It’s time for Chelsea to create and implement a coherent vision and strategy

     

And so it ends. Chelsea’s 2017-18 season is over, with the Blues beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final to finish on a high, collecting another trophy as we so often do. Winning and winning even when we’re not at our best has become the identity of Chelsea ever since Roman Abramovich bought the club and that continues despite all the adversity.

In the past 4 years, Chelsea have won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup and one League Cup but you can’t help but get the feeling that the club is going in a wrong direction and all this will end if we don’t change our ways. This is not about the manager, it’s not about the style of play and it’s certainly not about us missing out on a particular target, rather, it’s about the club lacking a vision or at the very least, a coherent vision.

Antonio Conte may stay or he may leave. He has done his job and taken a club that finished 10th, looked out of sorts and needed to replace not only their club captain and leader, John Terry, but also transition in other ways like the loss of great players like Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku. He also had to survive against the onslaught of arguably the world’s best managers in Pep Guardiola with free spending Manchester City, Jose Mourinho with free spending Manchester United, Pochettino who was settled and revered at Spurs and Klopp who’s had a strong backing at Liverpool.

Conte has passed that test with flying colours, he’s earned his paycheck and our respect. He replaced John Terry with Andreas Christensen successfully, implemented a system that revolutionized tactics in England, delivered a Premier League title against all odds and even in a season where everything seemed to be going wrong, he delivered a trophy. For comparison, Pep Guardiola has won exactly the same number of trophies in the same duration that Conte has and Conte did it with a fraction of a budget that’s available at Manchester City.

Unfortunately, another season out of the Champions League shows that there are faults in the process that needs to be fixed. Even a serial winner like Conte can only do so much. His future alone will not be a fix to our problems. The club needs a coherent vision now more than ever.

Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois have both come out, in recent days, and said more or less that they are ready to sign an extension and commit their future to the club if we sign better quality players. That says a lot. If even your players feel like their teammates aren’t good enough, then there is no way around it. It leads to not only disharmony and discord within the squad but the players begin to lose faith in ownership and the management’s ability and willingness to be successful.