Although Chelsea ended the 2022/23 Premier League season with a creditable draw against Newcastle United, the point can’t disguise just what a terrible season the Blues have endured.
Todd Boehly is unlikely to have envisioned such a poor campaign at the beginning of the season, and particularly not after having spent heavily in both transfer windows to date.
The owner really has no one else but himself to blame, however.
With no prior knowledge of the Premier League, Boehly appeared to have thought that he would be able to influence things at the club in the same way he has with his other businesses.
Sacking Thomas Tuchel turned out to be the first mistake of many, not to mention buying so many players that even when Graham Potter took over, it was going to take time to weed out the deadwood and meld the team as he would want.
Chelsea have failed to reach 50 points in a Premier League campaign for the first time in the competition's history.
? £600m spent
?? 16 players signed
? 44 pointsThat’s £13.6m per point. ?
— William Hill (@WilliamHill) May 28, 2023
With so many injuries to contend with it was obvious any manager would struggle, but that evidently didn’t matter to Boehly.
Removing Potter from his role after just a few months and replacing him with Frank Lampard, an elite midfielder but awful manager, was the worst decision of the lot.
The eight defeats, two draws and one win since Lampard took over has meant that for the first time in a Premier League season, Chelsea haven’t reached 50 points.
In fact they were nowhere near it, as the tweet above shows.
Sean Dyce has now won more Premier League matches this season (5) than Frank Lampard (4).
And that includes Chelsea results. ? pic.twitter.com/wYHQoYpHj9
— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) May 28, 2023
Not attending the final match of the season and taking part in the usual lap of honour shows the respect that the owner holds the fans in.
Simply put, Boehly has to learn his lesson quickly because Mauricio Pochettino surely won’t work in such a chaotic atmosphere.
The Argentinian has it all to do just to begin the 2023/24 season with something approaching a squad that’s together and playing for each other.