Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is reportedly prepared to give the green light to a squad overhaul if the current group of players can’t deliver success.
After a disappointing campaign last year in which they made the worst-ever defence of a Premier League title and eventually finished 10th, the club appointed Antonio Conte this past summer.
Despite a strong start to the season, Chelsea have lost their way in recent weeks and the spotlight is back on certain players in the current squad after both Abramovich and Conte agreed to give them another chance to prove their worth.
According to The Telegraph, despite spending £115m on four new players this summer, Abramovich has indicated that he is ready to spend big if it’s required to get Chelsea competing at the top of the table again.
Defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal in particular haven’t sat well, and despite bringing in David Luiz, Marcos Alonso, N’Golo Kante and Michy Batshuayi in his first transfer window, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Conte will need to continue to strengthen in order to get the club where they want to be.
It’s likely that any major moves will now have to wait until the summer and that could be problematic if Conte isn’t able to turn things around quickly and pick up some positive results.
Nevertheless, the same names continue to be mentioned in these reports, with Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, Cesc Fabregas and Oscar all noted by The Telegraph as either facing an uncertain future or being under pressure to deliver sooner rather than later.
Chelsea have slipped to eighth in the Premier League table and have 10 points from their first six games of the campaign. However, their vulnerabilities are coming back to haunt them, and perhaps it will take a huge spending spree from Abramovich to rebuild properly and start afresh.