PPre-season is always about performance, never results. And yet you have to take into account what the coaches are looking for in each game – clubs may be at different stages of their physical development or coaches may be working on a specific strategy. They are means to an end. No one should draw too many conclusions from pre-season. And yet it is impossible not to watch Chelsea’s pre-season games without a slight twinge of concern.
Enzo Maresca's record as Chelsea The manager at the moment says: he played six games, won one. That win was against Mexican champions Club America, who, after four games in the new Mexican season, are in ninth place. Chelsea have also played the champions of England, Spain, Scotland and Italy in their warm-up games, plus Wrexham, who were promoted from League Two last season. That is a challenging run of games. Against Manchester City they were 2-0 down after five minutes, the result of a soft penalty and a deflected back pass. The 4-2 defeat perhaps does not reflect the pattern of play. Mitigation can be found.
But it's not just about results. There is also a general feeling of chaos. After the Initial splurge after Clearlake acquisitionthe £1bn spent on 28 senior players, this was supposed to be when consolidation would begin. They had signed young players, They told usso that there would be no need to make major changes as the project progressed. Players would become more important in the club. And then, this summer, another nine players arrived for a cost of £160m, and two more are already on the way for next season.
An attempt to sign highly-rated 20-year-old striker Samu Omorodion from Atletico fell When a contract agreement could not be reached, talk of a possible transfer of João Félix began. It seems like the behaviour of an addict desperately seeking the endorphin rush of a purchase: if an Atlético striker doesn't come, why not go for another, even if he has a completely different profile?
The conversations are apparently On the way to landing Victor Osimhen Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku has spent six seasons in two spells in the Chelsea squad, during which he has made 159 league appearances, just 36 of them for Chelsea, having spent time on loan at West Brom, Everton, Internazionale and Roma.
The big signing this summer has been Pedro Neto, bought from Wolves for £51m. He is 24 years old and is clearly a talented player. Tirelessly concerned about the sidesalthough there must be some concern about his return to scoring. He is the sort of signing who would have seemed entirely natural for the pre-Clearlake Chelsea. But what does his arrival mean for the fleet of wingers the club already has? Is it an admission that Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke are not exactly where Chelsea would like them to be?
Filip Jørgenson has become the seventh goalkeeper in the squad. Omari Kellyman joins the legion of players who can play with a striker. Like a bride worrying about the wedding venue, they have swapped Lewis Hall for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. If there is a pattern there, it is only the investment in youth, presumably with a view to transfer later. And the transfer will be essential to cope with Regulations on profits and sustainabilityLong-term amortization is a clever accounting trick that allows spending to be done in the short term, but bills must be paid at some point.
That's why Hall, Omari Hutchinson and Ian Maatsen have all been sold for a total of £86m, with the sales of Conor Gallagher, who is close to signing for Atletico, and Trevoh Chalobah, who has been linked with Crystal Palace and Aston Villawhich would likely push that figure up to around £150m. All five players are academy products and therefore represent pure earnings; there is no amortised fee to be factored in. Still, Sale of two hotels across the different branches of the business suggests that PSR remains a concern and there will soon be no academic products left to sell.
It's easy to forget that Chelsea played pretty well after Christmas last season, when they managed to qualify for the Europa League and reached the League Cup final. But then Mauricio Pochettino left by mutual consent – normally an understatement – but he didn't seem too disappointed to leave the mess, which now includes a £100m-plus midfielder, Enzo Fernandez. Participate in racist and homophobic chants while celebrating victory in the Copa America.
There are positives for Maresca: Cole Palmer excelled last season; Malo Gusto looked very promising; Marc Cucurella, after a poor start, blossomed and had a golden Euros. Christopher Nkunku seems to be in form after last season's injury problems. There are good players at Chelsea, plenty of them; the question is whether, amid the constant noise, any manager will be able to find a pattern in which they can play.
Great disruptors have disrupted, but at some point disruption has to end.
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This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, the Guardian US's weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will respond better in a future edition.
