The dust was still settling on Chelsea’s demoralising defeat by Brighton on Saturday when three of the club’s owners – Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and Hansjörg Wyss – walked into the home dressing room to hold a debrief with their squad.
The mood could have been better. It is not unusual for owners to go into a dressing room but this particular intervention made a lasting impact. The language was strong and Boehly did not hold back. “Embarrassing,” was how he described Chelsea’s plight and, although the intention was to rally the troops before Frank Lampard’s side host Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday night, there was some surprise at the messaging given that the episode involved one senior player being singled out for some fierce criticism.
That player, signed by the current owners, may now be wondering whether he made a mistake in joining Chelsea. He is believed to be disillusioned and has been telling people he had never experienced anything like this in football.
Of course the riposte may be that the best way for the players to respond would be to help Chelsea to stage a comeback for the ages and overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Madrid last week. Still, though, the motivational tactics have raised eyebrows. Kepa Arrizabalaga, the Chelsea goalkeeper, tried to play things down, insisting that Boehly is in the dressing room after every game, but one insider said the vibe was weird.
Perhaps the players are wondering whether the truly embarrassing thing is how their bosses have behaved since buying the club from Roman Abramovich last May. Perhaps they are wondering how much of the embarrassment is down to owners who have employed four managers in one season, breeding dysfunction, and created a bloated squad by spending close to £600m in two transfer windows.
Perhaps they are wondering why Boehly thought it wise to say that Chelsea, who are 11th in the Premier League, were going to beat Madrid 3-0 at the Bernabéu. Perhaps they are wondering why Chelsea have managed to spend so much and still have no reliable goalscorer.
It is an astonishing situation. It is hard for the hierarchy to talk about long-term plans when, having sacked Thomas Tuchel seven games into the campaign, they gave Graham Potter seven months before ditching him. There is no chance the vision for this season involved having to bring in Lampard as interim head coach, and those photos from the Brighton game, showing fans in the upper tier of the west stand at Stamford Bridge leaning down to remonstrate with Boehly, cannot be anything other than a worry for the board.
The sense is that this could get toxic, particularly if Chelsea toil when they host Brentford next Wednesday, though the ground will surely be rocking for the visit of Madrid. “I have no doubt it will be positive,” Lampard said of the atmosphere. “The rest is down to us – to play with a real desire and know how to turn this game around.
“I have been here too many times before with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on an evening midweek knockout Champions League game ... the atmosphere will be great. It is time for us to tap into that early in the game and make sure we engage the crowd throughout, because they can help us for sure.”
This is the moment when Chelsea need to remember the defiance that made them kings of Europe 11 years ago; to summon the spirit of Ramires running through to chip Víctor Valdés at Camp Nou, Didier Drogba ransacking opposition defences, David Luiz playing on one leg in the final against Bayern Munich and Petr Cech plunging low to save Arjen Robben’s penalty.
Miracles can happen. The question, though, is whether this Chelsea side are capable of fighting back against Madrid. Do they have the leaders? The character? The togetherness?
Do they even have the quality? There are problems in defence – Ben Chilwell is suspended and Kalidou Koulibaly is injured – and a total lack of ruthlessness in attack. N’Golo Kanté’s return from a hamstring injury is a boost in midfield, but he is short of sharpness. Luka Modric, Fede Valverde and Toni Kroos are unlikely to be quaking in their boots.
Madrid look too canny to be caught out. Chelsea will remember fighting back against Napoli in 2012, Fenerbahce in 2008 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2014. They will remember coming back to beat Borussia Dortmund last month. And they did give Madrid a few headaches last week. Yet the Spanish side will back themselves to handle Chelsea’s early fury. Carlo Ancelotti will surely have the tactical edge over Lampard. The Italian will surely have plans to pick off Chelsea, release Vinícius Júnior on the break and trust in Karim Benzema to do the rest.
There is a problem with Lampard’s line about Chelsea having to kick the door in. On current evidence it is more likely to swing back and hit them in the face.
