Chelsea 22/23 Premier League season review: High risks and low rewards
Here, as part of Flashscore's writers reviewing select clubs' seasons, Chelsea's tumultuous season will be looked at.
Pre-season expectations
It seems so long ago now, but Chelsea began the season with Thomas Tuchel in charge and reeling from the backdrop of potentially buckling altogether as previous owner Roman Abramovich had all his assets seized by the UK government due to the Russian's links to Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine.
However, like a knight in shining armour, a consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly swooped in with a gargantuan £4.5 billion deal to get the wheels in west London rolling again in May last year.
The feelings were that of a clean break from the Russian oligarch and a grounded hope that Chelsea could very much compete for a Champions League place, if not more.
Summer transfers
The new ownership didn't take long to dip into the market and back Tuchel. Their first summer signing was Raheem Sterling for a reported fee of £47.5 million - deemed surplus to requirements at City but still very much an eye-catching transfer.
Commanding centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly soon followed from Napoli for a reported fee of £33 million.
Youngster Carney Chukwuemeka was brought in from Aston Villa for £20 million before the club splurged even more on defence - notably a hefty £59 million for the in-demand Marc Cucurella and £69 million on Leicester's Wesley Fofana.
The big shock signing was secured on deadline day, with former Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joining from Barcelona in a £10 million deal. Chelsea had strengthened across the board with a mixture of experience and youth.
Mid-season outlook
The Premier League season was derailed by the World Cup in Qatar, so any momentum - or in Chelsea's case lack thereof - would likely be scratched off. Fans, players and owners alike would have been hopeful for a clean slate.
By now, Chelsea had parted company with Tuchel and brought in Graham Potter from Brighton. With the Seagulls flying, many raised an eyebrow as to why the English manager would risk it all, but as he stated in his initial press conference: "the opportunity was too good to turn down."
Form had been indifferent in the league, and by the first week of January, they will have been knocked out of both domestic cups by Manchester City.
Still, their Champions League campaign hadn't been all that bad, featuring a couple of wins over AC Milan, and they somewhat breezed into the knockout stages.
Fans were generally excited about the transfer window and the club's renewed spending power, with a plethora of exciting talents being linked to help usher in Potter's vision. Few would have predicted how that would all pan out...
Winter transfers
To put it bluntly, the Chelsea board responded to the setbacks with their wallets, attempting to buy their way out of a potential crisis by dropping an unbelievable amount of money on new talent, leaving onlookers pretty gobsmacked in the process.
Seemingly out of the hands of an increasingly beleaguered and under-pressure Potter, who himself hadn't hit the ground running in the slightest, Chelsea spent over £300 million in January, on top of the already pretty big sums they'd dropped in the summer.
On paper, some of it made sense. The decision-makers set out to scoop up the top emerging talent around the world, focusing on young, raw talent and then tying them down to long-term contracts.
Some of the fees presented an immensely huge risk though, and after some time it felt to your average passer-by that whatever plans were initially in place had gone out the window by the last weeks of the window.
It all began with defender Benoît Badiashile arriving from Monaco for a reported £33 million, soon followed by David Datro Fofana and Andrey Santos for a combined £26 million.
Then the big talking point of the window, as long-time Arsenal target Mykhailo Mudryk - seemingly well on his way to the Emirates as the Gunners sat top of the league - put pen to paper with the Blues instead, much to Mikel Arteta's chagrin and everyone's surprise.
What was even more surprising was how Arsenal had long haggled over the large price tag, yet Chelsea just steamrolled in with an £88 million offer like it was a pound lost down the back of the sofa.
More transfers were to come though, as Chelsea further bloated out their squad with PSV winger Noni Madueke and Lyon defender Malo Gusto, who cost a reported £29 million and £26 million respectively. They also signed Joao Felix on loan from Atletico Madrid for a hefty £10 million fee, plus his £250k-per-week wages in full.
And then, seemingly in an absolute wild panic, Chelsea dropped a staggering £106 million on Argentine World Cup winner Enzo Fernández, rather an awful lot of money to spend on a 22-year-old, even if he was named young player of the tournament in Qatar.
Post-season review
Arguably one of the worst seasons in recent memory for fans of the club, the signings did little to help matters and Chelsea continued to tumble down the Premier League standings, loitering between 10th and 12th. If anything, the incomprehensible sums they'd forked out made things worse for all involved.
Graham Potter would last not even seven months before getting the chop, chalking up a record of 12 wins, eight draws and 11 losses in his 31 matches, a failure to pick up any sort of form ultimately resigning him to his fate.
Boehly, allegedly under the guidance of a certain James Corden over a posh dinner, would make the peculiar choice to bring back Frank Lampard as a caretaker manager until the end of the season.
Hoping a returning club legend (who didn't exactly set the world alight in his first tenure as manager) would give the place a lift, it turned out to be arguably even worse as the former midfielder would sustain a 100 per cent losing record until the start of May, when his side finally picked up a win (and scored a goal) against Bournemouth. Safe to say, Lamps won't be in the dugout next season.
While some decent results in the Champions League culminated in a quarter-final exit to Real Madrid, realistically Chelsea were praying for the season to end since April, possibly even sooner.
Key players
It's hard to pick out any big individual performances or standout players, which is strange considering some of the star power in the squad.
Thiago Silva was one of the few who consistently put in a shift and tried to steady the ship, but there was only so much the battle-hardened Brazilian centre-back - who is now 38 years old - could realistically do.
Of the new signings, Fernández has flattered to deceive but will no doubt have time to find his feet, but Badiashile has somewhat looked the part, particularly towards the end of the season.
Otherwise, the only names that spring to mind are England stars Reece James and Ben Chilwell, but both have been dogged by injuries all season and haven't featured anywhere near as much as they've been needed. They both also seemingly barely get to play in the same starting XI with one another - something Chelsea's medical staff really need to work on getting right for next season.
Best performances
Again, it's pretty slim pickings, especially domestically. Chelsea did look like their old selves, briefly, in their round of 16 Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund, particularly in the second leg.
They also performed admirably at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals despite being a man down and ultimately still losing that match.
In the Premier League, most of their best performances were a long time ago, around the start of the season and certainly before the World Cup. Two Sterling goals saw them beat Leicester with ten men in August, while they also put in a strong showing against West Ham in September. We're clutching at straws a bit here though, it has to be said.
Next season's aims
It's hard for the club to look forward to next season just yet, but the key thing Chelsea needs is to simply get back to winning ways.
Stamford Bridge used to be something of a fortress but it's nothing of the type at this moment in time, so it will be up to the players and whoever comes in as manager - likely Mauricio Pochettino - to create a brand of football that gets the fans back on board and up for the fight once more.
If it is to be Poch, then carving out a new style of football that suits the undoubtedly talented squad he's set to inherit will also be vital. A solid, no-drama pre-season will be important.
There'll be no European football for Chelsea next season, so while a stab at reaching the top four isn't out of the question, a decent cup run and a top-six finish will probably do the trick.
It's unlikely, given the board has already managed to spend around £600 million in transfers, that there'll be many new incomings. Rather, the squad is in desperate need of trimming and a few big names will likely leave.
The books need to be balanced as financial fair play begins to cast its shadow over the Bridge, so don't be surprised to see some big names - and in particular some homegrown talents - heading for the exit, such as Mason Mount, Conor Gallagher and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
