Chelsea's dreams of Champions League glory are over for another season and with defeat to Real Madrid, the prospect of attempting to realise them again in 2023/24 have also, all but ended. Sitting 11th in the Premier League, the Blues are 14 points off Spurs in fifth and a Europa League spot, and have scant chance of qualifying for the Europea Conference League with Brighton in seventh 10 points clear with two matches in hand.
The difficulty of Chelsea's schedule cannot be ignored either with Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal all to play away from home and Newcastle and Brentford to play at Stamford Bridge. Frank Lampard has no easy task to find something productive in the end of the season with Chelsea only having picked up a win against Bournemouth in the reverse games of their remaining fixtures.
The caretaker manager was brought into the club in a bid to inject some momentum to the team, after defeat to Aston Villa saw Stamford Bridge turn toxic and Graham Potter sacked. Despite a better performance against Real Madrid, Lampard has enjoyed little time on the training pitch to change much and after recording four defeats in a row, only now has time to settle into the job.
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Speaking after the loss to Real Madrid, Lampard gave few guarantees about the pace of return to European competition. This, despite the 44-year-old regularly highlighting the talent in the squad.
He said: "I think the way that the Premier League is moving so fast, the landscape changes. To say that any given team has this divine right to be in the top-four and in the Champions League, it’s tough. Manchester United have spent time out of the Champions League, Arsenal have spent time out of the Champions League. Lots of big clubs have. In this moment, to try and predict what is going to happen going forward – will it be good or bad – is pretty pointless. But I do think we can set the building blocks now to where we want to get to. I’m here for a reason, obviously, because this season being what it is and this role that I’m in. Can I affect it in this period? Hopefully, yeah, but the bigger thing for the club will be that we want to get back to where we were. But the challenge is big. Every club is investing. Maybe some clubs are more stable than we are at the minute in terms of the squad."
There appears to be an acknowledgment that the squad currently isn't in the right place. A damning verdict after £600million of spending in the first two transfer windows following the club's takeover almost a year ago.
A number of new signings have highlighted their excitement around the project they have joined upon being announced, but Thiago Silva has spoken about some of the more immediate drawbacks this term.
He said: “A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy. There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play. The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that’s tough.
“Some can’t make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes.”
Whether Chelsea can solve this problem will be a major test for the club's hierarchy and whoever is in charge at the beginning of pre-season. The Blues recognise a first team squad of 31 players and have 22 players out on loan across senior and development squads, who at least initially will return to the club.
There is an intention to sell players, and the club hope to either extend deals or sell when their stars reach the final two years of their deal but there are sure to be further issues. For players the west London side do not want, they need to find new clubs who are willing to pay the required fee. Loan deals could prove more difficult with clubs limited to seven non-domestic loans from 2023/24, only players yet to turn 21 and club-trained exempt.
Missing out on European football will only exacerbate the issue. The new manager or head coach, whether that be Julian Nagelsmann, Mauricio Pochettino, Luis Enrique or someone else, will have a more limited schedule to provide opportunities.
As things stand, the Blues will have 29 players to facilitate from the current squad. Joao Felix and Denis Zakaria will see their loans end, but still only 20 players will be allowed in a matchday squad, leaving nine senior players disappointed.
Chelsea played 10 Champions League matches this term, and will not be able to rely on any dead-rubbers, or adjustments outside of the Premier League to distribute playing time more easily. The development squad may find similar issues with no UEFA Youth League available next season as a result too.
The actions of the owner's first year in charge have been to try and implement change quickly to see progress. In this instance, changing the complexion of the playing group is not simply in their own hands and could still cause issues moving forwards.
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