Whilst things may seem far from sunny at Stamford Bridge and the changes made by Todd Boehly are yet to reap much tangible reward, Cristiano Ronaldo's interview with Piers Morgan demonstrated that Chelsea have taken steps to try to move on.
In two senses Chelsea have gotten things right. Firstly, they didn't sign Ronaldo last summer. Although Todd Boehly desired the Portuguese international as a superstar statement transfer, he trusted Thomas Tuchel enough not to force the deal. By whatever means, avoiding Ronaldo has been a boost on multiple levels.
The other sense is that by making changes to the internal and external model of the club, the Blues are trying to adapt. Their hire-fire trophy laden 19-years under Roman Abramovich has been an unprecedented success in running a football club, but it's prehistoric now.
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Manchester City made steps to secure Pep Guardiola years before he eventually joined, Liverpool's transfer strategy and backing of Jurgen Klopp lead them away from being a midtable club to one of the most consistent top-end challengers in the league. Chelsea fell a long way behind this mould and are only now reacting.
Ronaldo, in an eery sense, could have been speaking about Chelsea at times during his interview. Although Romelu Lukaku did his own thing and caused unrest for something of a similar nature - though his was in a different context to Ronaldo's entirely - staying clear of the 37-year-old has been fruitful. On the pitch, he makes little sense and off of it he is a distraction. Chelsea don't need that at a time of turmoil already.
His criticism of the Red Devils from an organisational perspective is worth noting though, even if vein comments of superiority are not. The forward openly criticised the club for appointing Ralph Rangnick as interim manager earlier this year after sacking Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and whilst he claims to have not heard of one of football's tactical Godfathers - which raises more of a question as to who he speaks to more than anything - the failure of the Austrian is a mirror into an alternate universe for Chelsea.
Rangnick was one of the candidates for the Blues job after Frank Lampard was sacked but he didn't want an interim job. Instead, he waited at Lokomotiv Moscow and was appointed temporary manager at Old Trafford with the expectation of continuing as director of football at the end of the season. It was a mess, Rangnick left with the club in a worse place than when he joined and then he decided not to stay on, Ronaldo is right. And it's something that set the club back. "It's something that I shouldn't see," he said of the decision to appoint Rangnick.
"Manchester United haven't followed the right way to reach successful teams like Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea. They [Manchester United] are one step behind because of this type of mistake. They should improve and change the staff or the people or the directors or presidents."
Although the league table indicates United are ahead of Chelsea - they appointed Erik ten Hag and gave him backing in the summer and look set to allow time to heal other wounds - Boehly and co have tried to avoid a situation whereby they need the reset button being hit as hard as United.
Chelsea will face a challenge to get into the top four this season due to long-term failure to address the need of a wholesome transfer plan. As Graham Potter says, there will be more pain on the road. But Ronaldo's words should remain a warning as much as anything.
The Blues will be thankful for what Tuchel did to the club in some ways, the second Champions League triumph will never be forgotten and the connection he made with fans is irreversible now, but the damage caused over the long-term by kicking the can down the road in an internal sense is being shown up once more. That's not the German's fault, he's a victim of his own success to that degree and the fact that he wasn't a viable option for a rebuild only show more flaws to how Chelsea have been run.
Unlike United, Chelsea didn't fail to advance the club in the 2010s in the areas that Ronaldo mentioned, but Rangnick's turn of fortune may well pose as a recent reminder of how easy it is to make mistakes. Boehly's new team are in place to do just that, but it takes patience to see the result.
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