London (AFP)
Chelsea spent about $ 600 million to strengthen its ranks, but its first season with its new owners tends to be devoid of titles, unless it achieves a surprise and invades the old continent again from the gate of its prestigious competition, the Champions League.
The West London team, on Wednesday, will defeat Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the final price, after being excluded from the two local cup competitions and retreating to tenth place in the Premier League standings.
Winning the Champions League for the third time in its history may be the ideal way for Chelsea to return to the competition next season, as it is currently ten points behind the fourth-placed, last qualified, from the domestic league to the continental competition.
Graham Potter’s men have won only twice in their last 12 games, following the winter break.
A series of injuries exhausted the coach, who also finds it difficult to synthesize a good squad of newcomers, in order to reach a core of the 33 currently under the club’s banner.
Three new players can currently play for Chelsea in the Champions League, while French defender Benoit Badiachel, offensive midfielder Noni Madueki, Brazilian central player Andre Santos and Ivory Coast striker Davide Datro Fofana are still ineligible. Right back Malou Gutsu will spend the second half of the season on loan. With his former team Lyon.
But with the addition of players such as Argentine Enso Fernandez, Portuguese Joao Felix and Ukrainian Mikhailo Modric, it is expected that the level of creativity and strength in Chelsea’s weak attack will rise in recent times.
The three players crossed the 100 million euro ($107 million) mark at a certain point in their career.
Fernandez, one of the stars of the Qatar World Cup 2022, moved from Benfica of Portugal last month for 121 million euros, breaking the record in Britain, weeks after Modric signed from Shakhtard Donetsk of Ukraine for 70 million euros, which could reach 100 million.
Felix failed to live up to the record €126 million Atletico Madrid spent on him in the three-and-a-half years he spent in the Spanish capital, but he showed some freshness in his early days at Stamford Bridge, after being given a three-match ban for being sent off in his first game with the club. West London.
The international player scored his first goal with the “Blues” from a cross by Fernandez on Saturday during the tie at West Ham. But Felix’s goal was only Chelsea’s third in their last seven matches.
“The second half was more a reflection of what we are as a group and as a team … with regard to the return of players from injuries and the speed of adaptation to the Premier League,” Potter said after the renewed start of his team.
Potter is fully aware that the fans’ confidence is beginning to shake, especially in light of the prevailing culture during the era of the former owner, the Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich, which requires the expulsion of any coach who does not achieve the desired results.
In the two seasons that saw Chelsea win the Champions League, Abramovich, who owned the club for 19 years, changed coach mid-season. A scenario was repeated this season with the dismissal of German Thomas Tuchel early last September.
The series of nine matches, in which he did not lose after his appointment, has become a thing of the past for Potter, in light of the high level of pressure and the demand for victories, despite the club’s focus on including a group of young players who are able to carry the team in the future.
“You can’t talk about the long term, because that’s not the case in football,” Potter said. You must admit that there is a long-term period, but there is a short-term and medium-term period that poses challenges for us in terms of results.
He added, “We must understand that, to go to Dortmund and be humble and respectful, and try to achieve a good result.”
The potential continental failure may prompt the club’s American owners to reconsider Potter’s appointment, and to search for another coach capable of offering an adequate return on their imaginary investments.
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