Agaga Akpati
CHELSEA’S
AMBITIOUS PROJECT: NAVIGATING THE UNCERTAIN WATERS OF SUCCESS
Established
in 1905, Chelsea Football Club is a professional football team located in
Fulham, West London. Their home matches take place at Stamford Bridge. The club
has been a regular in the English Top Flight over the years, tasting trophy
success on very few occasions over the years not until a takeover at the helm of
the club by a certain Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich, on July 1, 2003.
This takeover marked the beginning of a very successful and trophy laden spell
at Chelsea which saw them go toe-to-toe with other European and domestic
giants. The most intriguing outcome of the takeover at the initial stages was
the amount of money being invested by the clubs owner to not only bring in the
best players from all over the world to The Bridge but to also bring the best
coaching and backroom staff to ensure success at every faction of the club.
This
saw huge amount of money being invested into signing players like Arjen Robben,
Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, Mateja Kezman, to name a few, and even proposed
transfers of established players like Ronaldinho. The services of a Champions
League winning manager in Jose Mourinho was acquired albeit the Portuguese being
very young and relatively inexperienced as at the time of the signing. But
these signings proved to be bedrock of subsequent success that came at the club
as those expensive signing catapulted the club to the level of European
heavyweights and as the years went by, further signings and adjustment were
made to ensure that the club not only remained at the level they found
themselves in but also continued to win silverwares, both domestically and
continentally.
Things
did take a very shocking and surprising turn of events when Abramovich put
Chelsea up for sale officially on March 2, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The business tycoon’s unwavering affiliation with Russia and the questions that
may arise as a result of his presence as a leading business entity owner in the
United Kingdom poised an uncomfortable atmosphere for all involved. This forced
the Chelsea owner to put the club up for sale in other to allow the club to
thrive peacefully and be distanced from any sort of issue that might arise as a
result of his role as the club’s owner. Amidst the whole potential buyers and
the deals to be finalized in other to ensure the successful handover of the
club, the sale was completed in May, 2022. Todd Boehly eventually emerged as
the acquirer of the blues consortium in a deal worth over Four Billion Pounds
(£4B).
The
acquisition of the club was met with mixed feelings by fans of the club who saw
the takeover as something that could unsettle the club and lead them in a
negative trajectory if things were not done properly. The first few months at
the club were pretty straightforward until result began going down south and
the manager at that time, Thomas Tuchel, was shown the door in other for the
new owners to bring in a new manager who they believed would help them achieve
their goal. The proposed project by the new owners were soon revealed and it
was crystal that they planned to incorporate a system where by very young and
promising players are signed and then with the right coaching and growth of the
signed players, they can in the future emerge as the best set of players in the
world who can compete with any team and fellow European giants for silverware.
It
was a very understandable project but a very risky one. Signing of players at a
very young age is not a bad idea as team like Real Madrid and Arsenal are fond
of doing such over the course of their entire history and they have enjoyed
success at different level. But what these respective clubs have been doing is entirely
different from what Chelsea owners are proposing. A club like Chelsea
comprising majorly of players aged 25 and under is something that sounded
insane. Insane in the sense that although such a move works in video games, it
would be hard for such to work in actual sense. Chelsea got rid of a huge bunch
of their senior players since the takeover from Boehly and within that short
amount of time, signed very young players for a combined transfer fee of One
Billion Pounds (£1B). The amount spent by the new owners painted a picture of
strong intent from them which basically meant they were strongly invested in
the projected and what they are proposing for the club.
Thus
far, the project seems to be increasingly becoming questionable by fans who
clearly see the risky projected as one too risky and hard to achieve. It is no
news that with the current plan in place for the club, the shortest period of
time these set of players can grow, gel and galvanize as a unit to be able to
compete at optimal level is at least two years. This is not to say it can not
take way longer than that but for a club of Chelsea’s pedigree and status,
result are needed as soon as possible. Chelsea, already into a full season of
the project, find themselves hovering embarrassingly in mid-table, closer to
bottom club Sheffield United than league leaders Liverpool, in points garnered
in the current premier league season. There seems to be no sign of panic or
huge shock about the current state of Chelsea by the club owners who see the
current manager as the right choice and the current crop of players as the
potential great players as projected. This does not seem to be the case with
fans who constantly find themselves questioning the decisions made by the club
and the current crop of players currently at the club. This uncertainty arises
due to the inconsistency shown by the players which can be narrowed down to
their relatively very young age and a collective inexperience playing at a club
of Chelsea’s caliber. There have been things to cherish and be happy about with
regards to how Chelsea play and how the young players try to live up to the expectations
of playing for a club like Chelsea but there is definitely room for massive
improvements.
Just
like every good investor, investment are made to ensure a good return of investment
and such expectation is no different with Chelsea. The money spent thus has
been outrageous to say least, considering the age of the players and the
contract length given to the respective players, so there has definitely been a
lot invested in the club. But just like every other thing in life and football,
there can either be good outcomes or the opposite, bad outcomes. Chelsea hope
that the investment made thus far can enable to players and club grow and
return to the summit of European football, enabling them compete with the likes
of Manchester City and Real Madrid for domestic and European silverware
respectively. With the risk involved, it is not hard to forecast what the
negative outcome could be if such a project does not come to fruition. The
current players may not achieve their full potential thereby leading the club
to remain at the mediocre level they find themselves in and thereby making the
investments made by the owners a colossal mistake. Hopefully, the latter is not
the case and Chelsea alongside her fans can enjoy the success they enjoyed
during the Abramovich era and even more better success if and when the plan for
the project is achieved.
