Fighting for a New Era

Despite a tough loss to Arsenal, Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea still shows life. After both the club and manager went through a tumultuous year, a project finally seems to be settling in.

Drawing anything from this early in the season feels foolish, but Alonso is a different manager from those Chelsea chased in the past.

In the same summer they broke the bank for Morgan Rogers, the Blues added quality role players to round out the roster. No one, of course, would be complete without the former Real Madrid manager’s hiring.

For the first time in this new ownership’s tenure, the guard changed. While the team sold flops in the past, this summer represented the first real closing of a chapter in Boehly and Co’s ownership. The departures of Mudryk and Fernández signaled that ownership felt willing to take time to build their next era.

Unlike previous managers who arrived at Stamford Bridge with different expectations, Alonso joined at a more interesting time. Having transformed the constant underperformers Bayer Leverkusen into champions, the way the Spaniard built that side fits this Chelsea side. Despite a disastrous half-season with Madrid, betting on Alonso to find success in the Prem feels solid. 

Finally willing to cut bait with an earlier vision of Chelsea, ownership finally seems prepared to give a manager breathing room.

Alonso, for his part, fits the mold of a manager who can manage a project.

After pretending not to be willing to part with Fernández, Chelsea finally called time on the first iteration of the Boehly era; in a slew of moves, plenty of players who arrived at the club in the first few years of the new ownership departed unceremoniously. 

While the likes of Benoît Badiashile and David Datro Fofana departed, no players represent the end of this era of Chelsea football like Mudryk and Fernández. Both players were promised as the building blocks through which the Blues would return to European prominence. If Abramovich had Claude Makélélé and Didier Drogba to kick off his decades of success, then Boehly’s big spending would follow suit.

Mudryk’s transfer made little sense then and makes even less sense now. Very much a mixtape-over-results player, his signing felt like the splash a new owner makes to announce themselves. Given that he went two years without playing football, there’s little hope he will return anything on the club’s investment.

Fernández, on the other hand, was promised to be Chelsea’s central hub, a player to build a side around. While not a disaster, the Argentine never really lived up to the expectations placed on him and may end up a decent starter at City.

Part of the reason why the club made this flurry of sales comes down to needing to balance some of their books after missing out on European football again. Returning to profit never stood as a priority for Chelsea; instead, they wanted to push back the notion that this era failed. Instead of resetting, they kicked the can down the road until they found the right manager.

Looking at who they brought in this summer, the moves make sense. Mixing promising young players with veterans possessing years, if not decades, of Prem experience differs greatly from past windows. Additionally, aside from the Morgan Rogers transfer, none of the moves scream a waste.

To start a new era, Chelsea needed to say goodbye to the players who defined the first few years of the Boehly tenure.

Rather than starting this new iteration of Chelsea with a bang, a more sensible transfer policy gives the team a real chance at a new future.

After letting Thomas Tuchel go, Blueco cycled through managers on an almost yearly basis. Rather than choosing one path and committing to it, they chased trend after trend.

Going from Tuchel to Graham Potter should have signaled the deeper issue that bogged down Chelsea in this first era. As time has proven, Potter was carried by Brighton’s organization, and his time at Chelsea only cemented that. Doubling down on trying to capture any sort of Prem magic, Chelsea then moved to an unsuccessful Potch tenure.

Enzo Maresca’s hiring proved an embarrassment for everyone involved, surely pushing the Blues down a new path. Already more or less chosen to be Pep’s replacement, the idea that the Italian would stick long-term with Chelsea felt insane. Less than two seasons in, the manager already wore out his welcome and became Pep’s successor less than five months later.

Rather than going back to the same type of managers, Chelsea made the correct move by going after Xabi Alonso. The Spaniard got run out of Madrid for trying to instill his system at the club, but nothing proved that his ideas were incorrect.

When he took the Leverkusen job, most saw the club as underperformers who produced immensely talented players, but always fell short. Alonso quickly gave them an attacking game that got the most out of the group he had. Not only did he manage young players like Florian Wirtz well, but Alonso revived the careers of a number of veterans, from Granit Xhaka to Alejandro Grimaldo.

The Spaniard took time in Germany to build his side from a promising one to one capable of beating Bayern to the title. In his short tenure, Alonso instilled a revived attacking system at Chelsea, even if the backline still leaves much to be desired. Creative wingers like Palmer and Gibbs will thrive, but it will take time for the whole squad to follow.

With an ownership willing to bring in the players he needs and the time to do it, Alonso will deliver.

Like the Leverkusen side he took over, Chelsea is talented but needs something to push them over the edge.

By finally being willing to cut their losses, Chelsea stand in a good position to finally see success in the Boehly era. Ditching players who both helped and hindered them, the club finally started fresh for Alonso.

The manager has already shown he can build a fun, winning side in Germany once, but Alonso now needs to deliver in a proper amount of time.