Chelsea FC will never achieve great heights until they recover their soul

Any somewhat sane football fan knows what a juvenile fantasy the idea of “beautiful football” has become. The idea of only one style being “true football” is ruining the game and hurts clubs like Chelsea FC.

Ever since Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona super-team played a very specific style of football to immense success, the football world has enshrined his style as the only true, “beautiful” form of football. The idea is so obtuse and absurd it is hard to believe anyone truly thinks it. It’s about as sane as repeatedly banging one’s head against a wall in order to fix one’s crooked teeth.

Guardiola’s is only one type of football. It’s attacking, at all times, attacking and then attacking again football. Unfortunately, those who claim to believe in this method of football are so loud and confident. They are a more recent breed of football fan. The “I support FCB because Messi scored so many goals in FIFA” (despite the fact that it’s either Barca or Barcelona) crowd. They are the ones who started watching football when Pep Guardiola was at the head of the world’s most perfectly assembled and lifetime-in-the-making football side.

Those people are fools. To them, the best method in the history of football – and the only way it should ever be played – is the one that was best the second they started watching the game. They have not even a minuscule understanding or respect for the history of the sport. Yet they would love to dictate how to play and enjoy it.

The allegiance to Guardiola’s style of football is at best immature and at worst truly childish. They ignore how Barcelona’s allegiance to tiki-taka had done nothing but keep them in a distant second to Real Madrid until Lionel Messi made them relevant.

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Let’s keep one thing clear. That Barcelona team was a marvel. The best club side of all time. But they had the right players to play their method. Barcelona taught it to each of them since the age of 11. Trying to replicate that style of play while not having Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets and raising them all together so their connection was something near telepathic is dumb.

This is where Chelsea have failed themselves in recent years.

For years we have heard this hope of a “Barcelona in Blue” nonsense. Chelsea are Chelsea, not Barcelona. Chelsea, with their own style, have been time and again the most successful club British club against Barcelona.

Chelsea should take pride in there being just as much beauty in defence as in attack. Some of the most successful clubs in the history of the game are built on a history of defensive excellence. Bayern Munich, Juventus, AC Milan, River Plate and Dynamo Kiev are all historic clubs whose history is predicated on defending or have a history of developing iconic defenders. Chelsea admittedly are not as big of a club as some of those, but their history is just as tied to defenders.

Giorgio Chiellini, the Juventus defender who made Leonardo Bonucci look like the best defender in the world for the better part of a decade, has even been quoted on this issue after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup.

"Pep Guardiola spoiled and ruined the Italian defender. He is a fantastic coach with a fantastic mind but Italian trainers have tried to copy him without the same knowledge and then in the last 10 years, we lost our identity. – TalkSport"

Trying to copy Pep Guardiola’s style of football is ridiculous unless you are, in fact, Pep Guardiola. It also reveals a remarkable lack of confidence and dignity. Guardiola did not invent football. He is a remarkable mind and a wonderful teacher and coach, but he is not the only person who ever had a single thought about the game.

Chelsea FC’s best players have often been defenders. Ron Harris, John Terry, Marcel Desailly, Ashley Cole, Peter Sillet and Stan Willemse were all wonderful defenders. Chelsea’s history is tied to them.

Football is no place for a crisis of character and to lie to yourself. Football will expose you in a heartbeat. Things started to go south for Chelsea the moment they betrayed their sense of self to be something they are not.

Chelsea are not Barcelona, and they are better off for it. They should not want to be Barcelona in the same way Barcelona would not ever want to be Chelsea. The second Chelsea began to lose their dignity and try to be something other than who they are is the second they started this sycophantic cycle of spineless, ill-disciplined players. That sort of attitude carries a stench and attracts the wrong sort of players.

This is why Chelsea FC has these cyclical ups and downs. They have no fundamental belief system as a guiding light forward. They simply move in whichever direction the wind blows, and even then lose patience so quickly they often do not see it through. Lacking identity truly hurts the club more than they maybe recognize or acknowledge.

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Chelsea FC need to recover some sort of identity soon. Antonio Conte knows where to find it, before they lose it for good.