“Chelsea’s Worst Ranking in 29 Years: Mauricio Pochettino Takes Charge of Huge Construction Site”

May 30, 2022, May 29, 2023. Two dates, two atmospheres. A year ago, Todd Boehly and his consortium of investors officially took control of Chelsea for the tidy sum of 5 billion euros. The Roman Abramovich page, then sanctioned for his links with Vladimir Putin, was turned.

A year later, the London club is not in such an upheaval, but has still announced major news: Mauricio Pochettino is its new coach. Unofficial for several weeks, the news became official the day after the end of the Blues’ worst season in the league since 1994. Just that.

Worst ranking for 29 years

The sports component is obviously the visible face of the iceberg. Or rather the wall that Boehly took in the face for his first year of governance. Chelsea finished outside the top 4 for the first time since 2018, outside the top 5 for the first time since 2016, outside the top 10 for the first time since 1996. This 12th place is its worst ranking for 29 years.

Nothing too surprising for a team that has never found the key offensively. With 38 small goals scored, Chelsea have the fifth worst record in the Kingdom. On the scale of the five major European championships, and while all are not finished, the London club ranks 76th in the number of goals scored, out of 98. Bochum, Troyes, Almeria or even Monza have done better.

A ranking and figures all the less forgivable as Chelsea won the prize for the biggest spending club this season. From far away. 16 recruits – 8 in the summer transfer window, 8 in winter – for an absolutely delirious total of 611.49 million euros, that’s what Chelsea have paid in less than a year, against 67.83 million in income.

543.66 million euros deficit

A deficit balance of 543.66 million euros, therefore, for catastrophic domestic results, barely masked by a quarter-final of the Champions League, and above all not camouflaged by road trips in the 3rd round of the two National Cups. This is called carnage.

And obviously, it was the coaches who toasted in the middle of this tasteless cocktail. Thomas Tuchel took the door at the beginning of September, after a difficult start to the season, but with Chelsea 6th in the Premier League. “As the new management celebrates 100 days at the helm of the club and continues to work hard to move the club forward, the new owners believe the time is right to make this change,” could we read in the press release of the time.

To replace him, the London management had snatched Graham Potter from Brighton against a check for 20 million euros. Seven months later, the Briton was already leaving after 7 wins, 7 draws and 8 losses. The right time to make this change, after 307 days of the new management at the head of the club?

Pochettino in front of a huge construction site

Upon his arrival, Frank Lampard, back at a club that had sacked him at the start of 2021, knew he was only there for the interim. But this status, perhaps less burdensome to bear, did not help him. Under his leadership, the Blues will have won only one game out of eleven, for 8 defeats. And obviously did not create a feat against Real Madrid. The group, which barely had enough room to change in the same locker room, had perhaps already let go.

So this is the context in which Mauricio Pochettino arrives. The Argentine coach recovers a workforce which, counting loan returns and before knowing who will leave the ship, is approaching 40 players. Without European Cup. The summer project is huge and Chelsea has, a priori, little room to do worse.

The former PSG coach would have, even before the formalization of his signing in London, validated the track leading to Sporting midfielder Manuel Ugarte, for whom it will be necessary to pay 60 million euros. We would have imagined more reassuring, as a first signal. The Chelsea Boehly version continues its great maneuvers. But if he hasn’t learned from his mistakes, they will once again drive him into the wall.