• March 9, 2022
• Olaoluwa Nwobodo

The ownership of Chelsea may soon be handed over to someone else, and while there’s a lot Roman Abramovich and his management team did right, he wasn’t perfect. There are many things Chelsea still does that isn’t befitting for a club of their stature. Here are three things that the new Chelsea owners can do to improve on the go things Abramovich has already put in place.

1.Player recruitment

In the past, Chelsea’s recruitment has never really had any structure or pattern. It’s often the manager’s pick, although the owner or the director sometimes chases targets based on personal preference. This would have been a very good way of selecting transfer targets if the managers didn’t change so often. Chelsea currently has several players that were perfect fits under a different manager, but not so much right now. This is as a result of acquiring players for managers that aren’t around for long. Chelsea has players that were purchased almost specifically for managers that were sacked three managers ago.

The stature of the club means these players are earning big wages, and therefore are extremely difficult to move on when the current manager has no substantial use for them. The result of this is a bloated squad. There are several players in the Chelsea squad that Chelsea has been trying to offload for a long time, but the wages always continue to be an issue.

A way to circumvent this is to appoint a Director of Football. This person would work with the club board and manager to decide a philosophy, and then players are targeted and acquired based on this philosophy. If this is implemented well, players would continue to remain useful to the club regardless of who the manager is, as long as the club appoints managers based on that philosophy. An example of this is the recruitment policy of the Red Bull Clubs. They have a known style of play, which requires players of a certain profile. This means these clubs can go about player recruitment regardless of who the manager is, especially because they have an advanced, data-driven scouting network.

2.Player sales

In the Roman Abramovich era, transfer deals are mainly negotiated by Marina Granovskaia. She is the Director of Chelsea and handles negotiations both for incoming and outgoing transfers. Granovskaia is notorious for being shrewd and uncompromising in negotiations. This often works in Chelsea’s favor, but it also worked against Chelsea’s interest sometimes. Granovskaia likes to make sure she never sells Chelsea short in any deal. This means a strong reluctance and often even refusal to pay a penny more than she needs to, and an equal reluctance to receive a penny less than she can get.

This often leads clubs to abandon transfer targets contracted to Chelsea, as her valuation sometimes doesn’t match that of the potential buyer. This stubbornness is commendable when these players are extremely important to the team, but often she also applies this hard stance to fringe players, which means these fringe players remain on Chelsea’s books. A player staying because the club couldn’t agree on a fee does not benefit anyone. The player’s development is hampered and Chelsea is forced to continue paying their full wages. Tiemoue Bakayoko, Emerson Palmieri, and several other Chelsea fringe players have been victims of these.

Chelsea often needs to get players off the books so that there’d be space for new arrivals. It doesn’t really benefit Chelsea to have players that are of no real use to the team, remain at the club because someone refused to part with a few million pounds. As soon as it becomes clear that a player has no future at the club, the club should look to move that player on as quickly as possible and at least get him off their wage bill. This will lead to fewer chances of a bloated squad.

3.Target selection

The best clubs don’t always go after big-name signings. The best signings and the best use of scouting are to target players that would be very effective for your playing style but aren’t already in the limelight. Chelsea has fallen into the trap of often targeting the big name, which of course comes with a high price.

The clubs that use their scouting departments well often go after players that have shown all the signs of being elite even at a young age. This means they can get these players before big European clubs start looking their way. Admittedly, Chelsea does this too, but not nearly enough. It doesn’t even have to be a young guy, but just someone that isn’t in the limelight yet. It’s difficult to reduce the price of a player that is already being hyped by mainstream media.

Eden Hazard was playing for Lille OSC in Ligue 1 when Chelsea got him. He cost Chelsea £32m and by the time Real Madrid was able to get him, not only did they not get the Hazard that they wanted, but they paid more than four times what Chelsea paid for him. N’Golo Kante is another example. He was acquired by Leicester City from SM Caen at a time when no one knew who he was. Chelsea got him from Leicester for £32m as well, which is still relatively cheap, compared to what they would have paid if they were to buy him from a more popular club.

Borussia Dortmund acquired Erling Haaland for about £20m when many teams were focused on more popular players. Chelsea realized too late just how good the Norwegian goal machine is, and by the time they were interested in him, his price had been set at a base price of £150m, making him almost unattainable.

Dusan Vlahovic is another gem that was waiting to be discovered. Chelsea didn’t see what many were seeing, instead, they focused on more popular center forwards like Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and surprise surprise Erling Haaland. Funny how that works! Juventus signed Vlahovic for about £63m, and the Serbian was already the league’s top scorer even before he moved to the biggest club in the country. Chelsea ended up paying much more for an older player.

There’s nothing wrong with buying popular players, however, they should be targeted sparingly as they cost much more money due to their hype. Chelsea in the last four years has broken their transfer record 4 times. In the last two years, they spent a combined £170m that everyone agrees hasn’t lived up to expectation.

Targeting non-popular players benefits the players as much as it benefits the club because then the players aren’t under as much pressure to hit the ground running and the club doesn’t have to worry about getting them firing as quickly as possible. Big-money signings are often forced into the starting lineups regardless of form because the club always hopes the next game is where they rediscover their form. Liverpool, Manchester City, and even Bayern Munich hardly ever make signings in the £70m range because more frequently go for players that they do not need to pay a premium for.