Roman Abramovich's groundbreaking Chelsea signing can create Manchester City transfer
dynasty
Chelsea hasn't had a director of football or sporting director since 2017 when Michael
Emenalo shockingly stepped down from his position.
Emenalo was a vital cog in Chelsea's recruitment process and the relationship between the head
coach and the club's hierarchy.
It has been over four years, and the position has not been replaced.
Petr Cech took up the technical and performance advisor role in 2019, following his retirement
from football.
Cech had taken an active role in recruitment, having a hand in negotiations alongside Frank
Lampard for Timo Werner in early 2020 before the German signed from RB Leipzig for £45m.
His most notable involvement was the deal later that same year for Edouard Mendy from
Rennes, given his previous connection to the French club.
But that brilliant deal probably did more to demonstrate Chelsea's main shortcoming
in the market, given Cech, along with the head of goalkeeping Christophe Lollichon,
identified Mendy outside the club's main scouting department.
This week, reports have emerged that Abramovich might be looking to replace Emenalo with former
Barcelona technical director Ramon Planes.
Planes left his role at Barcelona in November at his request, and Sport Witness notes that
many top European clubs are eyeing the man responsible for discovering exciting young
talents like Gavi, Pedri, and Ronald Araujo.
Bringing a sporting director in would radically alter the way Chelsea have been structured
over recent years, a structure current head coach Thomas Tuchel has praised repeatedly
given its suitability to his style.
Marina Granovskaia's influence on the day-to-day running of the club and as a chief negotiator
has led her to be recognised as one of the best operators in world football.
However, Granovskaia does not identify or scout targets, a common misconception.
The benefits of a sporting director have been felt amongst some of Chelsea's biggest rivals.
Txiki Begiristain currently fills the position at Manchester City after forming a great relationship
at Barcelona with Pep Guardiola.
City's transfer business has been highly expensive but mostly successful since both arrived.
Begiristain was in place four years before Guardiola joined the club, and their relationship
has seen City win three out of the last four Premier League titles, on course for a fourth
this season, along with four successive League Cups and one FA Cup.
Deals for Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Ederson, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Aymeric
Laporte, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo have all built the strong
foundations to maintain their Premier League dominance.
At Liverpool, the relationship between Jurgen Klopp and Michael Edwards has proved extremely
fruitful to take the Reds from eighth in the league to Champions in four years.
The infamous role Edwards played in convincing Klopp that Mohamed Salah was the better attacking
target than Julian Brandt in the summer of 2017 proved the value in a sporting director.
It also has a consistent presence to maintain the consistency in vision across multiple
coaching regimes, something Chelsea has become accustomed to under Abramovich.
For all its strengths, the current Chelsea squad is undermined by its varied profiles
assembled since 2012 under six different head coaches with varying tactical approaches.
A good sporting director should maintain a set style of principles to ensure the long-term
health of a club is not jeopardised by one coach who could be dismissed within 18 months.
However, simply appointing any sporting director is not the skeleton key to solving all of
Chelsea's transfer woes of recent years.
It is also about clarifying a more consistent style of play that transfers between different
coaches and what type of player Chelsea specifically target each window.