Chelsea have been struggling to regain their dominance in the Premier League for a few seasons now. They have tried changing managers and rebuilding the team entirely with new and younger players.
What disappoints Chelsea fans is that they have spent over £1 billion under Todd Boehly & Clearlake Capital’s ownership. Still, they have not been able to escape the reality of the mid-table team status.
Chelsea boss Todd Boehly appointed Joe Shields as the new co-director of Recruitment and Talent back in 2022. He was appointed after impressive recruitment work at Southampton.
He also worked as a scout for Manchester City early in his career. So, the reasons for his appointment and the logic seemed right at the time.
Joe Shields has now deactivated his Instagram account seemingly due to the online abuse that the scout and head of talent management has been receiving due to Chelsea’s poor run in the Premier League.
Things have gone sour at Chelsea, with coach Mauricio Pochettino unhappy with his squad not being able to play football the way he wants them to play.
Despite spending huge amounts on players, he still wants more players capable of being match-winners. Pochettino asked reportedly Shields to target such players next transfer market in January, hopefully bringing in someone who can end the drought of Chelsea.
Signings like Enzo Fernandez and Roméo Lavia were influenced by Shields, as he pushed for them. While some fans abuse him online, there are many who understand his position and see that this is the same person who signed some great names. Hopefully, they can turn things around for January. The biggest problem with Chelsea remains their inconsistent performances.
They show progress and then digress just as easily. It’s the story of Chelsea over the past few seasons. They had a great match against Manchester City before the international break last month, where they tied 4-4 with the treble winners. But since then, they have lost matches and shown no signs of improvement.
So, playing a blame game does not change Chelsea’s situation, whether they blame Shields for recruitment or Pochettino for his tactics.