Are Chelsea in crisis? Questions asked as players continue to speak out

Are Chelsea in crisis? The team are outside of the Champions League places in the Premier League, and their sole win across the last 5 came in extra time against a team playing Josh Windass and Kieffer Moore.

The players are also speaking out against life at the club, or at least have their gardening gloves on to deposit the seeds of departure into the English football hive mind.

First it was Enzo Fernández, who did everything except reveal a surprise tattoo of 15 Champions League trophies down his left leg. The World Cup winner spoke to the press as soon as he swapped his Chelsea training gear for the Adidas of Argentina, saying “I’d love experiment, I don’t know, live there. I like Madrid a lot. It reminds me of Buenos Aires.”

That wouldn’t have caused such a fuss, had it not emerged just days earlier than Fernández reportedly said that Real Madrid was a “dream move” for him.

And it would have been even less of a fuss had he not quashed the suggestion that he’s set to stay at Chelsea next season. "My focus is here now,“ he said when asked during a training camp for the national team. ”Then the World Cup is coming up, so we’ll see after that.”

Chelsea signing policy “complicates achieving goals”

But he is not the only player pouring jet fuel all over SW6 while holding a box of flaming matches. Spanish full-back Marc Cucurella made recently took the time out to carefully make his thoughts on his future clear.

No, not clear. Cloudy and opaque. That’s it.

The Spaniard was asked about life at Chelsea in an interview with The Athletic, telling reporters that it was “a breath of fresh air” to get away from Chelsea this week.

Chelsea’s heavy Champions League exit at the hands of PSG hit like a hammer blow to the temple and was a full-blown embarrassment for the entire club. A much more experienced, well-rounded French side swept the floor with their expensive opponents, scoring 5 in the first leg and 3 in the second.

Cucurella appeared to point the finger of blame on the defeat at the owners, telling the outlet that signing young players “only might complicate achieving those goals” that the team set out at the beginning of the campaign.

Barcelona “tough to turn down”

That wouldn’t have caused such a fuss had he not then gone on to say in the same interview that “we were more stable” under previous manager Enzo Maresca and “I would not have made this decision” to sack him when Chelsea did. Despite the fact that he did clarify that it was “because we worked together for 18 months”, the jungle drums were already booming.

That wouldn’t have caused such a fuss had he not then winked in the direction of Barcelona the following afternoon at Spain’s pre-game press conference, saying that a move to Barcelona “would be tough to turn down”.

“If it comes, we’ll see what decision is made,” he concluded. Just in case you didn’t get the gist of the message.

So, Chelsea are outside of the Champions League places, on 1 win in 5, playing with a squad of players who are either too young to succeed or too frustrated to continue, their manager is Mr. Meme on social media, and two of their most decorated figures have blown kisses across the English channel, through France, and down into Spain. Now can we say Chelsea are in crisis?

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