🚨 3 THINGS. ⚽️ — CHELSEA ARE CHANGING THE PEOPLE MAKING THE FOOTBALL DECISIONS.
Laurence Stewart is leaving Chelsea by mutual consent after almost four years.
And interestingly…
Chelsea are NOT replacing him.
1️⃣ SO CHELSEA ARE FINALLY SIMPLIFYING THIS STRUCTURE.
Stewart was one of FIVE sporting directors.
Now the day-to-day leadership will basically be:
Paul Winstanley.
Joe Shields.
Sam Jewell.
After years of needing a flowchart to understand who does what at Chelsea…😭
I actually like this.
2️⃣ AND XABI ALONSO IS GETTING MORE OF A VOICE.
This might be the most important part.
Xabi wanted greater involvement in recruitment when he arrived, and Chelsea have already moved away from ONLY buying young players.
Henderson. Welbeck. Emi Martínez.
Those aren’t your typical BlueCo signings.
My opinion?
GOOD.
The recruitment team shouldn’t just hand the manager 25 players and tell him to figure it out.
If Xabi is going to be judged on the team, he should have a serious say in building it.
3️⃣ BUT NOW THERE ARE FEWER PLACES TO HIDE.
Winstanley. Shields. Jewell. Xabi.
That’s a much clearer chain.
And with Clearlake now in full control of the club, Chelsea are slowly removing some of the confusion that defined the early years of this ownership.
Transfers work?
We know who gets the credit.
Squad building fails?
We know where to look too.
Sometimes Chelsea didn’t need MORE football people.
Maybe we just needed fewer people making the same football decisions. 👀💙