People have often said that perhaps Chelsea right now have too many cooks in the kitchen.
Too many decision makers, too many opinions, and too many people wanting to have the final say and offering differing views.
However, if you look at successful businesses past and present, I am sure they will always have large boardrooms where they thrash out major decisions that are key to their success. And to play devil’s advocate here right now in terms of Chelsea, I actually think that is what we have in our boardroom.
Having a lot of voices and heads in the recruitment department I actually don’t think is a bad thing. Whilst yes, we will see situations of disagreements, but that is just natural. I think as long as the final decisions are signed off by the owners and they go with the general consensus of what the experts are telling them, I think we actually have a good remedy for success at the club in terms of recruitment decisions.
I’m refusing to speak much more on the Mason Mount situation right now, but we know there have been mistakes made there from all people and parties involved.
But for this article, I’d rather draw on positives and look at situations like Kepa Arrizabalaga. Of course, this is still an open situation and we don’t yet know how it will be concluded. But if you believe Matt Law of The Telegraph, Mauricio Pochettino and his goalkeeper coach are keen on keeping Kepa as the number one goalkeeper going into next season. And in the same breath, Matt reported our interest in AC Milan’s Mike Maignan.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/06/26/premier-league-transfer-guide-2023-needs-wants/
So what this shows me is that whilst the club are willing to listen and hear Pochettino, they are also willing to perhaps speak through his thoughts and recommend other options, such as actually buying a new number one this summer because they know Kepa is not good enough.
Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images
This is absolutely fine. Poch should of course be heard, but I am sure at the same time, Poch is not going into this saying ‘my way or no way’ and he is also open to hear alternative views and options.
So they are all willing to work together and listen to opinions, but make the final decision based on what is best for Chelsea and for the squad.
Of course, I want to see Poch backed, but there has to be limits to that as well. We don’t want to blindly back him like we did with Thomas Tuchel and are still paying for some of the mistakes made by his transfer targets last summer, with the upmost respect to him because he was thrown in the deep end.
Collective is good, collective decisions with a handful of voices can be good, and can lead to success, and I think that is the vision of our owners and has been since day one. This is what they wanted from their recruitment team.
One thing I will say though, is that I also still believe we will benefit even further by bringing in a head sporting director to be the one to perhaps sign off on final decisions alongside the owners, taking the overall lead on transfers and contracts, being that football head in the room to make sure that we absolutely don’t make as many mistakes. I think that would be a super smart move from us still.
But our board room has a great selection of football people, Chelsea people, and business people, and we absolutely need that good balance now going forward if we are to start our climb back towards the top.
