English football has a few managers who always seem to find employment, seemingly in spite of their records of mediocrity, if not failure. Funny, Chelsea have a few players like that.
Premier League neutrals may have been even more excited than Southampton fans about Ralph Hasenhuttl’s appointment as the Saints’ head coach. After Mark Hughes’ sacking, many watchers feared Southampton would go like-for-like and appoint another well-trodden Premier League escape artist who would keep Southampton up this season and never get much beyond the minimal safety zone until the cycle repeated. We all know the names: Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis, Alan Pardew and so on.
Some of the criticism was over-the-top and unwarranted (football banter over-the-top and unwarranted? Shocked, I tell you!) but the main point stands. Many of these gentlemen collect overlapping severance packages for doing much the same job for clubs in much the same positions in the table. Relegation here, survival there, promotion over that way. The names stay the same, the results stay the same and the checks keep rolling in.
Chelsea may not know the meaning of the words “job security” as applied to managers, but for some of their players, Stamford Bridge has become a sinecure.
Chelsea’s longest-tenured players are no longer the backbone of the club, the players who define the best of what it means to be a Blue. John Terry and Frank Lampard are long gone. The one exception is Cesar Azpilicueta. But in the main, players like David Luiz and Willian are survivors. Worse, they may be like the reality show “Survivors”: Outwit. Outplay. Outlast.
From one manager to the next, these players start out with charm, charisma and output. They then sink into either complacency or petulance. The former wins out if their early impressions carry the day (e.g., the Maurizio Sarri era), the latter if not (e.g., the Antonio Conte era). Regardless of this second stage, the final result is always smugly dismissive patience. They know the manager will get the sack and they will get to stay. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The net output of these players over any cycle is mediocrity, which mimics Chelsea’s output across the cycles. A few years of trophies will be balanced out quite viciously by a 10th place finish and a batch of years without the Champions League.
The squad and the team are at their best when players are not just giving their all for the club but are competing for their continued place in it. Ruben Loftus-Cheek is emerging as so much more than a survivor. He is emerging as a winner. He battled his way from an almost certain loan to making every Premier League game a tough decision between him, Mateo Kovacic and Ross Barkley. Lofuts-Cheek is better for it. Kovacic and Barkley are better for it. And Chelsea are better for it.
Unfortunately, Loftus-Cheek’s mentality and situation are rare. Maurizio Sarri, like some of his predecessors, is not overly keen to make his players fight every day for their place. He has his preferred XI, and those players know who they are. Some know it far too well.
As a result, Chelsea have the player equivalent of those managers who always land on their feet but never use those feet to climb any higher. And just as how the old boys’ club of managers may block the path for young English managers to progress up the lower ranks into the Premier League, Chelsea’s chosen few stand in the way of Ethan Ampadu, Callum Hudson-Odoi and a slate of players out on loan.
All the Blues have to show for it are a good but unsatisfactory place in the table, a revolving door of coaches, an increasingly restive fan base and a “survival scrap” for the top-four and Champions League qualification. In short, the same experience as those bottom-half teams. The players may say they want more and, at some level, maybe they do. But with the consequences falling entirely on the coach and not on them, the club are at the mercy of their mood and motivations on any given day.
Southampton showed a commendable courage in hiring Ralph Hasenhuttl instead of one of the “safe” options. Chelsea should learn a lesson from this and recognize that longevity, comfort and name recognition does not produce goals, points, wins and trophies. Buy and keep the players who want to be here, sell or release the players who do not. Chelsea will not be competitive on the pitch and in the table until they are competitive in the locker room.
Roman Abramovich’s guiding principle with his managers is “What have you done for me lately?” He and his managers should start applying that to the players.