Between Jose Mourinho and the Champion’s Garment: An Improvement Conundrum

When a club wins the Premier League title as Chelsea did last season for the fourth time in the Premier League era, defending the title becomes more of a task than winning the first title. As Manchester City would attest to, because the Citizens have failed both times that they have been defending champions.

Besides that, trying to improve a squad that was crowned champions the previous season is always a task that is difficult to embark on. 

Jose Mourinho’s said during Chelsea’s post season tour of Australia in June that his present squad was the best and needs little improvement. The self styled special one opined that few players were better than Branisav Ivanovic, Nemanja Matic and Diego Costa in their positions.

With that champion’s garment comes a price of trying to improve such a team. Already that price is already being paid if it could be said along those lines. A summer of quiet transfer activities at the Bridge seems to be the consequence of that. So far, Radamel Falcao has been secured on a season long loan, while Amir Begovic was signed from Stoke as a direct replacement for Petr Cech who joined Arsenal to seek more first team football.

The signings Chelsea has made are more or less back ups rather than first team players. The question is always how does a manager improve a team with little or no weakness?

Jose Mourinho’s first spell as Chelsea’s manager saw the capture of a certain Micheal Essien from Lyon for a fee of £24 million in his second season. The former Ghanaian international hit the ground running when he made his debut against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. He came to improve a team that was already very strong, with Claude Makalele and Frank Lampard in midfield. It was not a surprise that Chelsea defended their title comfortably in the 2005/2006 season. Besides the signing of Essien from ligue 1 that summer, Shaun Wright-Phillips was signed from Manchester City for a fee of £21 million. But the England winger was a peripheral figure in West London that season, and later on in his Chelsea career.

Roman Abramovich’s early years as Chelsea’s owner was laced with unrestricted sending power, the Oligarch seldom held back the purse strings as Chelsea spent hugely to bring in players whether those players would bring direct improvement or not. With the squad restrictions due to the English FA home grown quota, it is becoming difficult for clubs to stock their squad with whoever they want.

At the time, Chelsea could easily snap up every available world class player they wanted as the likes of Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain had not been bought over by Middle Eastern dollars.

However, over the years, the financial landscape has changed, with Chelsea now adopting a more pragmatic approach to dealings in the transfer market. With the coming of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rule (FFP), Chelsea have adopted a policy of selling before buying in order to avoid breaching any of the FFP rules. It is no wonder that the sales of Romelu Lukaku and David Luiz for a combined fee of close to £70 million to Everton and PSG respectively funded the signings of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa for a combined fee of £60 million. And that was the main business of last summer, with Loic Remy signed for £8 million. In the January transfer window, the sale of Andre Schurrle to Wolfsburg was used to upset the signing of Juan Cuadrado from Fiorentina.

Also the £11 million Chelsea received from Arsenal for the signing of Petr Cech, £8 million was used to sign a replacement in Amir Begovic.

With these restrictions, it means Chelsea have now had to sell before they can buy, as Roman Abramovich seem to have decided to hold back the purse string and allow the club to run as a business. This means that Jose Mourinho now have to adjust his appetite for signings to the new policy of the club. However, the quiet summer at the Bridge seem to be unsettling the Portuguese; with reports that he is concerned about the club’s lack of spending.

It is the effect of the champions’ garment that he has to put up with, which the hierarchy at Chelsea has decided to adopt. While Jose Mourinho would love for the club to bring in additional signings this summer which could still happen as long as the transfer window is open, he will also be quick to point to the fact that few or no player can improve what he currently has at his disposal.

While the crave for signings to add a renewed motivation to a squad that will be defending their title in the coming season will continue so long as transfer window remains open, it should be remembered that Juan Cuadrado featured sparingly in his first six months at the Bridge, and Brazilian midfielder Oscar did not get a full complement of matches last season following the arrival of Cesc Fabregas, and a rejig of tactics by Jose Mourinho in the second half of the season when the Portuguese decided to push Fabregas forward while Ramires started alongside Matic in midfield.

Chelsea will be keen to get adequate back up to the established first team players. With Didier Drogba’s departure, Radamel Falcao has been signed as a replacement, even though the Colombian striker would have to recapture his scoring touch.

With the likelihood that there won’t be a signing that could upstage any of the established first team players in Mourinho’s eleven, the present emphasis could be keeping the players fit. Chelsea had the fewest number of injuries last season, a situation that aided their unchallenged match to the title.

Still, few within the Chelsea ranks would have expected John Terry to play the 38 league matches last season. With the captain now 35, he is not getting any younger, and with his age there is no guarantee that he can stay fit throughout the season like he did last season. Although, Kurt Zouma showed last season that he could be an able replacement alongside either Terry or Gary Cahill.

Although Jose Mourinho would love to make some big money signings to add verve to his squad, the official line from the Bridge is clearly a shift in policy in the way it conduct it business in the transfer market.

Despite the improvement conundrum that the champions garment has bestowed on Chelsea, they remain the team to beat in the coming season.