Premier League crisis club of the season: Chelsea
During the 2022/23 Premier League, quite a few clubs endured a mini-crisis.
Tottenham Hotspur were disaster at times, as exemplified by their sacking of a caretaker manager.
Leeds United were generally horrid, as exemplified by their, well, literal relegation.
But no club could compete with the sheer brevity of the crisis over at Stamford Bridge.
Here's why Chelsea Football Club are 90min's crisis club of the season.
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What was the crisis?
Having spent around £600m on new players over the last 12 months, Chelsea somehow ended the season:
- 12th in the Premier League.
- With 30 points less than they accumulated during the 2021/22 season.
- With their lowest points tally in their Premier League history.
- A caretaker manager who held a 9% win percentage.
- Having scored less goals than two of the three relegated clubs.
- With 16 defeats in the league alone.
- With a -9 goal difference.
It was really, really bad.
Why were they in crisis?
There were quite a few issues, but ultimately the main one for Chelsea was their completely nonsensical transfer business.
Sure, it's nice to sign some young players on long-term deals, but the decision to sign 20 players over two transfer windows and not sign what the squad was crying out for - a top tier striker - was astonishingly dumb.
What can they do to rectify it?
Obvious answer is: sign a striker.
Without one, Chelsea will struggle once again next season.
The hiring of Mauricio Pochettino seems like a shrewd step in the right direction, but the next few steps in the transfer market will define how well the ex-Tottenham manager will do at the club.
LISTEN NOW
On this edition of Son of Chelsea, part of the 90min podcast network, Daniel Childs reacts to Mauricio Pochettino's appointment as Chelsea head coach and reviews Sunday's draw with Newcastle. If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!