Behdad Eghbali HAS to admit Chelsea's football structure has failed - Ruthless action is required
Its non negotiable at this point, Behdad Eghbali needs to admit its failing and take action
https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/behdad-eghbali-has-to-admit-chelseas
We’re at a point now where it’s beyond making all the arguments about the ownership and direction of the club. It’s very clear the way we’re run, the football structure, roles of different people in the set up and quality of the talent in those roles isn’t good enough, and isn’t working.
We’re 6th in the PL and won 8 of our last 19 PL games. We’ve lost 4 games in a row, 3 of them by a big scoreline. Players look unhappy and low on confidence and motivation. Half our squad are showing they aren’t good enough, despite £1.6 billion being spent on it. We’re on course for a lower league position and less points than last season.
Regardless of issues like fatigue and injuries, I think any rational person looking at that situation can tell something is drastically wrong. This isn’t success, after nearly 4 years, it looks like failure.
I’m still a strong believer in the overall strategy of signing elite young talents and building a title winning team with them. PSG have shown this can be achieved successfully.
The difference, as we all know, is PSG have a better structure, and better qualified and more capable people executing that strategy. They have an elite Sporting Director in Luis Campos, and an elite head coach in Luis Enrique, and they work together to build the squad and the culture at the club without interference.
Which brings me to the issues at Chelsea - and some possible solutions. Now I know these solutions are unlikely to happen, I’m not delusional. But I really want to demonstrate how its not as difficult to solve the problems as some seem to think. What it requires is co-owner Behdad Eghbali - who I believe does want to win with Chelsea - to stop being so stubborn, admit its not working, and be ruthless and decisive in making change. And being real, that’s unlikely.
But nevertheless, here it goes.
At Chelsea, I believe we have fundamental issues with our footballing structure and the roles and powers of the head coach and Sporting Directors. The role of the head coach is merely a facilitator of the Sporting Directors strategy, with a ton of micromanaging, interference, and managers not having much say in recruitment or squad building.
There’s also a perceived culture of arrogance, lack of accountability and no responsibility. The Sporting Directors appear to claim credit for any positive achievement, and concurrently refuse to be accountable or responsible for anything negative or any failure.
This seems to have seeped down to the players too, with no one standing up to be counted when things get difficult and an arrogance against sides they deem to be beneath them, just showing up and expecting to win. We’ve seen it against Leeds, Burnley, Wrexham and even against Everton, as well as Quarabag earlier this season.
It’s simply unacceptable for Chelsea Football Club. This toxic culture and poor performance from people employed by the club, has to end for us to be competitive again.
Chelsea for me and many others, has always been about courage, character, everyone coming together, fighting for each other and the badge, against all odds, never giving up. It’s about community and family being together and fighting till the end, and even if we lose, to do it with pride, heart and courage.
And I don’t see that at all at the club right now.
Change is absolutely necessary. Wholesale change, from the top.
Behdad and Clearlake aren’t going anywhere. Any attempt to force them out is pointless. So we have to try and persuade them to make the changes needed. I still believe they want to win, but I am and have been convinced for some time, they don’t know how to win - but think they do.
They’re convinced their way is best, and will ultimately deliver success. They seem to think the people running the football side are doing a great job, when the evidence is clear to me and many of us that this is simply not the case. In my view, well over £600m has been wasted on players who aren’t good enough - and if even half of that waste had been spent well, chances are we’re comfortably in the top 3 right now. Not to mention the unhealthy club culture set from the top, and poor treatment of certain individuals employed by the club.
Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart had never worked at a big club and never held a Sporting Director position before Chelsea. That’s the reality. They weren’t and aren’t proven best in class in those roles, and have proven not to be so multiple times since being appointed.
They’ve been at the club nearly 3 and a half years, spent £1.6 billion, hired 3 managers and we’re no further forward in terms of results and status as a club. In fact, given now mathematically we can only match last season’s points total - and we won’t win every game - we’ve literally regressed as a team in terms of our league position and points. There’s simply no legitimate metric where you can see progress. (No, winning XG every game doesn’t count).
They’ve signed multiple players who we now need to move on, way too many to account for any average of failures in the market which all clubs have. They’re poor negotiators, losing out on way too many players we should have secured.
They’ve had a long time to prove themselves, to improve and been paid very well to do it. Their history before Chelsea means they will undoubtedly find other jobs. Winstanley for example has had interest from elsewhere.
It’s time to accept that their time is up and move them on. Winstanley I think needs to leave completely. Stewart could be moved to oversee the multi club model, which is his area of expertise and experience.
Then we need to be bold. This will require some humility in admitting the way we’ve done things hasn’t worked and we’re willing to change the structure and how we operate and a commitment to change. Although I’ll preface this by saying that in reality it’s unlikely, almost impossible for it to happen, and I know this. But humour me for a moment.
Identify a proven elite Sporting Director. Just for arguments sake, the former Man City Sporting Director Txiki Begiristain.
If Behdad is ambitious and serious, I’d advise aggressively recruiting him, or someone of his level to become CEO of Football for BlueCo and Head of Recruitment at Chelsea. Make him an offer he can’t refuse. Give him full power and authority over football decisions at Chelsea, to implement the ownership strategy of building to win trophies with young talent. But doing it well, like PSG, rather than how we’ve done it so far.
Let him appoint his own manager and Sporting Director, who he can work with to collectively build an elite squad, with manager input, no micromanaging, full collaboration between him, Sporting Director and head coach, and build a winning culture. Behdad Eghbali could theroetically still have an influence in terms of strategy and budget, even discussions on football, but he needs to leave the big football decisions to the experts. Best in class experts, not our current staff.
If the club make an appointment like Txiki Begiristain, respected globally in football, a serious operator with a track record, and are ruthless with the people who are failing at Chelsea, it’s a statement of intent. It shows the ownership are willing to admit they’ve made mistakes and are willing to learn from them, that standards being shown at Chelsea right now are simply not good enough, and to me sends a clear message they’re committed to winning.
That kind of appointment and statement could even convince players to stay, it could convince an elite manager to join us (or at the very least a highly talented, proven young manager), and even convince some top players to join us even with the Europa League or Conference League.
It will also send a message to our players that the current culture is over, and that we’re now serious about being an elite club and winning, and there are now higher standards. Finally of course, it calms the fans and might buy the owners a little more time.
Letting a truly elite, top sporting director and a new coach work together to handle the squad building would change everything. I think it would create momentum and focus at the club, and clear direction of travel.
It will still be a long way back and there’s a lot of work to do, regardless. It will take time, ups and downs and hard work to get where we want to be. Which brings me to the managerial situation.
I’ve always been an advocate for patience and stability, with an elite manager. I do hope now, after what’s happening with Liam Rosenior, that our fanbase see that maybe it’s better not to get rid of a successful talented manager like Enzo Maresca just because he loses a few games. We have to back them and build with them, involve them in the long term strategy and team building, not micro manage them. If we have an elite manager, we have to be patient with them and back them.
There is also, likewise, a time not to be patient with a manager. That is when said manager has shown they clearly are out of their depth and aren’t capable of managing at this level.
I’ve never seen such a clear demonstration of this so quickly in my life as Liam Rosenior. I’m always patient with managers but I’ve never seen our entire fanbase, even the most patient ones, turn on a coach so quickly. And I’ve never wanted a manager to leave as quickly as I have Liam Rosenior. In my view, he has to go for the good of the club.
Its a shame, as I like him as a person and he is a promising coach. I have a ton of respect for him taking full responsibility publicly for recent results, and going to the fans after the defeat to Everton to take the heat.
But in reality, right now he is out of his depth as a coach at Chelsea, and clearly not the right man to take Chelsea forward. The sooner the club recognise that, the better.
Liam’s appointment and its failure, is the product of a flawed and failing structure at Chelsea, and a culture of perceived arrogance which appears to excuse failure and avoid taking responsibility. Ironically enough, Liam himself is an exception to this, always taking responsibility for bad performances and defeats. But sadly, he’s got to go as much as those above him do, regardless of what happens in terms of results for the rest of the 25/26 season.
If we make the tough choices, hire an elite sporting director, and change the culture and structure of the club and the roles of manager and sporting director, I believe we will find it easier hire a manager more worthy of the club and our ambitions.
Personally, I’ve had enough unproven managers who’ve never won a thing and never worked or played for big clubs and won trophies. But realistically, that’s what they’ll go for again.
There are two young-ish managers who are an exception to my tiring of young coaches, and I think could do a good job at Chelsea right now, in the right structure. These are Cesc Fabregas of Como, and Filipe Luis, currently unemployed after being bizarrely sacked by Flamengo. Both are ex-Chelsea, both have shown they’re well capable of managing at a competitive level.
Cesc Fabregas in particular loves Chelsea and is a winner, who has won at big clubs as a player. He’s loved by the Chelsea fans, knows the demands of big clubs and how to deal with them. He’s done exceptionally well at Como, currently having them in the Champions League places, playing a style of football our current owners love. If the ownership want their own Arteta, an ex-player who can be an elite coach for the long term, Cesc is the prime candidate of this profile of manager.
Filipe Luis meanwhile, has been hugely successful as a manager so far. At Flamengo he won several major trophies, even beating Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea in the Club World Cup. His last game in charge before his sacking, he won 8-0. He had talks with BlueCo over Chelsea and Strasbourg in January, so is definitely on our radar. He also has considerable experience as a player, winning trophies at Atletico Madrid, playing for Chelsea in the Premier League and being capped 44 times for the Brazil national team. Yes, he still needs to get one more badge to work in the PL, but you can easily find ways around this, for him to complete the badges
If you’re going to go again with a younger long term appointment, make one of those two (Cesc would be my preference) an offer they can’t refuse. Give them influence (though not the final say), change the structure around them (no more micromanaging or undermining of coaches) and hire that elite SD for him to work with. Then back him in the market and listen to him on squad building.
Other than that, if you make the changes I’ve suggested, you could try and find a more proven elite manager and put them in charge. It does require Behdad Eghbali to stop being so stubborn. Which, I know, appears almost impossible right now.
Other than that, well if you do what I’d do with my top Sporting Director appointment, and change the structure, that makes top coaches more open to working with you. But I’m not going to speculate too much on that until we see what happens in the club in the next few months.
Now I know, the chances are none of what I’ve advocated for will happen. I know this, I’m not naive. I know all the arguments as to why this won’t ever happen, and they’re probably right.
But the only way I can process whats happening at the club right now is to think about possible solutions. Everything I’m advocating for I think is possible if we were ruthless, competent and decisive.
However, I don’t have much faith they are or will be. I’m not living in a fantasy land, I know the reality. But I need to at least have in my own mind a way out of this mess, and I don’t think as its as difficult as it seems, if they are just willing to admit failures and make changes. The problem, as always, is the stubbornness of Behdad Eghbali and his unwillingness to change things thus far.
What is beyond doubt, is big change and ruthless action is needed at the club. Changing the manager alone won’t change a thing, The problems are far bigger and deeper. Until those problems are acknowledged and tackled ruthlessly, then the fact is Chelsea will stagnate and not make progress in the next few years.
Your move Behdad.
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So we have been out ran by every team in our 31 PL games, yet we have by far have the most possession, with the sideways passing. You'd think the penny would drop that trying to tire out opponents might work if it were Div2 teams, but opposing PL players are at a high level of fitness, do not get tired, and just bide their time. They only have to be lucky once or twice on the break, or three times as we saw yesterday. Its not rocket surgery
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