There is a lot of noise surrounding Chelsea at the moment. The Blues have not been able to make the right managerial appointment under the BlueCo era. Thomas Tuchel was sacked far too early. Graham Potter and Liam Rosenior failed. Mauricio Pochettino did a decent enough job but left after one year. Enzo Maresca was the only one close to success but he walked away after just 18 months at Stamford Bridge.
That just goes to show that things need to change. You cannot spend north of a billion pounds on a squad and then not qualify for the Champions League or even come close to competing for the Premier League title.
A lot will depend on who ends up being appointed as the next manager of the club. And at the moment, it looks like there are three confirmed candidates for the post. Others have been linked with Chelsea, but the level of interest is not certain.
While speaking on the London is Blue podcast, Matt Law named Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Marco Silva as the three. He said:
“Iraola, Marco Silva, and Xabi Alonso, There are others, so far unnamed, so far unsure. It may be that they’ve been named but not confirmed, in terms of whether one would be Cesc Fabregas, in terms of whether one would be, Eddie Howe has been getting a mention.
“I would be surprised, I think Cesc Fabregas would be a very good candidate, I would be surprised if he is well in the running at the moment.
“So I think it’s worth probably focusing on the three.”
There are three confirmed candidates for the Chelsea job right now
That is very consistent with what we have been hearing over the past few weeks. It is good to see Alonso remains in the mix and has not been ruled out yet. He would be the top pick for most of the supporters out there. But the Spaniard might want more control and say over matters than the previous managers have gotten.
Iraola could also be an interesting pick. He has done an excellent job at Bournemouth. That being said, there are some concerns over how his high-intensity, pressing style would fit this Chelsea team, who seem to be built to play possession-based football.
Then there is Silva. He has done an excellent job at Fulham, turning them into Premier League mainstays after yo-yoing between the Champions League and the top flight for years. But would that translate to the demands at Chelsea?
Who could be the unnamed candidates?
It is pretty hard to predict who BlueCo might be working on behind the scenes. From the candidates mentioned, there is no clear style of football that they seem to prefer.
Is that the first mistake? The lack of a clear vision? The football played by Alonso’s teams are very different to that of Iraola’s sides.
Obviously, you can take a guess and bring up names like Eddie Howe, Frank Lampard, Francesco Farioli and a few others. Let’s see where the managerial search goes from here and if more ‘confirmed’ names emerge.
