BlueCo should get out of Chelsea now; surely even they recognise disaster | OneFootball

Even after Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final win, which no doubt makes the team think they don’t even need a manager, how attractive are Chelsea to a prospective manager in 2026?

Obviously, someone will take the job; it’s a free hit. And Will Ford argues that it is perfect for Andoni Iraola. The ownership, model and squad of tattooed millionaires is so dysfunctional and unpleasant that no one will blame you if you fail. But is it an attractive project for an already-successful manager?

This is not an unfamiliar scenario for those with longer memories. Chelsea had a reputation as a basket-case club under Ken Bates long before the money arrived. For over 20 years they went through managers at a rate of knots but spent the Russian money successfully to win titles and trophies. Whoever was spending that money knew what they were doing, ably illustrated by the fact that BlueCo are spending even more now and yet getting worse.

Before Roman Abramovich, Chelsea had not won a title since the fifties. The glamorous 1970/1971 team which won the FA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup was an anomaly of a dire 70s and 80s period which saw them relegated twice, including finishing bottom in the 1978/79 season, and saw them suffer the humiliation of being beaten 7-2 by Middlesbrough before Christmas.

They won the second division a couple of times in the 80s and were 11th four times and 14th twice in the top flight from 1990-1996 but despite all the trophies of the last 20-plus years, they were never convincing as a European giant because of their history, the dodgy Russian funding and their small 40,000-capacity stadium.

In other words, take over at Liverpool or Manchester United or any other storied former title winner and the reflected history and status of the club buffs your reputation, but not at Chelsea’s current clown school. Even the past 20 years of managerial chaos, though successful, never imbued anyone’s reputation with credibility they didn’t already have, except perhaps Jose Mourinho. It all seemed rather transactional.

Now they’ve managed to find some owners who aren’t really interested in football, make bizarre choices and don’t even seem any good at making money. The past doesn’t invest status or credibility. There’s only the money and given they’ve already gone through some of the best 10 managers in the last 10 years, the current crop of elite managers have just got better options available to them.

All big managers can get big money so Chelsea can only go so far by offering loads of cash. So they’re forced to shop further down. The best they’ll get is someone up and coming like Iraola. They’ve no real choice. And even the new man surely has to insist they totally change their model or failure is all but guaranteed. But are the owners able to change? Do they think everyone else is wrong and they’re right? Even despite results proving the folly of that?

BlueCo have made a hash of running Chelsea

Nothing so far suggests they’ve learned that lesson in any way whatsoever. Are they even a football club? They don’t seem like it. They have 16 players out on loan at places as far flung as Barnet and River Plate. Every other rich club buys their success through judicious signings – including Chelsea in the past – but the current jokers don’t seem anywhere near able to be able to do that. To fail so massively while spending a billion quid is spectacular uselessness and should be proof that you don’t know what you’re doing to all but the biggest, blindest egos.

They’ve lost all the shallow support they picked up when they were successful and alienated the actual loyal fans. Could it be any worse? Yes, Spurs prove it could.

Repeat the same mistakes with this appointment and the club’s reputation will be so damaged that no manager of any class will want the job. They’ll be left with the money grabbers and the inexperienced like Liam Rosenior, likely plunging into a spiral of decline. They have to get it right this time or keep circling the drain.

Surely it would be better if BlueCo got out now and let some other evil empire take over. They can’t be so deluded as to not realise how badly they’ve played everything. If they’d shown even a modicum of aptitude in running any aspect of a football club, maybe it’d be something to build on. But they haven’t and they might finish in the bottom half in May. If they left at the end of the season, with their vulgar money spilling from their expensive pockets, no one would miss them.