Chelsea’s season is pretty much over after the Blues fell 2-0 to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinal second leg on Tuesday.
The 4-0 aggregate defeat means Todd Boehly’s first season as owner will end with a lot of money spent, four managers, and zero trophies. Chelsea is currently mired in a miserable Premier League campaign that sees the club in 11th place, with caretaker boss Frank Lampard set to leave at season’s end.
The club has fallen flat in spite of (or maybe because of) an astronomical amount of investment in the transfer market. In January, Chelsea alone spent more on players than each of the other four top leagues in Europe.
Speaking to TNT Sports after Tuesday’s defeat, Chelsea defender Thiago Silva told some harsh truths about the club’s season. The Brazilian admitted that spending for spending’s sake isn’t the way to go, suggesting Boehly’s huge investment may have been detrimental to the club in 2022-23.
“We can’t be blaming the managers if we don’t take responsibility. It’s a hard period for the club, with a lot of indecision. Change of ownership, new players arriving – we had to increase the size of the changing room because it didn’t fit the size of the squad,” he said.
“A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy. There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play. The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that’s tough. Some can’t make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes.”
“Everybody talks too much about replacing managers. I think we, as players, must also take responsibility,” the Brazilian continued. “We have had three managers this season, plus a fourth with Bruno where we failed to win. We have lost today and with Lampard we have failed to win. Everybody is talking about the manager but we must look at what has been done wrong and try to change.”
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