Written by Han Bing In the short span of three years under Boehly, Chelsea has acquired as many as 49 players while letting go of 48, not including the numerous players sent out on loan. Each season, the turnover of first-team players exceeds 30, which is quite rare in the football world. The six coaches during the Boehly era have all faced the same challenge: an excessively large first team and the significant challenge of integrating more than half of the players who are strangers during the summer preparations.

Throughout the Boehly era, Chelsea has consistently been under the control of "outsiders" making transfer decisions, relying on inexperienced and frequently changing players to try to win matches and trophies. Coaches like Potter, Lampard, and Maresca also lack experience with major clubs' successes. This is a very difficult and painful process, as simply writing down player names and assigning positions can be dizzying. The rapid turnover of players and coaches leaves the team with hardly enough time to establish stable working relationships. Most importantly, Chelsea lacks a clear self-identity in all aspects that constitute a great team, including playing style, locker room culture, experience, leadership, and coaching strategy.

Constantly needing to integrate the roster

Last season, Maresca was quite successful. A Chelsea team with a bloated locker room but lacking experience was led by him to return to the Champions League and secure two trophies. However, after this summer, he will again face the same challenges he encountered when he took over last summer. Including the highly likely incoming Simmons, his championship roster will have 9 new players without major club experience. Each week, Maresca must greet one unfamiliar player after another with an awkward smile, but unlike last year, this year he has even less time to integrate the roster before the league starts.

Last season, the average age of Chelsea's first team was only 23 years and 5 months, making it the youngest team in the Premier League. However, with the addition of even younger newcomers, the team's average age will continue to drop in the new season. Last season, Maresca repeatedly emphasized the team's lack of experience, stating they could only accumulate it as they played. In the new season, this cycle of "Groundhog Day" will continue: Chelsea's first team remains overcrowded, to the point where they could field two different lineups.

The real issue remains that most of Chelsea's new signings this summer lack competitive value, just like before. The 22-year-old center forward Delap scored 10 goals from open play and provided 2 assists for relegated Ipswich last season. Although his goal tally exceeded expectations (7.8), his not-so-high shooting accuracy puts him under significant competitive pressure in the most expensive position, number 9.

20-year-old Gittens is a left winger who uses his right foot, but like Delap, his statistics are not impressive. After two years at Dortmund, he averaged only 0.38 expected goal contributions per game, even lower than the performance of Zirkzee at Manchester United last season. It’s important to note that he was in the Bundesliga, a league that traditionally emphasizes the development of attacking players while having lower defensive quality. Given that moving from the Bundesliga to the Premier League likely won’t improve attacking efficiency, it remains uncertain whether Gittens, with a transfer fee of €64.3 million, can justify his price tag.

Even with the addition of left-back Hato and midfielder Simmons, these newcomers will not currently raise the ceiling of the Blues' strength. Last season, Chelsea's bench depth was already quite strong, and whether these newcomers can stand out in the fierce competition remains a question. Moreover, Maresca has also lost one of Chelsea's most used players from last season, Madueke.

The starting eleven is the hardest to predict

Due to Chelsea's uniquely structured locker room, Maresca's starting lineup for the new season has been deemed "the hardest puzzle to guess" by the Daily Mail.

Last season, Maresca made 419 adjustments to the starting lineup, the highest number in the top five leagues. He even treated the Club World Cup as Chelsea's preseason, moving key player Palmer to the right flank, while incoming Simmons will become Palmer's competitor in the number 10 position. Chelsea's first team also needs to offload 10 players, while the Blues hope to acquire Garnacho to strengthen their attacking line, leaving Maresca's hand still full of variables.

Chelsea's American owner has not placed pressure on Maresca for championship results in the new season, but against the backdrop of strong signings by Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal, Maresca knows his second season will be tougher than the last. Compared to opponents with mature tactical systems, he still has to explore the secrets of success amid constant rotations. Although his formation has been fixed, frequent rotations still create high uncertainty for both the team and their opponents.

Chelsea's recruitment generally does not prioritize the competitive needs of the coach. Even though the Blues have sufficient personnel reserves in the attacking line, Boehly still signed Delap and Gittens, and is preparing to sign Simmons, further bloating the midfield and forward positions with competition. However, Gittens happens to fill the gap for at least one right-footed left winger that Chelsea needs, while Hato and Delap serve as versatile players to enhance bench depth. In terms of accumulating young players, Boehly naturally believes that more is better.

Due to the high turnover of players, Chelsea is a very unique presence in the Premier League, making it almost impossible to predict what kind of results they will achieve. Maresca has to constantly adjust tactics during player rotations, possibly focusing on wingers, or even deploying two number 10s, and not ruling out the possibility of two center forwards. Since uncertainty is the only certainty in Chelsea's locker room, Maresca must frequently change formations and positions, which may force both him and Chelsea to adapt to Boehly's principle: change means stability.