FRANK Lampard must have thought he’d won the lottery. In fact, Chelsea spent more in the summer transfer window than anyone has ever won in the lottery in the United Kingdom, with over £200 million splurged on no fewer than seven new signings. Chelsea looked well equipped to take the next step this season.
However, nearly halfway through the 2020/21 campaign the only steps Chelsea have taken are backwards ones. Lampard's side are currently slumped in eighth place in the Premier League table having lost four of their last six games. Chelsea are 11 points worse off than they were at this stage of the season under Maurizio Sarri in 2018/19. By almost every measure, they are regressing.
This is in stark contrast to the relative success enjoyed by Lampard last term, when a fourth place finish and a run to the 2020 FA Cup final saw Chelsea, under a transfer embargo for the summer of 2019, exceed expectations. Lampard brought through a number of academy talents, like Tammy Abraham, Reece James and Mason Mount, giving the Blues a more youthful identity.
The landscape changed last summer, though. The signing of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner for a combined £116 million in particular said a lot about Chelsea’s ambition. By Lampard’s own admission, he “never wanted [Chelsea] to become an academy club.” The former midfielder was all too willing to support the notion his team would compete for top honours.
After securing Ziyech, Werner and being close to Havertz, Lampard has earned my trust on transfers.
He really wants Chilwell. Ashley Cole really wants Chilwell at Chelsea. He’s still only 23 years old.
Not my first choice, but I 100% back him if he does sign. pic.twitter.com/FXtr8xkQb9
— LDN (@LDNFootbalI) August 14, 2020
"When you see the injection of players and what they can bring – they have all brought personality with them already – that should bring a level of competition that lifts the squad to new levels,” he said ahead of the start of the 2020/21 season. “I'm a Chelsea fan and any fan should get excited about the type of players we have brought in.”
There has, however, been little to excite the Chelsea support of late. There is no doubting the quality and potential of the players brought in by the Blues over the summer, but it’s become apparent they were signed without any real plan of how to fit them into the same team. As a unit, Lampard are incoherent and lacking in any kind of framework.
Chelsea spent over £200 million on world class talent because they could, not because they should. Havertz embodies this best, with the German international, widely considered one of the best players in the game for his age group, struggling for meaningful game time this season. There is no role for him because his role, a hybrid midfield-attack role, simply doesn’t exist in Lampard’s system.
Werner is another who looks a shadow of the player Chelsea paid £45 million for. This is a striker who scored 28 times in the Bundesliga last season, yet the 24-year-old has now gone 11 games without finding the net for his new side, with Lampard shifting Werner between a role through the middle and one on the left.
After being dismissed by PSG, Thomas Tuchel is now linked with taking over at Chelsea by @BILD_Sport! Is Frank Lampard's position at Stamford Bridge in danger due to the Blues' poor recent form?
⚽️ pic.twitter.com/Da72MFUbsV— Football Whispers (@FB_WHISPERS) December 28, 2020
In hindsight, Chelsea’s summer business was one of the worst things that could have happened to Lampard. It instantly changed the criteria he had to fulfil as Blues boss and gave him very little time to do so. All the progress made last season in establishing a route between the academy and the first team was compromised. Who made the call to make such a drastic change of course?
It might not be long until Chelsea make another change of course. Reports linking Chelsea with Thomas Tuchel, recently sacked by Paris Saint-Germain, have recently surfaced, hinting at a growing impatience behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge. Upcoming fixtures against Fulham, Leicester City and Wolves could determine who sits in the dugout for the second half of the season.
Tuchel is a sharper coach than Lampard and might stand a better chance of finding a tactical system that works for Chelsea’s current group of players. But the former Borussia Dortmund and PSG boss would still find a grossly unbalanced squad at Stamford Bridge just as Lampard has this season. What’s unfolding at Chelsea proves money doesn’t always buy success.
