Pat Nevin played almost 200 games for Chelsea, and we sat down to have a chat with the Scotsman, who shared his thoughts on the current situation at Chelsea and their problems between Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
It is a well known fact that Chelsea are experiencing a tough time at the moment, however they hired Enzo Maresca before the season to get a fresh start on the pitch. We asked Pat Nevin about how the ownership issues will affect the players on the pitch, whilst he also shared his thoughts on how Maresca should handle the situation.
The issues will not affect the players – yet
Pat Nevin makes it clear that the players should be able to perform on a short term basis despite all the issues currently going on behind the scenes at Chelsea. Speaking to MBS, Nevin said: “It will not affect the team at all, short term. No effect at all. Players are selfish because they have to be. You’ve got so many things going on in your mind, be it what the media says, what former players say, manager, the fans. You have to blank it all. You don’t want another noise other than the matches.”
“In the short term, you can do that. In the longer term, that becomes more difficult. And certainly if you haven’t got clear leadership and understanding between upper management, middle-management and the workers, eventually problems will arise.”
“Short term no. There’s enough players there. The manager’s new to the scene, he’s trying to find out what level of power and control he has. When that settles down, because he won’t know until the power battle upstairs finishes. He won’t know exactly where he stands and how much power or control he has.”
Pat Nevin went on to say that he believes that Chelsea have to fix the issues as soon as possible, as it can affect the performance of the team in the long term.
“As someone who’s been in that position, I’ve been a Chief Executive and I’ve been a player and done all sorts of that stuff. In the short term, it’s okay but you can’t let that keep on going because uncertainty will grow and players can make excuses if things go wrong. They may say ‘well, there’s trouble at the club, that is why we are disjointed’. Don’t give players excuses, it doesn’t help.”
“At the moment don’t worry about it but you might as well get it sorted as soon as you possibly can.”
Enzo Maresca should feel comfortable
Pat Nevin believes that Enzo Maresca isn’t stressing too much about the current situation, as he has just arrived and should feel comfortable.
“For Enzo (Maresca), I think he’s thinking to himself, ‘I know where I am, I’m comfortable, I’ve got good players.’ They keep on bringing in good players, they keep on spending the money so that’s good for the manager and the coach.”
“They kind of have to make sure that keeps on going and the delicacy is if the club’s being run and it’s not in focus, you can make mistakes. Look at Everton when it had dual ownership in two different directions – it can create cracks and that’s not a good thing in any business.”
The former Chelsea star also believes that Chelsea are very creative in their way of handling their economical situation, which actually can help Maresca, however he sees a potential worry for Chelsea in the future.
“The analogy I would use and I think I quite like this one – Chelsea are running rings around FFP/PSR and the FAPL. They’re a bit like Eden Hazard taking on a big lumbering centre-half, they’re running rings around it. As long as they keep doing that and they keep on getting the money and keep on growing and getting players, it’s fine. The problem is that big centre-half, he only needs to catch Eden Hazard once. So they only need to be caught once with the PSR and it could be a big trouble.”
“So far at the moment, their creative accountancy is proving to be as important as their creative players. That has to keep on going to help the coach deliver.”
