There's no shortcut to success in the Premier League as every team is made to work tooth and nail to scrap for every point available in the season. Perhaps that is one of the harsher lessons that new Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has learned in his first year at the helm of the club.
The American consortium that he heads has dropped a roughly £600million since their arrival over two transfer windows and yet, the team look as far from winning a game as ever, let alone a title or a trophy. While there is an argument that the transfer window in the summer was necessary to replenish a squad that had been left depleted from sanctions levied on the club through owner Roman Abramovich, the January window may be what has tipped the balance in the second half of the campaign.
An emphasis on young talent was made, but with a squad now boasting over 30 senior first-team footballers, which is tough for even the best managers to control. A chopping and changing of system and personnel has hardly made it the environment for on-pitch relationships to grow - with the Blues using the second most players (32) in the league this season, second only to Nottingham Forest (33).
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The transition from one style of ownership to the next hasn't been easy and whilst Boehly has clearly taken a liking to the Brighton method, having uprooted a whole host of staff from them, he perhaps misjudged one key area they get spot on. That's to say that the Seagulls are the kings of implementation when it comes to their signings.
While many will praise their scouting and the business done so far, the key thing they aren't doing is just dropping these players into the team. They're being prepared for the jump to first-team football, often with a journey that takes a few years before they finally get their chance.
They are then given their first opportunity, coming into a system that is familiar to the majority of the team and given time to grow. Alexis Mac Allister and Kaoru Mitoma are perfect examples of this, having been scouted, signed and then sent back out on loan to develop.
They were then given time to feel their way into the side before becoming regulars, with the rest of the side already knowing their roles. It makes the change much less drastic and the genius of it is that the next stars are already lined up, so while everyone is focusing on the current players, the deputies patiently wait for their moment.
More recent examples of this are Julio Enciso and Facundo Buonanotte, who are now getting their chance to play in the first team under Roberto De Zerbi but haven't been catching the headlines yet. This method is prone to some failure, such as the possibility of signings not reaching their potential or if they don't develop fast enough.
But for Chelsea, the lesson is still there that the environment must be right to allow these players to jump into the opportunity and become established. In stark contrast, half of the squad that have been used in the league this season hadn't been there before last summer, making it impossible to create that cohesion.
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