If Todd Boehly thought visiting Chelsea’s dressing room to deliver some home truths would inspire a Champions League miracle against Real Madrid he was, as he has been so often since arriving at Stamford Bridge, very much mistaken.
Co-owner Boehly decided it was time for the personal touch after Saturday’s home loss to Brighton, although reportedly telling Chelsea’s players their season had been “embarrassing” was not quite the morale-booster he maybe hoped for.
And so it proved as Real Madrid saw out some spirited Chelsea efforts, struck twice through Rodrygo in the second half, and will now meet either Bayern Munich or Manchester City in the semi-final.
Boehly, through it all, stared out blankly from his executive box, Chelsea’s season a complete washout and his hopes for a bounce from the return of Frank Lampard as interim manager have been more of a flatline as Real made it four defeats from four since the former midfielder took over from sacked Graham Potter.
This was certainly Chelsea’s best performance under Lampard but was totally undermined by one of the great follies – and there have been a few – of Boehly and co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali.
How can you spend £600m but fail to sign a player who would deliver the most precious quality of all? Goals.
Chelsea were always going to struggle to unsettle a Real team that regards panic as an alien concept, but any slim hopes they had were sabotaged by the number of presentable chances that came and went in what was actually a decent display.
Lampard’s team boasts no recognised striker so when chances fell to defensive midfielder N’Golo Kante and left-back Marc Cucurella they were missed, with the inevitable consequences.
Real are one of the most adept in the world at punishing teams for missed opportunities. They showed it against Manchester City in last season’s Champions League semi-final and again here.
Chelsea are in the bottom half of the Premier League, out of the Champions League and will not be in it next season while Lampard is now effectively marking time and filling the manager’s office until a new occupant can be found.
It is hard to see how Lampard can lift the mood either inside or outside the club.
Getting the right manager has just been made more difficult by not having Champions League to offer. There will also be a huge churn of players after the lavish, unrewarding outlay this season.
It has been a dismal season and now Chelsea’s owners, who have simply not had a handle on this at all, must use the time wisely to form a clear structure and find the manager they want after sacking Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter this season.
We must assume Boehly and co. have learned the harsh lessons of this season, very expensive ones. They have taken plenty of big decisions but they now need to actually start getting some right.
Chelsea need to identify and appoint the new manager and then lose the haphazard transfer policy that has seen players signed for exorbitant fees, often seemingly on the basis that other Premier League clubs were interested in them.
There is no doubting the ambition of Chelsea’s owners – how could you after that expenditure? – but all it has brought is a disjointed, broken team with no obvious identity getting exactly what it has deserved from this season – nothing.
There has been no pattern or consistency as huge numbers of players flooded into west London and vast quantities of cash went out.
Lampard’s team selection was conservative, no doubt wary of the fact Real are so expert at picking teams off, which meant big names such as Raheem Sterling, Joao Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk were on the bench.
Heavy responsibility also now lies with co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, who felt Potter’s time had to end and who have been leading the search for a new manager.
In previous years, under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea cracked the code on how to not only survive but thrive amid much managerial churn and transfer dealings.
Not this time.
The first season under Abramovich’s successors has been nothing short of chaos and abject mediocrity, a club so used to fighting for the big prizes reduced to running down the clock to the end of term with little other than respectability to aim for – and not much of that after this dismal campaign suffered another setback at the hands of Real.
