First head to roll following Chelsea’s abysmal start to season
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Only Jose Mourinho could manage to avoid the boot after overseeing a dreadful start to season, while another member of staff cops his bullet.
According to various media reports, that’s exactly what is about to happen, as Chelsea consider sacking technical director Michael Emenalo.
The Mirror have run a story, via the Sun, that suggests the 50-year-old will carry the can for the Blues’ nine defeats in all competitions, with a number of transfer flops cited for his axing.
Filipe Luis, Mohamed Salah and Juan Cuadrado are all offered as examples of Emenalo’s failings, while the inability to land John Stones from Everton is also laid at his door.
What the story criminally overlooks, though, is the fact that all the club’s losses this term have come without the aforementioned trio at the club.
Chelsea’s problems are very much centralised to on-pitch performance at the moment. Not the executive suites.
Another forgotten fact amid this sack chat is that Emenalo has been the Blues’ technical director since 2011. He played a key role in the decisive transfer action that brought Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa, among others, to the club two summers ago. Those two arrivals were largely credited for propelling Chelsea to the title last season.
Although Luis, Salah and Cuadrado can all be described as disappointments while at Stamford Bridge, it remains a drastic drop in form from the current squad that is the root cause of Chelsea’s woe.
If anyone should be losing their job, if indeed that is the best solution to the problem, it should be the manager that continues to fail to improve them. The last person sacked in this situation is Emenalo.
Sat in 16th place in the Premier League and with one win in their last six, the Blues are rated at 7/2 to finish in the top four.
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