What multiple negative issues? Spending too much money on not very good players? Having a fruitcake of a manager?
Yes those +.
Some very poor transfer dealings from Emenalo over-paying for some low quality players plus failing to fulfil his remit of filling some key positions that were long overdue a change have proved to be catastrophic. As a contributory factor some of the constraints to hit our bigger targets were caused by CFC playing fair by FFP when there are clearly some shenanigans going on with some clubs which distorted the market. Cest la vie. For a team of Chelsea's success/ambition going into the new season with one temperamental (but very gifted) striker and a back-up of a failed MUFC reject (Falcao) and a lightweight (Remy) is near criminal.
Whilst I wouldn't agree that JM is a 'fruitcake' he did indeed show some real weaknesses of character with his handling of his team/staff/media and sad to say, despite his amazing on-pitch achievements I was glad to see him move on. I wouldn't be surprised to find out as time goes on if his father's serious illness during this period of time played a major part in his instability. Saying that, the guy has a fabulous record and would pretty much walk into any managerial vacancy on the planet - maybe not to universal accolade from the fans but from an owners perspective he is still a hot property. Flawed genius I guess.
The other issue that affected CFC was the ill-advised late pre-season tour in the constant attempt to develop emerging markets. As an aside this is something that saddens me about the modern game. We came back from season several weeks behind in match fitness which was a factor leading to our dismal start to the season and, eventually, the start of our implosion. One of the strands of dialogue that came out of this debacle was that the season is won from January onwards and that, even with a planned(!!!) slightly off the pace start, provided we were in the mix around Xmas time we would hit peak form in January and power on from there. That was a flawed philosophy.
Nonetheless, CFC are very definitely (despite all their wrinkles) not 'chokers'.
By far the biggest losers this season, in terms of trophies not won, are Arsenal & Spurs - with CFC/MUFC/MCFC having less than stellar seasons the door was open for these two clubs to seize the opportunity. Yet again Arsenal have fallen by the wayside when the chips are down and the Spurs position is looking increasingly fragile and the season is likely to become yet another of their false dawns.
