Now under the new ownership of American billionaire Todd Boehly, Chelsea face a period of major transition.
Not only have the club’s owners changed but after making the snap decision to part ways with former manager Thomas Tuchel, Boehly opted to hand the club’s reins to Graham Potter.
Despite doing an excellent job at Brighton and Hove Albion, Potter, 47, has failed to hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge.
Although he has been in charge for just three months, the 47-year-old has endured a poor run of results, with the Blues’ playing style of particular worry.
Following a recent and abysmal showing against relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, in a game that ended 1-1, Potter is now under mounting pressure but former attacker Stan Collymore believes the Londoners’ fanbase should give the Englishman more time to fulfil Boehly’s philosophy.
“Todd Boehly’s plan for Graham Potter was for him to come in and help with the running of the club from the youth academy upwards,” Collymore said in an exclusive interview.
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“Chelsea wanted more than just a head coach. They wanted to bring someone in who is capable of identifying a future Romelu Lukaku, or a future Kevin De Bruyne and ensure they fulfil their potential while at the club, as opposed to moving on, like we’ve seen happen in the past.
“I think that unfortunately for Chelsea, the biggest problem is the fact that for two decades, their supporters have become so used to witnessing a conveyor belt of managers come in as soon as things aren’t going so well.
“So their mentality is already “Potter isn’t doing well, rip his contact up and get someone else in.” and that runs contrary to Boehly’s philosophy of being a new guy and doing things differently.”
As things stand, Chelsea are way down in eighth place in the Premier League – a long way off where they should be considering how much investment the squad has had in the last six months.
Nevertheless, with the season not yet at the halfway mark, there is still plenty of time for Potter to turn his side’s fortunes around, one thing is for sure though, with a congested fixture list including league games against Man City and Liverpool to come in January, if Chelsea are to qualify for next season’s Champions League, they must start winning games again, and that is not something they have managed to do in recent times.