What Happened to Chelsea?

The 2011-2012 season was a turbulent one for Chelsea fans to say the least.  It is impossible to gauge all the factors that influenced one of the most confusing seasons in the history of Chelsea Football club, but I have some theories. Indulge me.

There is something that I want to get out of the way at the very beginning: I am a big fan of Andre Villas-Boas. It might seem unusual that I would say I regret that he was sacked considering the end that Chelsea had to their season, but I wish he was still at the helm. The bottom line for this club that has risen so quickly to Europe’s elite is that the foundational players that got the team where they are now, are aging; and although the final push this season could not have been done without them, there has to be a transition. I believe Villas-Boas was the man to do that job. I’m not saying Di Matteo is incapable of doing it, but changing Managers halfway through a season sets you back at square one again. Perhaps AVB went about the transition too quickly and laid the massive weight of a world-class club on the fragile shoulders of Chelsea’s new and surprisingly young players, but the fact remains that he was doing something that previous managers had been unwilling to try. With Drogba already gone, Malouda being ousted, and Lampard showing signs of age, the time is now to make the transition and it worries me slightly that Di Matteo had to rely so heavily on those players to get the results he did, although we can’t really judge a coach that was given two or so months to turn round the fortunes of a struggling club.

So what was Chelsea’s problem in the first half of the season? And what triggered a turn-around that gave the club their first ever Champions League trophy? Firstly I have to state my belief that players can have a much larger impact on a team than the coach; if they choose to. Picture a team that has won the Premier League several times as well as the FA and Carling Cup, thanks, not so much to any particular coach, as Chelsea have changed coaches so often over the years, but to the incredible performances of Terry, Drogba, Lampard, Cole, and many other veteran players. Now picture those players taking the backseat to newer, younger players in a matter of weeks. Those veteran players were slow to offer their crucial leadership qualities and experience to a coach who threatened their positions in a club they had worked so hard to build. The younger players were given too much responsibility too quickly and the club crumbled from within. Despite the best efforts of AVB, he could only do so much, the players, whether consciously or not, lacked the resolve required to win top-flight games.

I don’t pretend to know what happened within the dressing rooms at this club during the closing days of AVB’s reign and into the transitional period that saw Chelsea make a complete turn in form, but from what I saw from the players after that, I have my suspicions. When Di Matteo took over he gave a majority of the leadership and decision making powers to those players that had been with the club for so long and knew how best to win as a club. The time I saw the Chelsea I knew consistently playing the traditional Chelsea style was when Di Matteo took over. Why? Perhaps partially because Di Matteo had been with the club for so long, but also because the veteran players were calling the shots, whereas before, AVB was.  Watch the FA cup final. When did we see those players that united before in this season. Watch the Barcelona semi-final or even the Bayern Munich final, although Chelsea didn’t play the style to get good press clippings, they played together and they played the way they knew would win them the game.

So the bottom line for the club is this: A transition is needed, everyone knows that. With the purchase of Hazard and Marin and Oscar, as well as Sturridge and Ramires recently, Abromavich is clearly showing where his priorities lie, especially with his long-standing habit of buying top class players that are already well into their careers. We have already seen that for the transition to work it must be done more slowly than AVB initially thought (I think he had it figured out, but clearly it was too late) and Di Matteo might just be the man for the job as he showed his remarkable instincts in choosing a rotation in the squad that was requisite for the remarkable amount of games the team played in such a short amount of time. Hopefully this transition takes place. Personally, I hate seeing these veteran players that have immortalized themselves in my mind become old and be replaced, but I also realize that is the way football is and I am finding a slight excitement for the new generation of Blues.

Joga Bonito

Dallin