Chelsea Technical Director, Michael Emenalo, has come under fire in recent years for his moves in the transfer market. Let’s take a look at his reign at Stamford Bridge.
This piece was originally started after a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that I should be technical director of Chelsea FC. Now, while this would be one of the best appointments the club could make, it is perhaps wise to hold my tongue on this issue for a little bit longer.
With respect to the current technical director, Michael Emenalo, this very summer will go a long way toward determining his success in the position regardless of his past successes and failures. On the back of Chelsea FC’s worst season in the Roman Abramovich era, Emenalo is under a lot of pressure to help our current manager put together a squad that will return Chelsea to the summit of English football.
The signings that have been talked about so far are those of Michy Batshuayi and Kalidou Koulibaly. One of the major issues with Emenalo is that he seems to stall so long over every single move.
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Manchester United have now secured the signings of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, to go with that of Eric Bailly, giving Jose Mourinho a far more talented squad than the one Manchester United had last season.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have just completed the signing of Michy Batshuayi and missed out on several other rumored transfer targets. This has left many of Chelsea supporters wondering what exactly it is that Michael Emenalo is doing in the boardroom at Stamford Bridge.
Worryingly, the plan with Michy Batshuayi may be to loan him out in search of first team football. If this is the case then Emenalo should be fired. It is simply inexcusable to spend £33 million on a player and then have them not be a first team contributor.
Having said that, we should first better define the role of technical director in modern football. The technical director is the man (or woman) who determines the overall direction of the team’s philosophy both physically and economically.
The idea behind this is that it allows the manager to focus purely on the success of the playing squad instead of being distracted by transfers, player loans and scouting.
In principle it is a good idea. Think of the technical director as the general manager in American sports. The issue occurs when there is not a fruitful bond between the technical director and the manager. Tensions can arise, leading to a bad work environment that always (yes every time) spills out onto the field.
Let’s get this straight. I don’t dislike Emenalo. Whenever I watch him on Chelsea TV he is a personable, decent and informed guy. He’s kind of like a golden retriever and that’s the problem with him. He’s just too damn nice and accommodating.
less than one in every ten players that Emenalo has brought to the club has ended up being a helpful contributor
A good technical director should be a manageable trifecta of lion, snake and Las Vegas pawn-shop owner. They should be tireless in their pursuit of the best possible deal for their club and fans and be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to feed the pride.
The truth is that Michael Emenalo had at best a questionable professional career in European football. The biggest club that he ever played for in Europe was Notts County. He then moved to San Jose and played in the MLS for a period as well as Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel.
In many ways, Emenalo does not have a lot of the necessary prerequisites to relate to and convince world-class level players to join Chelsea.
It was well known that the Nigerian had a bad working relationship with Jose Mourinho. However, to his credit, when Mourinho came back to Stamford Bridge Emenalo did the honorable thing and offered to resign. His resignation was denied and that awkward half-in half-out working partnership has been something Chelsea have had to endure since.
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Emenalo became Technical Director of the club in 2011. Here are some stats (via transfermarkt.com). Since 2011 Chelsea have been involved in 186 player transactions (either sales or loans). Of those players only 20 ended up staying with the club and during that time Chelsea have spent the not-so-small sum of £568.65 million.
Just so we’re clear that is a hit rate of 9.3%. That’s right, less than one in every ten players that Emenalo has brought to the club has ended up staying to be a helpful contributor.
Now I’m not trying to pile the misery on Emenalo here. He has a close relationship with Abramovich and a good relationship with the owner is always a good thing. It means he’s at least relatively stable and his opinions are valued. Stability must begin at the top and work it’s way down.
Next: Chelsea FC’s Top 30 Transfers Of All Time
Having said that, Emenalo would perhaps be better as an advisor to the board in a similar role to that which Guus Hiddink will also be fulfilling in future. A person who can impart wisdom on player behavior and lifestyle in a calm and controlled atmosphere. In terms of cut-throat deal-making and hunger Emenalo simply does not have what it takes to be a technical director.