They picked a horrible time to implode & go into decline. Timing & the footballing landscape is everything. Even 4 years ago would have been salvageable as it was only City who were spending & rising with Ferguson sustaining Utd at the top. Everyone else in the Premier League was in a state of flux with the vast majority not improving for whatever reason if indeed anyone was bar the billions thrown around by City. Either teams were potless & hemorrhaging star players, i.e., Arsenal. Or not showing enough money or ambition to truly establish themselves, i.e., Spurs not buying Suarez, or indeed any striker, when in a great position of 3rd post xmas in the 2011-12 season. Or just showing terrible mismanagement & blowing hundreds of millions on crap, i.e., Liverpool. Or dour managers unwilling to risk their comfy position of 6th to 8th place because they were afraid of daring to strive for more, i.e., Moyes at Everton. Or the middle class being unambitious who had to balance budgets & make do with relatively limited money, unable to refuse the big offers from the ''top clubs''. Now, it's different. Everywhere you look, nearly every ****ing side in the division is improving. Forget Arsenal now regularly buying world class talent for over £30m & looking like title regulars once again, something that seemed laughable a mere 2 & a half seasons ago as everyone took the piss out of them. No, no, no, no, we are going well beyond that into the twilight zone now. Every side in the league are now able to buy good players from Europe. Newcastle bought one of the best players from the Dutch league last season, a player who might have seen at a Top 5 club a mere 4 years ago, i.e., Harry Redknapp's Spurs. They are able to scout the lower leagues, they are able to pour money into sport science, into statistical analysis, are able to reject £35m offers for their most promising players. And an even new bigger MEGA TV deal is just about to kick in starting in the summer. This will only going to grow, sides will continue to improve, continue to refuse offers, continue to improve all aspects of their clubs like scouting & sports science.
What a ****ing time for Chelsea to be doing this. Chelsea cannot go into debt by £250m to fix this squad. Utd can but Chelsea can't without falling foul off of FFP.. Jesus what a time to fall out of the CL spots, with half the squad biting at the bit wanting to leave in the summer because of no CL football, with them to be disinterested & striving to get away with little intention of sticking it out for 2-3 years minimum of just having the opportunity to maybe reach a CL final in 2018. Hazard hanging around between the ages of 25-27 with no possibility of winning the CL? It's one thing not being good enough but still being there, quite another to be out of it for 2-3 years hanging around.. Not to mention the other half either too old or not good enough at a time when the rest of the Premier League is surging ahead, improving all the time.
Chelsea couldn't have picked a worse time in the last 15 years to do this even if they tried. What a ****ing self created mess they have allowed themselves to walk into. Give Mourinho what he wants with players? Of course. Just look at what happened to Inter after he left. Sell Mata, De Bruyne, Lukaku, etc... while looking to the likes of an obviously declining Cesc Fabregas to do the short term fix. Everyone knew at Barca that Fabregas wasn't the player he was in his early Arsenal career. For crying out loud, they replaced him with Ratakic, But oh no, let Mourinho run shop. Buy Fabregas to fix the creativity problem without any idea how he fits into the side long term or how his performances might decline in the long term future as he continues to gets bypassed more & more often. Where did Wesley Sneijder end up shortly after Mourinho left Inter? Galatasaray. There is no way Fabregas is suited for an ever improving level of PL football as he heads towards 30. But Mourinho always thinks short term. De Bruyne? No. Lukaku, a player who is now starting to post some serious goal numbers at a very young age? No. Bar Neymar, there isn't a player in Lukaku's age group posting his numbers...
There's no long term plan. Buy Stones because Terry aging? Well, where's the thinking like Ferguson & Wenger did with Smalling & Koscienly? Develop them for the long term... Why put yourself in a position where Terry is on the cusp of 35 before going after Stones & especially low balling Everton? Can't he not look to the academy & or have his eye on a raw, unpolished talent with potential that might take 2-3 years to take over? Why wait until Terry is nearly 35? He came in in 2013. Why is he taking 2 seasons until Terry's legs are definitely gone? Wenger bought Sol Campbell when Tony Adams still at the captain & performing at the club. Ferguson bought Vidic when Ferdinand was in his prime.
He cannot make it easier for himself 3 years down the line with good planning.
