It may be a parable of Todd Boehly’s Chelsea, a club where it is possible to have both too many players and too few, where footballers are bought but they can’t be used, where strategy was eschewed in favour of scattergun spending.
When Real Madrid visit Stamford Bridge, there would be strong grounds for Frank Lampard to select Benoit Badiashile, except for one minor issue: he is ineligible. The Frenchman is one of the few signings to make a promising start to a Chelsea career this season, but he is unavailable. As Kalidou Koulibaly is injured, as Ben Chilwell is suspended, as Levi Colwill is out on loan along with Malang Sarr, Chelsea’s sextet of left-sided defenders is reduced to one: Marc Cucurella, a disastrous signing and, indeed, a reason why their contingent is so depleted.
The Spaniard came on when Koulibaly limped off in the Bernabeu last week: he was caught out of position when Chilwell, in an attempt to compensate, was sent off. And so Lampard may have to pick a back four for the rematch. He might have done anyway – it is a way to incorporate an extra attacker for a team who need to score goals – but the tactics could be dictated by a Chelsea-esque sense of chaos.
It is a triumph of confused thinking when Badiashile had appeared a success of sensible recruitment; in one respect, anyway, as a cheaper alternative to the increasingly unobtainable Josko Gvardiol. Not in the sense that Koulibaly had joined six months earlier, or in that Chelsea continue to insist Colwill is part of their plans and yet give fewer indications how they all fit in when each seems best suited to the same role. It is not so much competition for places as congestion.
But Badiashile began his Chelsea career with three consecutive clean sheets. In an otherwise bleak picture, he seemed a shining light, an immediate vindication for Chelsea’s sizeable recruitment team. If there was a single hit at that stage among their 16 signings, it appeared to be Badiashile. Bought at 21, he seemed a case of potential being identified rapidly by a club who claimed they had a long-term plan. But not, perhaps, a short-term tactic.
That fine start was not a springboard: after four starts in four, Badiashile has begun four of the last 12. His season has stalled, partly because of Chelsea’s buying, which meant it made sense for Graham Potter to prioritise the previously out-of-form Koulibaly in domestic fixtures because he was also available in Europe, thereby playing a key figure back into form.
Potter was probably unwise wise to omit Badiashile from the Champions League squad, but the decision felt inevitable and was perhaps made above his head: more expensive and glamorous options were always likelier to get the nod. As it is, Mykhailo Mudryk was an unused substitute in the Bernabeu last week, just as he had been in the second leg against Borussia Dortmund. But he was the £88 million signing. Joao Felix missed chances against both Dortmund and Real but he was the galactico of a loanee. Enzo Fernandez is the £107m man, the British record signing. They were the chosen three.
It exposed a sizeable flaw in Chelsea’s thinking: Boehly had the cunning plan of flooding the squad with signings in January - but they were only ever able to add three more to the Champions League knockout stage squad. And so Badiashile, Noni Madueke and David Datro Fofana, with a combined cost of £70m, did not make the cut. Perhaps it was just as well that Malo Gusto and Andrey Santos were allowed to remain with their previous clubs because there would not have been room for either.
Potter can definitely be faulted, moreover, in his choice of who to omit to incorporate the newcomers. Dropping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored home and away against AC Milan in the group stage, means yet another of Chelsea’s signings is not registered. Hakim Ziyech, who Chelsea tried to offload in January, and Carney Chukwuemeka, who is yet to play in the Champions League this season, were included. Aubameyang was not. It felt a decision to try and force him out when Chelsea had to contrived to spend a fortune while still lacking a goalscorer.
And so they host Real short of centre-backs and lacking an out-and-out centre-forward. Badiashile will be a £32m spectator. And Chelsea, with one goal in five games, with one clean sheet in seven, will face the European champions potentially weaker in both boxes because some of their £600m outlay has gone on players who cannot play.
Badiashile has indeed become a face of the new Chelsea, just not in the way they intended.
