Joe Cole names ‘problem’ with BlueCo and predicts when Chelsea ‘going for the title’
Joe Cole believes the “problem” with modern Chelsea is that all the data in the world cannot help a team get over the line at the very top end of the sport.
Since Roman Abramovich was forced to sell in 2022, Chelsea have been owned by the investor consortium BlueCo and while the Russian oligarch preferred big-name signings, the new owners have based their model around buying youth and a high rotation of players.
Since BlueCo’s first summer transfer window, Chelsea have spent around £1.5bn while bringing in around £900m but the Conference League and Club World Cup is the only silverware they have to show for it. In the league meanwhile, Chelsea have finished no higher than fourth and last year were 15 points off winners Liverpool.
That lack of top silverware suggests Chelsea are missing something when it comes to competing at the very top end and Cole, who played 282 for the west London club, said his “problem” with the model was what data could not predict.
“It’s clear the club are working within a business framework,” he exclusively told F365. “Anyone who’s worked for Brighton seems to be coming in.
“They want to do that model and are trying to apply it. But my problem with that model – the data-driven model – at the very, very top is I think the margins are in the unseen, what data can’t see.
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“I think it’s in the magic and the romance and something a manager might say, how a manager might treat a player. Not just this left back is the best left back we can get because he does this many attacks in this area, you know?
“I think data has a big part to play, but at that very, very top, I think it’s always the human element that makes the difference.”
Chelsea are currently third in the Premier League table having won their last two league games but Cole pointed to a disappointing home defeat to Sunderland as where the team can still improve.
“They’re at where we expected them to be at,” he said of the club. “Slow improvement, could be quicker with experienced players in it added but that’s not the mandate. That’s not what the club are going to do.
“So you’re going to get results like Sunderland, and then you go to White Hart Lane and win, you know? The important thing is not the points, the important thing is the lessons learned and improvement.
“So in six months’ time, that’s still winning at White Hart Lane and maybe not getting beat at home, and in six months after that, that’s two comfortable wins, and you’re going for the title. So you just need to see that linear line, that improvement.”
Joe Cole was speaking to Football365 to promote his new book Luxury Player, available to order here.
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