Chelsea mess is a reminder that spending is no guarantee of success

P erhaps Graham Potter was on to something when he called it the hardest job in football. Everyone has seen Chelsea’s latest owners talk a good game, hire a slow-build coach, spend a fortune and try to stay calm during the tough times. The idea, to be different from Roman Abramovich, was noble. In reality, given everything that has happened since Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali assumed control last summer, it is hard not to wonder whether Abramovich has been questioning why exactly he is the one accused of presiding over a ruthless culture, not least because the record shows that even the most demanding of Russian oligarchs never got through two managerial sackings in a single campaign.

It is not a comparison that frames Boehly and Eghbali in a good light as they step up their search for Potter’s replacement and consider the virtues of Julian Nagelsmann, Mauricio Pochettino, Luis Enrique and Rúben Amorim. Already the great disruptors stand accused of achieving little more than repeatedly getting in their own way and, having burned through two managers in seven chaotic months, there is one big challenge facing Chelsea’s board: convincing their next hire that all those promises about building a collaborative culture really did count for something.

They will have to understand if people are sceptical. Chelsea, 11th in the Premier League after spending almost £600m on signings since last summer, are in a bind. There has been a complete failure of judgment and a thread that began with the firing of Thomas Tuchel last September looks even more tangled after the departure of Potter, especially with Chelsea entrusting Tuesday night’s home game against Liverpool to Bruno Saltor, an interim head coach who looked more than a