Chelsea in free fall

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Chelsea had no chance in the quarter-final first leg in the Champions League against Real Madrid. The Londoners lose 2-0 at the Bernabeu, the royal class seems essential. The defeat in Spain’s capital is the latest chapter in Chelsea’s almost ridiculous 2022-23 season.

Since American billionaire Todd Boehly (49) took over the club from Roman Abramowitsch (56) almost a year ago, Chelsea has been going in one direction: steeply downhill. On the one hand, there are the transfers. Chelsea have lost more than €600 million since the summer, with €330 million in the winter transfer window alone. The club management usually acts hastily, players are often brought in who have not yet really proven themselves on the big stage and pay a much too high transfer fee for this.

An example: Mykhailo Mudryk. The 22-year-old Ukrainian showed a good first half of the season at Shakhtar Donetsk. Enough for Chelsea to pay a whopping €70 million for Mudryk, while at the time his market value was estimated at just €40 million by the Transfermarkt.ch portal. So far, the attacking player has proved a bad buy, not scoring a single goal in nine games.

Tuchel, Potter, Lampard

On the other hand, there is the trainer problem. Three different coaches (excluding interim coaches) have been on the sidelines of the Blues this season. First, Thomas Tuchel (49), who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, was hastily replaced after eight games by Graham Potter (47) from Brighton. Despite a $20 million fee and a five-year contract, Potter’s tenure lasted only seven months.

Frank Lampard (44) now has to save the season as a firefighter until the end of the season. The former Chelsea player was manager at Stamford Bridge in 2021, but was sacked for poor performance at the time. Instead of taking one step into the future, Chelsea is taking two steps into the past.

Haaland scores more than Chelsea

The result of the ongoing turmoil is reflected in the Premier League: after 30 games Chelsea are only 11th in the table, the gap to the Champions League places is 17 points larger than the lead to the relegation places (12 points). For the first time since 2016, a season without European competition is imminent. Above all, the Londoners are frighteningly weak offensively: in 30 games they managed to score only 29 goals. Erling Haaland (22) has scored 30 Premier League goals this season alone, more than the entire Chelsea squad.

Owner Boehly doesn’t seem to be bothered by these facts. Before Wednesday’s quarterfinal cracker, he told a “Sky” reporter, “We see it as a long-term process here, our future looks bright.” He also got carried away with a forecast for the game. “We win 3-0,” Boehly said into the microphone. After the 2-0 defeat, we know that this tip, like so many things at Chelsea right now, was hot air.

Source : Blick