Clearlake & The Sporting Directors have ripped the soul out of Chelsea, and they don't even care
There's no accountability at the top, and they're ruining the club
https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/clearlake-and-the-sporting-directors-d69
I hate the fact I often post here after a bad run of form. I actually have some positive articles in drafts, which I wrote when we were on a good run, but they’ll likely never get posted now. I have nothing positive to say about Behdad Eghbali, Clearlake, Paul Winstanley or Laurence Stewart anymore. Nothing.
This is going to be an emotional article, because the last few weeks have brought me to my wits end with how things are being run at the club. Call it a rant, or a vent, but I think a lot of fans are upset right now.
I hold my hands up, I defended these guys. I was clearly wrong. Unlike them, I’m willing to hold my hands up and admit my mistake. (Note to our Sporting Directors, this is called “taking responsibility”, which is a foreign concept to you).
I still believe in the overall strategy, building sustainably for the long term. We can’t pay giant transfer fees and giant wages anymore. PSG have shown the strategy with young players works - their team in the second leg was younger than ours. But the people in charge of executing this strategy aren’t fit for purpose.
PSG have Luis Campos and Luis Enrique, both best in class operators, given power to do their job. We have work experience lads from Brighton and Monaco with no previous experience at a big club, or in their current roles, with Behdad, another with zero football experience, heavily interfering and micro managing because according to him and his mates he’s apparently up alongside Pep Guardiola in terms of football knowledge and “Head Coaches don’t have an impact on results” (you have to laugh sometimes).
Speaking of the head coach position, I hate to say it, but Liam Rosenior sadly does look out of his depth right now. I like him and he has promise as a coach, I want him to succeed, and I rarely turn on managers. But like everyone in these kind of roles at our club, Liam has, in my view, been promoted too quickly, and isn’t ready for a club like Chelsea. That’s not on him, he simply took a job offered to him. But it’s the truth.
That said, he’s not going anywhere and believe it or not he’s not even the biggest problem at the club. As such, I’ll continue to back him like I do every manager, at least till the summer, especially because we need to win games urgently.
To be fair, in all likelihood Chelsea could have Thomas Tuchel or Jose Mourinho back in charge and we’d likely still ultimately have the same issues, because the squad building hasn’t been good enough.
I’ve had enough of a lot of things.
The SAME issues in the squad every season, every time we don’t perform. Poor goalkeeper, poor CBS, poor depth in attack, losing our heads, complacency against bad teams, poor discipline, self sabotage.
The SAME issues higher up - abysmal squad building, patronising fans, not understanding what Chelsea is about, arrogance.
The SAME lack of accountability and stealing credit from the Sporting Directors - they never take responsibility for their clear and obvious failings, and steal credit from others. They never admit their failures, show no remorse, and they show no respect for fans. It genuinely looks like the Sporting Directors could get Chelsea relegated and still keep their jobs, because they’re incapable of making mistakes in the eyes of themselves and Behdad Eghbali.
By the way, my guess is not many people outside Chelsea thinks they’re that great. Spurs want Paul Winstanley and are even more badly run than we are, which says it all.
I went through all our Clearlake signings today, and found about £700m worth of signings where money has been completely wasted. Every club has transfer mistakes, but £700m worth in just three and a half years of ownership is absolute negligence.
Imagine how much better we could have spent even half of that money with an elite Sporting Director. Imagine if we’d also hired an elite manager, listened to him, involved him in squad building (not giving him every single player he wants, but giving him the right profiles and taking his opinions in terms of positions on board). If both of these had happened, we’d likely be in the top 3 comfortably this season, maybe in the next round of the Champions League, possibly even title challengers.
But no, unqualified people with no Sporting Director experience from Brighton and Monaco and a businessman with no previous football experience know better. Right. And their way is really working. Sure.
(Forgive my sarcasm, but I think its understandable right now).
Of course those at the top will dismiss me as an overly emotional fan. Probably think I’m rash, immature, reactionary, don’t get it, and they in the ivory towers are smarter and better than us as people and in their roles, best in class, they know better than everyone in football.
That’s what they think of any fan who expresses an opinion which differs to theirs or doesn’t kiss the ring. They look down on them, patronise them and ignore them.
Yes, I’m not holding back. I have no respect for people who show me no respect, who don’t respect the club and refuse to take responsibility for their actions. People like that aren’t serious people.
I’m interested in talking to grown adults who want to have adult conversations. I don’t think the people in charge are able to have serious conversations about running an elite football club, as they’re totally unwilling to admit mistakes and incapable of rectifying them.
Behdad and the Sporting Directors have built this squad and hired three coaches to manage it. We’ve spent £1.6 BILLION, and yet still need about 10 players, are 6th in the PL and just lost 8-2 on aggregate in the Champions League, our worst ever aggregate defeat and one of the worst by an English team in European history.
This shambles is fully and wholly their doing and their responsibility. And they should be held fully accountable for it.
I mean anyone who watches football can see they have no clue how to run an elite football club. They are simply not fit for purpose. I even saw a Man Utd fan actually feeling sorry for us and demanding Clearlake sell. Which speaks volumes.
If they actually think its all fine at Chelsea and its all going to be OK, no changes needed, and just fob us off with transfer rumours, then quite frankly they’re living in a delusional fantasy built by their own egos.
They keep saying they want us to win the Premier League and be a dominant team, but actions speak louder than words, and their actions - and often inaction - doesn’t communicate this. It often comes across - and this may not be the truth, but its the perception - they care more about their own CVs and their own egos, and Chelsea is their way of boosting them. They have a history of claiming credit for everything good and take responsibility for nothing. Which is cowardly and disgraceful.
To be clear, none of this is personal. This is professional. They are paid very well to run a giant football club and that means serious accountability. It means being willing to hear harsh criticism and take it.
Virtually no one believes we’re a well run club right now except the people running the club. I’d be so bold as to say well over 90% of the fans despise the ownership, despise the SDs and have no trust in them whatsoever. And maybe never will.
I’m not going to be fooled by winning the FA Cup or getting Champions League football (though both are at risk now). We’re not progressing beyond being a top 4 team with the current people in charge.
It’s not immature or immoral to demand that people not doing their job well, earn a fortune, and could easily find another job should be made accountable. No, its just what happens in the real world and at elite level. If they can’t take that pressure and accountability, they’re free to go find another job.
A club like Chelsea FC should be hiring the best Sporting Director in the business, and an elite coach and tactician, both with a proven track record of producing squads which win league titles and CL titles. That’s how elite sporting organisations work.
This isn’t controversial, its just known in football. Everyone knows it but the people in our boardroom, who honestly seem to think they know more about football than Pep Guardiola.
Chelsea should also be signing players of character, mentality and high quality. Age/experience is irrelevant, it’s about signing high quality and strong characters/leaders. You can do this and still sign players within our wage structure and age profile. You can add one or two veterans if you want.
But we don’t do this nearly enough, if at all.
The fact the owners fear John Terry and think he’s arrogant, not realising how arrogant they are in thinking they know more about Chelsea, more about success in football than a proven leader and winner, and Chelsea legend, speaks volumes.
Serious clubs get ex players, legends involved and listen to them, to help keep the club DNA intact and keep the winning culture. Again, this is just known, apart from by the alleged geniuses in charge of our club. (hint - they aren’t geniuses in any regard).
I’ve never felt so disconnected from the club. I was more connected when we were finishing mid table in the early 90s. Because at least then you knew the people running the club and the players all cared about the club (Ken Bates created CPO and held off the club being sold to developers) and would all fight to the death for the badge, even if they weren’t elite players.
We do have some players who care now, but you’re not convincing me for one minute that Behdad, Winstanley and Stewart care. Again, whether true or not, the perception they give off is they they don’t respect the fans, aren’t man enough to own their mistakes and don’t have the decency to walk away when anyone in their position should. They’re wrapped up in their own way of doing things, and disconnected from the club and fanbase.
I’m sorry I have to be this strong. Maybe I’m hoping this shows them how deeply this is felt by fans and how much fans are hurting at how the club is being run.
I’m embarrassed I ever defended Clearlake and the Sporting Directors.
I don’t know what it would take to get a serious reaction from them, they just keep going on like it’s all fine when it’s a shambles. I’m becoming more and more apathetic right now, something I never thought would happen.
That’s what these people have done to the club and the fans, and they either don’t know, don’t understand, or don’t care.
It’s also clear they don’t have a clue how to run an elite level, winning football club. To me, they don’t really understand what Chelsea is all about. At times it feels like they’ve made this great club a soulless shell. A joke. An embarrassment. And they either don’t know, or don’t care.
I have little respect for people who don’t respect the club, don’t respect the fans, and refuse to take responsibility for their failures. To me all this is the bare minimum for any owner or Sporting Director of a football club. And it seems they can’t even do that.
Clearlake and Behdad Eghbali are going nowhere for now, so we have to continue this unhappy marriage between owner and fan, and hope things change. It’s them who need to grab the bull by the horns and make big changes to get us where we should be.
Not that I’m an expert, but I’m sure their investors won’t be happy that they’ve spent so much money to achieve such mediocrity nearly 4 years into their investment. Things need to speed up fast. Chelsea fans have already waited 4 years, with a lot of money spent. We’ve been patient and they haven’t delivered enough on the money spent, so far.
The sad thing is, I know my words here will fall on deaf ears. And that’s a sad indictment on how Chelsea is run at the moment, and the people running the club.
I’ve never been so ashamed of my club and the people running it. Never felt so disconnected. Never had less hope for the club.
Good work lads, 10 year contracts all around eh?
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