Original title: The fall of the iron-blooded Blues: The third-rate manager cannot support Chelsea's natural love tossing will not win
In the seventh round of the 2022-23 Premier League play-offs, Chelsea lost 1-2 to "promoted horse" Fulham. It suffered three consecutive defeats in all competitions in a week, with just one win in its last nine Premier League matches. Chelsea, who lost their soul in the team, have not tasted a victory so far in 2023.
Right now, Chelsea are 10th in the Premier League table with 25 points, 19 points away from Arsenal at the top and 10 points behind fourth-placed Manchester United. In the intensifying Premier League race for four, Chelsea's desire to equalise the gap and finish in the top four looks like an unreal dream.
From holding the Club World Cup to completing the Grand Slam, bidding farewell to the Abu era... In just a year or so, why did the Blues fall at the speed of light, and who should pay for it?
【The Great Purge of Burleigh】
Last May, Chelsea's Abu era officially came to an end with Burley taking charge of Stamford Bridge. After becoming the Blues' new boss, Burley embarked on a drastic purge of Abou's old ministers, vowing to erase all his mark on the team. At the end of June last year, club president Bruce Barker left his post. Subsequently, transfer directors, "no sister" Granovskaya, Guy Lawrence and other executives left one after another. In the end, the Blues' legend and the club's technical adviser Petr Cech also announced his departure. At this point, all the Abu Bandi of Chelsea's management have been "removed".
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In addition to management, Burleigh also cleansed the team doctors, physiotherapists and other medical staff who have worked with the club for many years. In response, Chelsea legend striker Drogba was heavily criticised during his appearance, "It's hard for me to understand why they are purging certain people in this way, like physiotherapists who have worked there for a long time, and they should return to the principles and values they once had. ”
Manchester United legend Neville said: "The Chelsea hierarchy was chaotic, from the first minute of Burleigh's arrival. ”
In fact, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the sanctions imposed by the British government, Chelsea has been in a chaotic situation. The subsequent freezing of club funds, club acquisitions, etc. exacerbated the chaos. Originally, after Burleigh took over, the first thing to do was to stabilize the morale of the army, so that Chelsea could get out of the chaos and smoothly transition to a new era. But unexpectedly, after Burleigh took power, the first thing he did was to "clean up the old ministers", which not only failed to pull Chelsea out of the whirlpool, but pushed it into the abyss.
【Layman Guidance Insider】
Although the immediate trigger for Tuchel's dismissal was the poor record of leading the team, the essential reason was the result of Burleigh's purge of his old ministers. Tuchel was the manager hired by Abu and achieved great success during the Abu era, which is not a good thing for Burley, because whatever Tuchel achieves since then, the outside world will give Abu a credit. So, after a period of slump, Burley decisively sacked Tuchel.
Although former Chelsea boss Abu also loves to relieve the employer coach, a poor result will lead to the manager's departure. But for meritorious managers, Abu rarely makes such hasty decisions, and does not give any time for adjustment. Moreover, Abu really loves the ball and really understands the ball, and the people under him can really do practical things. However, as a "layman", Burleigh was arrogant and eager, and after dismissing the previous leadership team early, the club was left without available talent, and the final selection result was also very ridiculous.
Generally speaking, the giants dismiss the coach in the middle of the season, and their selection ideas are about two aspects: find a famous coach who is idle at home to coach in the mountains and give a contract of about two years; Find a team name to "put out the fire", give a short-term contract, and decide after the season is over.
However, Burley uncharacteristically poached the manager of the upper middle and upper Premier League teams, Porter, in the middle of the season, and the team inevitably had to pay a liquidated damages.
Moreover, although Porter has a good record in charge of Brighton, he has no big coaching experience, and letting him take over in the middle of the season is undoubtedly a big gamble. Usually, the big teams looking for managers who have a good record in the mid-table team will choose to start their official work in the offseason, on the one hand, to give him enough time to familiarize himself with the team and sharpen his tactics; On the other hand, if the results are not good at the beginning of the season, there is still room for adjustment.
In addition, Burley also gave Porter a five-year contract, which led to little room for the club to adjust next.
【Third-rate manager】
Facts have proved that although Porter has fulfilled the "dream of a wealthy family", he has not yet been able to gain a foothold in a wealthy family.
Porter's success at Brighton allowed him to enter the giants. So, after taking charge of Chelsea, he opted to copy Brighton's tactical play directly to Chelsea, ignoring the Blues' existing staffing.
Brighton's players have super running power to support Porter's crudely designed defensive system, but Chelsea's players as a whole do not have such strong running power, and forced grafting will only eat back.
In addition, Porter's ability to adjust on the spot is also very lacking, and substitution adjustment is often a change of soup without changing the medicine, which is difficult to play a role.
To be honest, the ability that big managers need the most is to "be a good cook", what materials to cook, what players to play what tactics, and rigid tactical play will not work.
However, because Porter is the first manager brought in by Burley since he joined the bank, and he was personally selected, plus a five-year contract. As a result, it was difficult for Porter to leave class in the short term.
【Spend a lot of money to do small things】
Following the completion of the acquisition of Chelsea, Burleigh said his consortium would not skimp on investing in Chelsea. This is like a shot in the arm, which has put many fans at ease, at least the team will not experience the "blood-sucking Glazer family" nightmare like the Red Devils.
In fact, Burleigh is willing to invest in Chelsea. Last summer window, the Blues spent £250 million on transfers combined, equivalent to the entire Bundesliga combined, and also set a new record for a single transfer window.
However, the premium for these transactions is too serious to really help the team.
First, £75 million centre-back Fofana suffered a serious injury after playing a few games and has been out for a long time thereafter. Porter is not tall, not strong, and not enough confrontation, and his guarded wing is the focus of opposition. Overall, Cucurella is best known at Chelsea for the scene where Tottenham defender Romero ran away by the hair.
England striker Raheem Sterling, originally the spokesperson of "happy football", can vomit wildly in the case of Manchester City's midfielder's crazy feeding of cakes, and it is even more difficult for Chelsea to make a difference. Although it didn't cost much to bring in Aubameyang, Arsenal had to send him away even if they paid for him, not only because of the dressing room, but more importantly, he could no longer play in the Premier League. When Barca strikers are so scarce, they have to let Aubameyang go, which shows how far his ability has slipped.
Entering the winter window, Chelsea still maintained its image of "deep pockets", with Ivory Coast winger Datro Fofana, Brazilian midfielder Andrea Santos, French centre-back Badia Shearer and Portuguese striker Felix joining one after another. But how much can these people help change Chelsea?
【Injuries】
Although Chelsea's current injury roster can put together a starting line-up, this also leaves Porter unavailable.
However, the team frequently suffers from injuries, one because of problems with the coach's training schedule; The second is because the team's medical team is not strong. Both of these reasons can actually be found in the above.
(Editor: Xiao Luo)