Chelsea’s winter of discontent has turned into a summer of speculation

With the World Cup an added distraction and Marina Granovskaia’s holiday creating a lull in both managerial movement and player acquisition, sections of Chelsea’s support are left feeling the club is in free-fall.

As the rumours abound as to who will be in the managerial hot seat next season, a more important call for the Stamford Bridge hierarchy surrounds the installation of a Director of Football. Michael Emenalo left Chelsea last November, and the club have done little to replace him.

Roman Abramovich’s trusted lieutenant Marina Granovskaia saved him the expense of hiring someone for most of last season. However, before the 2018/19 season begins, it’s imperative someone comes in with an affinity for Chelsea and an understanding of the complexities and constraints the owner places on the manager. With Granovskaia in position, the barrier between Abramovich and the coach is loaded too heavily in favour of the owner.

Among the names mooted by the press to take over the role is Michael Ballack. The former German international had a spell playing in SW6 in the latter stages of his career. In those four seasons, Ballack fully endeared himself with the Stamford Bridge faithful. Even after his departure, Ballack clearly reciprocated the love. His Twitter gives a ready indication of a man who follows the Chelsea saga very closely.

Ahead of this summer’s World Cup, Ballack has spoken about how the 2017/18 season went for Chelsea. He was not impressed. That presented possibly the biggest obstacle towards him being the club’s next director of football: he spoke like a fan.

"Chelsea with its history shouldn’t have different ambitions. You have to think about what happened the last three years… Finishing fifth is not good enough for Chelsea, and especially in the last three seasons not qualifying for the Champions League twice. – Express"

There is, however, a chance for the popular German. There would have to be a change of stance from Roman Abramovich in terms of how the club is run. There can be no doubting the fantastic work the oligarch has done with Chelsea since his arrival in 2003. But recent years have seen Chelsea fall down the Premier League pecking order.

One of Roman Abramovich’s first moves did when he boought Chelsea was improving the training facilities. He then built what has become one of the best footballing academies the world has seen. The club’s much-maligned, much-publicised failure to allow it to reach its full potential is the elephant in the room. With Chelsea self-imposing the constraints of Financial Fair Play that none of Europe’s elite seem to care for, youth ought to be the way forward. Ballack knows it, as surely does Abramovich.

"It’s not always about the money, to be successful it’s also about the strategy… They have a really good youth team that beats everybody. They have good young talent which you can work with. There is quality there. I have seen them myself there… It’s not always about spending the big money, taking risks, relying on one or two players. Maybe it’s time also to go in a different way for Chelsea."

In the last two transfer windows Chelsea have brought in Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Ross Barkley and Danny Drinkwater for a total of £145 million. None were particularly successful, all had injury issues and none are going to this month’s World Cup. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, an academy product, went on loan to Crystal Palace and will be in Russia.

The British government may well play a part in inadvertently instigating this change in Abramovich’s thoughts around the club. His failure, for whatever reason, to have his investor’s visa renewed has prevented the Russian from entering the United Kingdom as a bona fide businessman. Having gained Israeli citizenship and taken up residence in Tel Aviv, he could enter as a visitor with the same restrictions as any holiday-maker to the UK.

Of course, not being in the country is no barrier for any owner intent on being too hands-on. There are plenty of examples of football clubs being scuppered from afar. Abramovich, for all his communication faults, has never been anything but good for Chelsea. That should not change. He even rejected a supposed offer to buy the club for £2 billion, with sources saying he has no intention of selling.

A casaulty of Abramovich’s exile is the new stadium. The project would have seen the club leave Stamford Bridge for at least three seasons, possibly four. In many ways, that’s good news for supporters. If a small part of the £1 billion they will save from that project could be injected into the playing side of the club, Chelsea could resurrect what has been a steady fall from heights achieved in 2012.

Doubts still remain, though. Antonio Conte has been a dead-man-walking for an uncomfortable amount of time. No one knows why the managerial situation is still in disarray. Of course, the popular belief says it’s all about the money to pay off this contract or that. If that is the case, it’s unlikely much of the money saved building a new stadium will now go into building a new squad.

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On the other hand, maybe those at the top simply want to make sure they are getting it right for once. One or two well-considered signings, a new manager, a director of football and the introduction of some of the ‘kids’ into the first team squad and Chelsea will be a good way to getting back on track.

But this is Chelsea. Abramovich likes to have full control, and Antonio Conte has found insubordination is not the way forward. Sadly, Michael Ballack won’t get the director of football job. He burnt too many bridges with his end of season appraisal. Whoever directs the manager of Chelsea FC next season will have to work with Abramovich to put in place the foundations of an organisation that is run like a football club, rather than the more mundane businesses the Chelsea board are used to.

But, maybe…. Derby County are set to be the new Vitesse Arnhem following the arrival of Frank Lampard and Jody Morris. Maybe a mischievous Roman Abramovich will buy Leonid Slutsky out of his contract with the Dutch club before he’s even started his new job. He could then give him the keys to his Kensington mansion and Slutsky could enjoy life as a wannabe Russian oligarch whilst watching over the chosen manager.

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In the current political climate between Russia and the UK, that would probably go down very well with some of Abramovich’s well-connected friends.