful unpicking. Regardless of how much–if anything–you read into pre-season tour results, there can be little questioning that those results look pretty dismal in the cold light of day. Enzo Maresca has a chance because Chelsea managers always have a chance. Money talks. And while he may not be a Big Name, he comes with obvious pedigree.
Will Chelsea hit the ground running? Because patience seems to be in short supply these days, and nowhere is this more likely to manifest itself than at a former Champion of Europe fallen on slightly fallow times, especially after a couple of years of a managerial policy which has at times looked more than a little like names being pulled out of a top hat by a blindfolded hedge fund manager.
Should he not do so, a wearying pattern will begin, making the team less confident and spiralling them into a tailspin until the owners lose their nerve and the whole cycle begins again. It’s hardly as though you can say that this hasn’t happened before. And then what? Another short-to-medium term fix is brought in to impose his philosophy to a squad of players who have heard this all before, several times over. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Will Enzo Maresca be able to break that cycle? Well, there’s an excellent chance of finding out the prognosis on that when Chelsea entertain Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. Welcome to Premier League management, Signor Maresca. The heat is on.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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