Chelsea: Blame and fallout for this season extend far beyond Antonio Conte

A natural reaction to Chelsea’s season is to blame different individuals. But no one person is at fault and no one person should be removed.

The loss to Newcastle gave the #ConteOut brigade on the fuel they would need to get through the summer. Their argument, their belief, is that firing Antonio Conte and replacing him with an “attack-minded” manager will fix all of Chelsea’s issues. It will not.

And it will not fix the issues at Chelsea because Antonio Conte is not the only person culpable for the failure of this season (yes, anything outside of Champions League qualification should be deemed a failure for a club like Chelsea). The problems exist at every level of the club. From Roman Abramovich to the janitors. Removing one piece along the way while changing nothing else will not change the club.

Roman Abramovich has given a great deal to Chelsea and should always be respected. Without him, Chelsea would not be where they are, end of. But the blame falls to him for not holding the board more accountable.

Jose Mourinho was sacrificed before, under similar circumstances, but the board remained. Abramovich need not pump millions of dollars into the club anymore, but he must hold a failing board accountable. He has not, and has largely left the big decisions to them.

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Clearly, the board is not currently capable of big decisions. At various times, they have been successful. But the power struggle they have  created between the financial side of the club and the managerial side is untenable. Before, Michael Emenalo was able to bridge the gap but that is no longer an option. The board wants to make the most financially smart move with little concern to how it affects play on the pitch. That has seen Chelsea bargain bin their way into a squad that simply is no longer quality.

But regardless, the pieces at hand should have been used better. Antonio Conte is stubborn and has earned the right to be so, but he was slow to change when things went wrong this season. That came to a head over the winter months and by the time he altered something, it was too late.

He should have trusted some utility players more, at least in rotation, and should have been more willing to pull away from the 3-5-2 when it failed and then 3-4-3 when it failed. He was slow to do either.

The players, of course, play a large part in that as well. There is no player at the club holding everyone accountable in the way that John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Didier Drogba did. Simple mistakes creeped into nearly everyone’s game.

Disinterest and apathy popped up from time to time as well. Especially in the second half of the season, several players phoned in some games. Perhaps they had an eye on the World Cup or the “big games” but it showed an unacceptable attitude from a series of players who claim to be world class.

And it goes on and on from there. Sacking Conte will not stop the other parts from their rot if they continue as is. No one person can come in and save the club.

These issues have been recurrent since at least Carlo Ancelotti’s sacking. They have ebbed and flowed since but have not gone away entirely. Fans may think they can blame a manager or player and imagine one person can come and fix it all but they cannot.

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The only way for Chelsea to bounce back long term is to make substantial changes. Not knee jerk ones as they look to ride the “new manager/player/whatever” bump.