Todd Boehly's Chelsea reality is starting to hit home. If the 12th-placed finish - nine lower than the spot in which he took over the club in May 2022 - didn't do so then the failure of two permanent managers and one interim boss might have. It is the sheer volume of transfers that needs to be made this summer that perhaps truly shows just how bad things have gone.
Despite attempting to revamp the group last year following the loss of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, the Boehly-Clearlake administration have more work to do now than they did after taking over. Considering £600 million ($768m) has been spent in that time it is a damning state of affairs.
There are still new signings to make not just outgoings as well. Every area of the pitch has now been added too but holes still appear. At least one player has been signed per position but there is no favoured team to rely on. After bringing in eight players midway through the season, adding to the seven additions over the summer, the futures for many are far from clear.
It isn't just those that have been slowly running down contracts both to June 2023 but also 2024 as well that face the axe. Loan deals for Joao Felix and Denis Zakaria weren't fruitful enough to consider a further year on the books. After just over 12 months in charge, the potential American link-up and marketing goldmine for the owners and Christian Pulisic is coming to a rapid end as well.
Little of the promised on-field changes have been seen with senior players often preferred over the younger recruits. Mauricio Pochettino's appointment could change a lot of this with a vital summer ahead for the club but it will take a change of stance from the owners. Not from themselves but the previous regime.
Whereas Roman Abramovich and his financially savvy director Marina Granovskaia tended to wait on players, drawing out every semblance of pennies in deals and continued loans or extensions, Boehly has already started to sanction a more cut-throat method.
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Then club record signing Romelu Lukaku was loaned away in the first summer after his transfer, most ties cut without question. Marcos Alonso left under the new structure as well. Their decision to let Timo Werner leave on a cut-price was another that it would be hard to see happening under Abramovich.
The question was whether such authority would be possible with players that Boehly-Clearlake themselves had purchased. The choice to move on from Graham Potter so soon after spending over £20 million ($24m) to break him free from Brighton is evidence that it will not become an issue for them.
The savvy businessmen appear willing to make brutal monetary decisions even at the expense of losing face and staring embarrassment in the eye. Now that looks set to continue.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was an unequivocal failure of a transfer. Three goals for £15 million ($19.2m) of deadline day fees. One of those in the league and none since October, six months of near-enough exile from the first team later and the 33-year-old is set to leave.
By hook or by crook he won't be at Chelsea next season and Pochettino won't have to work with a player that has no future at Stamford Bridge. Saudi Arabian investment into the Pro League offers a lifeline and a way out for both parties. Accepting the mistake and moving on is an approach needed for a summer of rapid and blanket outgoings, Aubameyang is just the start.
Another that could follow him out of the door after less than 12 months is Marc Cucurella. His first season in London has been potentially the biggest proportional disappointment of all the incomings from last summer. For £62 million ($79.4m) Chelsea signed one of the league's best left-backs but have been left without much trace of that player so far.
He has been lacking confidence throughout his time and never truly put together a sustained run of form that justified his massive price tag. As one of the early beneficiaries of the Chelsea siege on Brighton, Cucurella stands as an image of total failure for ownership to shyly hold up.
He is a player that so far encapsulates the misjudgement, overpayment and lack of planning that has plagued the first season for Boehly at the head of the club. With Newcastle a reported destination for the 24-year-old, Chelsea would be wise to consider any sort of offer they get. The very fact that they welcome bids is once more evidence of an open sales mindset, especially for the new signings.
Alongside Cucurella as a player that is being considered for an early departure is Kalidou Koulibaly. Another defensive addition that has been unable to match his form elsewhere, the 31-year-old is one of many players in the middle of talks between Chelsea and Inter. It is said that they want a return on the £35 million ($44.8m) investment and won't consider loans.
After once again being unable to match the levels of high quality that he showed at Napoli for much of the last decade, the Blues are now considering a swift change of heart having made him one of their first signings last summer. On a four-year deal and with three of those left, it is yet more unfortunate study material for the errors made but also a positive switch in mindset for the owners who are trying, at least, to be proactive with their sales.
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