On this day, three years ago, Chelsea overcame a dominant Pep Guardiola-led Manchester City team in the final of the UEFA Champions League 1-0 to win her second-ever Champions League title.
Hosted by the Estádio do Dragão stadium in Portugal, the final was attended by 14,110 people due to organizers setting a limit of 33% attendance on the stadium’s 50,000-seater capacity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Since then, Chelsea joined and exited the European Super League, came under financial sanctions from the UK government due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, got sold off to BlueCo, and had almost everyone at the club replaced.
BlueCo Ownership And Tuchel’s Sacking
BlueCo, a consortium led mostly by Todd Boehly, and Clearlake Capital, which is run by Behdad Eghbali, took over the London club in May of 2022 in a £4.25bn takeover. This marked the first time Chelsea would be separated from Roman Abramovich after 19 years with the club.
Top members of the board were replaced including Bruce Buck, who had served the club for 18 years, Marina Granovskaia, who was the club’s sporting director, and Premier League Hall of Famer, Petr Cech, who served as technical and performance advisor. At the beginning of September, Champions League-winning manager, Thomas Tuchel, was sacked.
Graham Potter was brought in to replace Tuchel. He won three and drew two of his first five Premier League games before losing five of the next seven. After eight losses in 22 matches leaving the club in 11th place, he was replaced by Frank Lampard.
Chelsea Finish 12th, Then A Transfer Clearout
Frank Lampard’s third spell in Chelsea was his second spell as manager. It started worse than the last time, but similar to the end of the last spell. He lost his first four games in charge, with a total of six losses in the nine games he was in charge, leaving the club in 12th at the end of the season. It was the club’s worst season since the 1993–94 season. The club didn’t qualify for any European competition.
The new Chelsea hierarchy then went on a clearout, developing a youth-only strategy. Between the 1st of July and the 1st of September, the club sold or released 14 of its senior players, including fan favorites César Azpilicueta who was the club’s captain, Mason Mount, N’Golo Kanté, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Mason Mount moved to Manchester United, Mateo Kovacic moved to Manchester City and Kai Havertz moved to Arsenal.
Mauricio Pochettino replaced Frank Lampard in July. The club bought 12 new players: Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Diego Moreira, Ângelo Gabriel, Lesley Ugochukwu, Axel Disasi, Robert Sánchez, Moisés Caicedo, Roméo Lavia, Deivid Washington, Dorde Petrovic, and Cole Palmer. Only Christopher Nkunku and Robert Sánchez were older than 25 years of age.
Also Read: Barcelona’s Managerial Merry-Go-Round: Flick Stuck in Contract Chaos
Pochettino Returns Chelsea To Europe
With a mostly inexperienced squad, the start of the season was difficult for Chelsea. Mauricio Pochettino’s team lost three of their first six Premier League games, winning one of them. By the 4th of February 2024, Pochettino’s team had lost 10 of their 23 Premier League matches including to teams like Wolves at home and Everton away.
From then, the club went on an eight-game unbeaten run, picking up 16 points from a possible 24. The run was ended by Arsenal in a resounding 5-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium, but Chelsea continued their unbeaten run after that, with one draw and five wins in the remaining six Premier League games.
Chelsea may be back in Europe, but it’s the UEFA Conference League. Of the entire team (starting 11 and the bench) that beat Manchester City on the 29th of May 2021, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, and Thiago Silva are the only players who finished the 2023-24 season. However, Thiago Silva has left the club to return to Brazil.
Note:
The club saw its fifth manager in the BlueCo era leave when Pochettino left this May. BlueCo is close to signing its sixth Chelsea manager, Enzo Maresca, in two-plus years in charge of the London club.
Five years ago, on this day, Chelsea defeated Arsenal 4-1 in the final of the UEFA Europa League to win her second Europa League trophy.
About the Author
Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management. He’s also the author of the mystery thriller novel “The Eye of Ra.”
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