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Thomas Tuchel was musing about the knock-on effect of the Club World Cup on next season’s title race. “I think it will have a huge impact and it will give Liverpool and Arsenal a huge advantage in the next season to not be there,” he said.
What Tuchel did not mention is that Chelsea, disadvantaged as a result, qualified for the Club World Cup because of him. It feels a very different era given that Enzo Maresca is the fifth man to manage them since – Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor, Frank Lampard and Mauricio Pochettino are the others – and that Reece James is the only player to take the field in Tuchel’s 2021 Champions League final victory who is in the squad they have taken to the United States.
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Indeed, if some of the others get winners’ medals in July, it will mean Chelsea have not done a unique double of the Europa Conference League and the Club World Cup. Their Champions League-winning captain Cesar Azpilicueta is at Atletico Madrid now, Antonio Rudiger at Real. At 40, Thiago Silva will be in the Fluminense defence. Jorginho completed a move to Flamengo in time to play for his new club against his old one. Olivier Giroud, on the bench for Chelsea in 2021, could occupy a similar role for Los Angeles FC now, perhaps emerging to score against the Blues. Mateo Kovacic would have been in the Manchester City squad but for injury.
The Chelsea that qualified for the Club World Cup had a different manager, different players, different owner and, in many ways, was a different club. They were, at least, serial winners whereas the Conference League represented a belated first trophy of the Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital era.
It has been a time of permanent change, inventive accounting, big numbers and new theories. Perhaps, then, the Club World Cup is perfect for the new Chelsea, a parable of them. Certainly the revenues – a guarantee of over £30m, the possibility of more than £100m if Chelsea actually win it – could represent that latest lever they pull to pass PSR. This time, they will not need to sell any hotels or the women’s team to themselves.
Perhaps, too, it could be transformative on the pitch. Chelsea are one of the two Premier League representatives in the tournament. They have not been close to being among the two best under their current ownership, even if finishes of 12th, sixth and fourth at least represent the right direction of travel after the hubristic failure of their debut campaign.
They have not faced the European elite since the 2023 Champions League quarter-finals when Boehly predicted a 3-0 win over Real at the Bernabeu. Chelsea instead lost 2-0, a result they repeated at home.
Now a group with LAFC, Flamengo and ES Tunis could offer comparisons with the Conference League. Come second and they could be plunged into a last-16 meeting with Bayern Munich. Win the pool and there is a potential quarter-final against the new European champions Paris Saint-Germain, conquerors of four Premier League sides this season, in what would be a barometer of progress.
But, Chelsea being Chelsea, they are also in permanent transition. Maresca’s squad was notable for the omission of some of the higher-profile signings made in the current regime, in Raheem Sterling and Joao Felix, and one of Tuchel’s Champions League winners, in Ben Chilwell, but also features four new signings.
It would have been at least six if they had got their way. Jamie Gittens is instead in the Borussia Dortmund squad, along with the Chelsea loanee Carney Chukwuemeka, after a bid for the winger was rejected. Mike Maignan remains at AC Milan after Chelsea’s belated attempt to sign a world-class goalkeeper failed; for now, anyway.
So the potential debutant goalkeeper is Mike Penders, the teenager who excelled for Genk. The three players bought this summer are Mamadou Sarr, Dario Essugo, who may be a deputy for Moises Caicedo and who has been given Felix’s squad number, and Liam Delap. The £30m battering ram could assume the most importance and looks the likeliest starter. It could be a preview of next season’s contest between Delap and Nicolas Jackson for the striker’s spot.
Another intriguing arrival is the returning Andrey Santos, who excelled on loan for Strasbourg; as Chelsea have accumulated young players, he may prove one of the few who has benefited from their ravenous approach to recruitment and quixotic attitude to player development.
Go back to 2021 and Tuchel’s team who won the Champions League were underpinned by experience. Now the default plan is to buy young; it sometimes involves agreeing deals long before players arrive. Chelsea bought Estevao Willian last summer. The teenager winger will finish his Palmeiras career in the Club World Cup before moving to England. And Palmeiras are also possible quarter-final opponents for Chelsea, along with Azpilicueta’s Atletico. As is often the case, Chelsea’s past, present and future are colliding.
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