CHELSEA dressing rooms of old routinely chewed up and spat out managers while piling more trophies into the cabinet.
This lot haven’t even got the presence of mind to control a ball, let alone a game or changing room.
After another embarrassing collapse against Wolves, under-fire boss Mauricio Pochettino conceded his players are struggling to cope with the pressure of playing at Chelsea.
They couldn’t recover after being rolled over by Liverpool in midweek and could not keep their heads, having seen Wolves equalise shortly after Cole Palmer had put the Blues ahead after a fine team move.
Fingers were pointed between players throughout Sunday’s horror show but the most aggression shown by anyone in blue came from Moises Caicedo knocking seven bells out of a seat on the bench after he was hooked.
While some players stayed to applaud the few remaining fans after the full-time whistle, only captain Ben Chilwell spoke to media, though only in interviews which are mandatory for rights holders.
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Not one other Chelsea player had the guts to front up, no one else brave enough to apologise to the fans as their manager had to do.
It is commonplace now for Premier League players to duck interviews after a defeat, but just because others do it does not mean it is the right thing to do. Fans are furious, someone must step up.
Long gone are the days of John Terry and Frank Lampard facing the music after disappointing results, taking responsibility and speaking to supporters, vowing to put things right.
Blues fans know little about the wide cast of young players who have washed into their club in the past two years. It is no wonder there is a disconnect.
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The ownership can throw all the gimmicks they like at the club, DJs welcoming players off the bus or a “once-in-a-lifetime” fan experience to “high-five the players as they walk down the special blue carpet”. Some accountability would do.
Chelsea have always burned through managers at an alarming rate, 13 came and went under Roman Abramovich’s near two-decade rein, but there were also 21 trophies.
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Under Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s guidance there have already been four managers, no trophies and over a £1billion carelessly spent to take the club backwards.
Speculation is now rife over when Pochettino will join the list of former Blues managers, but it cannot always be the manager’s fault.
Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Raheem Sterling aside, Chelsea’s starting XI on Sunday’s 4-2 loss at Wolves was a side largely littered with potential yet to be fulfilled.
Neither of Chelsea’s £100m-plus midfielders, Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, could get a grip on the game and settle things down. Conor Gallagher struggled but at least put in a big tackle and picked a fight with Gary O’Neil to show supporters he gave a jot.
Terry, Chelsea’s legendary captain who watched their humbling at Liverpool last week from the away end, has previously denied that the leadership group he was part of were the ones in charge ahead of managers.
But the former England captain says it was the likes of him, Lampard, Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech who did most of the manager’s work when it came to simple standards.
He said: “If someone wasn’t to the level or the standards that we demanded, as Chelsea football club, then me, Ash, Frank, Didier, Pete would tell them.
“If people didn’t continue to be at those standards, before the manager even had to say anything, we would nip it in the bud.”
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There are few in the squad now fans would trust to repeat those messages.
Chelsea’s current crop do not need to return to the days of being a group who see off managers on a regular basis in order to be successful, but some semblance of a winning mentality and a refusal to accept the mess they are in would be a start.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
