– I don’t think there is any clear common thread in what they are doing. It seems they are in a hurry, and the result is chaos. They lack the discipline of the well-run clubs, and everything seems more sporadic and impulsive. That is the verdict of news’s football writer Thore Haugstad on the transfer activity at Chelsea. It has been some intense and difficult months since American Todd Boehly and his consortium took over the London club. Since then, they have signed 14 players, set a transfer record, fired and added a new coach. In addition, the entire sports management has been restructured. But Chelsea, who have spent more than NOK 4 billion in the last two transfer windows, are far behind their competitors, have scored fewer goals than Erling Braut Haaland and are currently in 10th place. At the back in the gold medal match (21 points behind Arsenal), and well behind in the battle for the top four and the Champions League. – I think it will take quite a while before they become a team fighting for the league title again, says Haugstad. TOUGH JOB: Chelsea manager Graham Potter. Photo: Florian Schroetter / AP But how did Chelsea, who won the Champions League two and a half years ago, end up here? Huge changes There were big upheavals at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s home ground, in 2022. Russian Roman Abramovich, who had owned the club with great success since 2003, had to sell the club as a result of sanctions in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In May, Todd Boehly, an American businessman, investor and philanthropist, took over. Boehly, accompanied by the consortium Clearlake Capital, bought the club, and then a lot of changes followed. Key personnel in the sporting structure, such as club legend and technical advisor Petr Cech, and also director Marina Granovskaia, left their roles. Boehly took on the job of interim sporting director and embarked on a European tour to get to know agents, club presidents and sporting directors. Gary Neville blamed Boehly for operating as if he were playing the computer game “Football Manager”, and several sources describe the situation as “chaotic”, according to The Guardian. DISAPPOINTING: Todd Boehly’s first season as Chelsea owner has not been a bed of roses. Photo: TONY OBRIEN / Reuters The first transfer window for Boehly, the summer of 2022, resulted in eight men coming in and NOK 3 billion spent. Never before has an English club spent so much money during one and the same transfer window. – For 20 years, there was a structure in the club that gave fantastic success and was immeasurably popular with the supporters. And now there is a new owner who wants to show that he wants the best for the supporters and the club, and will try to achieve the same status. And he shows that by being willing to spend money. THINK IT CAN TURN AROUND: Viaplay commentator Kasper Wikestad, who has followed Chelsea closely this season. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB This is what Viaplay commentator Kasper Wikestad says about the first two transfer windows for Chelsea under American ownership. Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwumueka and Denis Zakaria, all entered the Stamford Bridge gates in the summer of 2022. The latter on loan. The then Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel received financial support in the transfer market. But just seven days after the last signing was made and the transfer window closed, the popular German was fired. “By firing Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea’s new owners have managed to burn NOK 3 billion without a clear sporting plan”, wrote news’s Thore Haugstad in a comment at the time. Demanding job In came Graham Potter, who left a criticized system in Brighton and entered the English capital. – He stands in the eye of the storm. The job he has is extremely difficult. He came from the smartest and perhaps most well-run club in the Premier League to one of the most chaotic, Haugstad believes. – NO RED THREAD: That’s what news’s football writer Thore Haugstad thinks. The result after five months in the job is 10th place in the league, out of both secret cups, through to the knock-out rounds in the Champions League and another one billion kroner spent on the transfer market. – It looks like they are miles away. They simply don’t do it well enough. It’s not good enough and I struggle to see where they are going. They are a real mess, was the verdict of former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton, who now works for the BBC. CRITICAL: Former Chelsea striker and current football expert Chris Sutton. Photo: PAUL ELLIS / AFP – That Chelsea can spend so much money and be so far away is simply incredible, believes Sky Sports expert and former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher. But Haugstad is sure that Potter can make it magical at Stamford Bridge again. If only he gets time. – I think he can make Chelsea a champion team. He is very good and certainly capable, but he needs time. And then there is the question of how much patience he actually gets at Chelsea, says Haugstad. The fact that it has been a difficult season so far has led to Chelsea also being active in the transfer market in January. Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana, Andrey Santos have been brought in. João Félix has signed an expensive six-month loan, while Chelsea also put several hundred million kroner on the table to sign the great Ukrainian talent Mikhailo Mudryk. Last week they confirmed the sixth signing of the January window – the 14th in total this season. According to several mediums, they add NOK 350 million to the table for PSV Eindhoven winger Noni Madueke. Now right-back Malo Gusto and Benfica star Enzo Fernández can also be in. The transition window closes on 31 January. Many have wondered how Chelsea can trade so much and so expensively without being hit by FFP – Financial Fair Play. GIANT PURCHASE: Mikhailo Mudryk seemed to be on his way to Arsenal for a long time, but was recently presented as a Chelsea player. Photo: David Cliff / AP Professor: – Clubs take bigger chances – We can only speculate whether they got away with it or were punished, but it is a very aggressive policy they are pursuing. Manchester City is an example of a club that escaped, despite documented breaches of the FFP rules. The clubs buy for more than they can actually afford, but they are used to being bailed out time after time, says Harry Arne Solberg, professor of sports economics at the NTNU School of Economics. He is among those who are surprised that Chelsea – and to an extent other clubs – can continue as they do in the transfer market, apparently without consequences. – If there are rules, there must also be a punitive response. And when one is not punished, it does something to the behaviour. One becomes willing to take bigger chances, says Solberg to news. PROFESSOR: Harry Arne Solberg. One of the methods that can explain a little of the reason why Chelsea are not caught by FFP are the contracts Noni Madueke, Benoit Badiashile and Mikhailo Mudryk. All three have been given a 7.5-year contract, while Mudryk also has an option for one more year. The fact that the contracts extend over so many years means that the payments are to a greater extent spread out so that it is not necessarily a gigantic sum at once. – It is simply a way of making the accounts more transparent, says Solberg. Chelsea’s player purchases, 2022/23 season Photo: Rui Vieira / AP Summer 2022: Wesley Fofana – from Leicester City – approx. NOK 850 million Marc Cucurella – from Brighton – approx. NOK 700 million Raheem Sterling – from Manchester City – approx. NOK 600 million Kalidou Koulibaly – from Napoli – approx. NOK 400 million Carney Chukwuemeka – from Aston Villa – approx. NOK 190 million Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – from Barcelona – approx. NOK 125 million Gabriel Slonina – from Chicago Fire – approx. NOK 95 million Denis Zakaria (loan) – from Juventus – approx. NOK 30 million January 2023: Mikhailo Mudryk – from Shakhtar Donetsk – approx. NOK 700 million Benoit Badiashile – from Monaco – approx. NOK 400 million Noni Madueke – from PSV Eindhoven – approx. NOK 350 million Andrey Santos – from Vasco da Gama – approx. NOK 145 million David Datro Fofana – from Molde – approx. NOK 140 million João Félix (loan) – from Atlético Madrid – approx. NOK 130 million Chelsea’s injury situation makes the buying bonanza a little easier to understand. They have struggled a lot with injuries all season, which has led to them using a record number of players during the season: 28 in total. What surprises Wikestad the most about Chelsea’s transfer activity is that they have not strengthened the area that has really been designated: Better cover for the important Reece James at right back and a clear goalscorer. – The injury problem makes everything much more difficult, and if Potter had an injury-free stable, things would change a lot. Potter has no easy job, and there is also no guarantee that throwing money at so many will solve some problems either, says Wikestad, and adds: – They have bought offensive players over a low shoe, and there are a lot of them like player types. – Can forget the top four Wikestad believes Potter and Chelsea, already in possession now, can look far beyond the Champions League next season. Getting into the top six, and thus securing play in the Europa League, should be the goal. But now that Chelsea is starting to get the sporting structure in place, he is sure that they will lift themselves up. – It is a bit typical of Chelsea to have a slightly weaker season, and then fight back, he believes. Whether it will be the Meisterliga, the Europa League or no continental tournament at all: there is no doubt in any case that there will be a big cleaning job in the Chelsea stable this summer. There are four players on contracts that expire in the summer. Six if one takes with the two who are on loan. But there may be many who drag. Because there will probably be even more. news’s Thore Haugstad thinks that can be demanding. – The clean-up job will be enormous, and it is a difficult market to operate in. It is difficult to sell players who cost so much. And it doesn’t help that other clubs will be aware that they have to get rid of the players, he says. Recently, Graham Potter referred to renting Chelsea as “the most difficult job in football”. But the work has only just begun.
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