A Stamford Bridge over troubled waters

Chelsea have been a sacking club for as long as most people can remember.

Binning managers on a whim was a policy introduced during the increasingly ruthless Roman Abramovich era, and it has been enthusiastically, if ineffectually, embraced by BlueCo.

Liam Rosenior is the latest Victim of The Bridge, only making it four months into a very ambitious and laughable 66-month contract.

But here’s the thing. Under Abramovich there was method to the managerial madness. Despite the constant churn there was always a sense that it was leading somewhere, that it had a purpose. It was crude, yes, but it was also undeniably effective, as 21 trophies showed.

Under BlueCo, however, the head coach upheavals are merely creating a sense of chaos.

They’ve only owned the club for four years but have already burned through five permanent managers and a couple of interims. Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Rosenior have all come and gone with little progress being made in any direction.

With Abramovich in charge, five managers would probably have brought half a dozen trophies.

Of course, that Rosenior has been shown the door is no great surprise. Recent results were dreadful as they lost five league games in a row without scoring, last week’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion was the capitulation that broke the camel’s back.

The last time Chelsea went on a similar run of goalless defeats was in 1912, which is when the Titanic was busy learning that icebergs are rather unwieldy. He was never going to survive that sort of total collapse in form.

But, to be honest, it isn’t just this recent run that cost Rosenior his job. From the moment he arrived it never felt like he was the right fit. From the outside it soon became quite clear that neither the dressing room nor the fans were convinced. And then it looked like the man himself had his doubts.

And all that is down to BlueCo, who have built an entirely unworkable ‘project’ that needs managers with a long-term plan but which isn’t designed to give them anything like the time they need.

There is contradiction at the heart of everything the club is trying to do. Build young, develop slowly, think long term… but simultaneously expect instant results.

You can’t have it both ways.

Once a dressing room senses the manager is temporary, everything changes. Authority weakens, buy-in drops, and small cracks become yawning chasms

Rosenior arrived with ideas, with a style, with a growing reputation for innovative ideas and building a team. But constructing something coherent requires time, and time is the one thing Chelsea no longer seem willing to offer. Four months is barely enough to learn the players’ names, never mind reshape a squad that has been assembled by committee rather than design.

And that is another part of the problem – this is no longer a manager-led club. It feels like everything from recruitment to tactics are being decided at executive level, with the coach expected to fit into a system that already exists, rather than shape one himself.

In theory, that creates continuity. In reality, it creates confusion. Players arrive without a clear identity to plug into, managers arrive without full control and, when it doesn’t quite click, the easiest solution is to change the man on the touchline and hope for a different outcome.

It rarely works like that.

Because once a dressing room senses that the manager is temporary, everything changes. Authority weakens, buy-in drops, and small cracks become yawning chasms.

More worrying than any of those for the club’s owners, however, is the fact that their relationship with the supporters is falling apart. Not because Chelsea fans aren’t used to change, but because they are used to success. They will accept ruthless decisions if they lead somewhere. What they struggle with is the feeling that nobody is quite sure where that “somewhere” actually is.

Money has been spent, plenty of it. Players have been signed on contracts that will still be running long after NASA has finished its moonbase. Managers have come and gone. And yet, instead of progress, there is just a lingering sense of drift.

That is the difference.

Abramovich’s Chelsea were ruthless but focused. BlueCo’s Chelsea feel busy but directionless.

And so the cycle continues. Another manager out, another one to come in, another attempt to make sense of a squad and a structure that don’t quite align. There will be talk of patience again, of sticking to a plan, of trusting the process.

Until the next bad run.

Because unless something fundamental changes, it’s hard to see why the next man will fare any differently to the previous five.

Advantage City

Last week I said whoever won the clash between Manchester City and Arsenal would probably go on to win the league.

Ultimately, in what was an unexpectedly exciting game, it was Pep Guardiola who came out on top, leaving Mikel Arteta to wonder what might have been.

Of course, that 2-1 defeat was the perfect ammunition for those who revel in labelling Arsenal the ultimate team of bottlers. And, at face value, I can understand why, especially coming on the back of that horrendous home defeat to Bournemouth.

However, I feel compelled to stick up for Arteta and his team at this point because there was nothing at all about their performance last Sunday that suggested they were in the process of bottling it.

On the contrary, this wasn’t the cagey, awkward Arsenal of recent weeks. They played with conviction and belief, and came within the width of a goalpost of getting the draw that would have not only have been a fairer result, but which would have put the title race in their control.

So no, on this occasion they didn’t bottle it, they were just unlucky.

With all that in mind, has it changed my opinion on who will win the title? Not really.

Arsenal have a slightly easier run-in, true, but City are top of the league and have momentum, experience and confidence on their side. So I am still leaning towards a Pep triumph.

But to be honest, given the way Arsenal played, I am not as convinced as I was before the match...

Forever bottom

It’s always been my slightly warped philosophy that if you are going to get relegated, do it in style.

Step forward Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Although their relegation has only recently been confirmed, we have all known for a very long time that they were destined to go down. They’ve had a slow-motion car crash of a season.

However, the most quirky thing about their relegation is that they are on the verge of making history, setting a global football record that will never, ever be beaten.

Why? Well, before a ball was kicked this season they were already bottom of the Premier League – by virtue of the alphabet. Pretty unremarkable in itself.

But this is where it gets interesting. They lost their first match 4-0 at home to Manchester City and, in the process, upgraded their status at the bottom of the league from alphabetical to earned.

And they have stayed there ever since. Not once over the course of the last eight or nine months have they moved up a place. Or, of course, down.

They have been glued in 20th position all the way.

Now they are just three games away from legendary status: becoming the first team in football history to start the season bottom of the league before a game is played and end it in the exact same place without ever moving.

Hopefully they don’t throw it all away now with a silly run of victories that takes them above Burnley City...

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