Tactics and Transfers: Escaping January and preparing for Chelsea’s future

This season has still been a good one, even if we’re tempted to slip into extremism as is our right as Blues fans. Chelsea is in all competitions except really the Premier League and can win up to five trophies—which has never been done in the club’s history. In order to do that though, the Blues will need to show that excellence matters most. It does at the biggest clubs who have achieved what Chelsea is trying to right now.

At Bayern Munich, culture comes first and players come second. At Barcelona and Real Madrid, the clubs are even willing to ruin themselves in the pursuit of more victories and more excellence. Both have achieved huge financial successes with that unbridled pursuit though. Barcelona is in a hilariously bad way at the moment, but there was a period before its latest ridiculous blow up where it was the Blaugrana who truly sailed closest to the sun.

Weirdly, 2018/19 was all three of Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona’s record revenue year and the difference is absurd. According to Statista, Barcelona earned €990 million in revenue. In that same time, Chelsea earned €513 million. Though Barcelona is in a bad place at the moment, the Catalan club’s romantic pursuit of more glory also earned it nearly €1 billion dollars in a single year in revenue. Real Madrid earned €757 million that year and it is the club to chase the most. The only thing that Real cares about is winning.

Sure, sometimes they lose deals, but who cares? Win. Let people know that’s all you care about. Throw it around that the only thing you care about is victory and it becomes contagious. People want to be a part of that. Think of all the times Real Madrid has simply suggested its interest in a player only for the player to immediately claim it’s their dream to go there. It happens time and time again. Players want to be associated with it. They want to breathe it in and have that magic in their lives. They don’t want to be nickel and dimed over a pittance (in these lofty relative terms), despite their achievements. It’s a bad look.

Why join Chelsea in that case? No matter what you do, what you achieve and what you win, they’re going to try and screw you out of a couple of quid here and there. Why?

Chelsea has not always been that club, but it has transformed into it and it has coincided with the Blues not even being in the top two for consecutive seasons since 2010/11. That’s insane. They have won titles and plastered over wounds, sure. They’ve pulled in large trophies and a huge haul of smaller ones that clubs like Tottenham would drool over, but should that be the goal? No. The goal should not be to beat Tottenham, the goal should be to beat everyone, everywhere, every day in every competition. Every. Single. Year.

They need to think about what message they’re sending both at home and abroad. That, more than any external signing, is going to make the difference. They have somehow managed to stumble into the scenario of having one of the best managers in Europe while defending a Champions League trophy. Don’t forget that the guy coaching Man City turned us down. The guy with eight trophies since 2016 wouldn’t even discuss coaching us because of our culture and coaches the team that we can’t even look at from a domestic perspective. There’s a genuine chance to make a historic difference. Chelsea must take it.

Generally speaking, the Blues do somewhere between mediocre and poor business. We’re not as good at incoming signing as we seem to think we are and that should be addressed. If you look at the players who have been failures—or at the minimum, who the jury is still out on—it’s a huge list and it’s all of our record signings. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, Kai Havertz, Alvaro Morata, Christian Pulisic, Lukaku and Werner. Now, some of those players are much more likable than others, so we’re happy to put up with them and nurse them through their low points. Overall though, I think we can agree none have truly done what was expected of them during their respective times in SW6. They cost a total of roughly £430,530,500 sterling and that’s only since 2017/18, or the year they were charged with last defending their title.

Does Chelsea feel £430 million better to you? No, no they don’t.

Chelsea nitpicks too much, that’s the issue. It sells players to balance books who should probably be given more time when the Blues would be better off accepting a loss for a couple of seasons and figuring it out later. Look at Tammy Abraham at Roma. He has 17 goals and four assists currently. 21 goal involvements by the end of January. Do you know how many Lukaku has right now? 10. 10 goal involvements for the low price of tearing the dressing room and wage structure apart. That’s the decision Chelsea made.

If the Blues are going to improve moving forward, they need to improve their judgment when doing business. A symbiotic relationship must be developed between the football and financial sides because at the moment, the disparity between them is cavernous and holds them back. The finance people need to recognize that they’re not football people and that’s OK. They’re great at what they do, but ultimately, it’s winning football that pays.

But maybe that’s the truth. Maybe Chelsea doesn’t actually want to win as much as it says it does. Maybe the Blues don’t as much as I want them to. Maybe it’s an act and the standard isn’t as high as they say it is. The goal is actually to keep the most balanced books in the division and also play football. A goal in which they would oddly be competing against Spurs, the side they beat 2-0 on Sunday. Look how it has turned out for them historically—not something to aspire to, surely.

If the goal is to win, Chelsea’s way of doing business needs to evolve. Simple.