Is it time to start giving ‘disruptors’ Chelsea some credit?

To understand what’s going on at Stamford Bridge, you need to forget everything you instinctively know about football.

No club at the top level has ever attempted to rebuild in the way that Chelsea are since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s takeover of the club in May 2022.

Unprecedented 10-year contracts, nearly £900m spent on players aged 21 or younger and a bending of certain Premier League profit and sustainability rules (PSR) has allowed a total of £1.6bn to be paid in transfers fees across a three-year period.

Chelsea’s approach has confused and alienated some football fans – but qualifying for the Champions League, winning the Conference League and then claiming the Club World Cup has changed the conversation.

Enzo Maresca will also be the first manager to be entrusted with back-to-back campaigns in what will be the fourth season under this ownership, with a world champions badge to be emblazoned on Chelsea’s shirt for the next four years.

Internally, Chelsea see their latest victories as vindication of a ‘disruptor’ approach led by the owners, delivered by the sporting directors and made to work on the pitch by Maresca.

Cole Palmer is the poster boy for Chelsea, but other star players like Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella are now delivering on high price tags.

Pedro Neto scored three goals in three consecutive games at the Club World Cup for the first time in his senior career, while new signings Joao Pedro and Liam Delap have been bright in their first matches for the club.

Players like Benoit Badiashile, Christopher Nkunku and, to a lesser extent, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, show that not every transfer has been a roaring success.

However, Chelsea have been good at selling players – as highlighted by the sale of unsuccessful £45m signing Joao Felix to Al-Nassr for £43.7m this summer.

Noni Madueke generated £52m, Djordje Petrovic was sold for £25m and Ishe Samuels-Smith left for £6.5m this summer.

Sales like these balance record-breaking purchases worth £1.6bn by this ownership. About £600m, not including potential sell-on clause revenue, has been made and recent club accounts show an English record of £152m banked for player sales from the 2023-24 season.

There remains a high net spend of about £1bn in three years, but Chelsea’s owners say these stay on the balance sheet and represent an “investment”.

The much-criticised approach of offering up to 10-year deals to players has also given Chelsea increased bargaining power when selling players, renewing contracts or simply keeping their wage bill down in the longer term.

There is noise that Caicedo, arguably among the best midfielders in the world, is angling for improved terms on his contract signed in 2023 – but that still runs for a further six years and negotiations have yet to formally begin.

Chelsea’s fans are known for being particularly impatient, perhaps as a result of enjoying such success in the Roman Abramovich era despite constant hiring and firing of coaches.

Couple that with Maresca’s brusque tone when addressing fan criticism, as well as missing chances to engage with the match-going support last season, and he has faced calls to leave the club as recently as April.

However, a comeback win against Fulham was arguably the turning point which led to a triple success of earning Champions League football, winning the Conference League and then Club World Cup.

Maresca was never under pressure internally at Chelsea, who took a decision to judge him after his second season, but qualification for the Champions League is viewed as his most important success to date. Repeating that feat remains the main target for next season, along with demonstrating that he is generally making progress.

Is a 12th, sixth and fourth-place finish enough return on a £1bn net investment on players?

Chelsea have spent £2bn on players in six years, nearly double teams such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City, albeit balanced by the best player sales record over that time period. That £2bn figure was inflated by this new ownership and, according to Chelsea’s own accounts, their current squad cost £1.4bn, the highest such number ever in the Premier League.

Of course, the £87.5m in prize money won at the Club World Cup, plus the £80m-£100m on its way thanks to being in the Champions League, helps. But whether that is a good return divides opinion from within the game.

Chelsea are trying to achieve something that has never been done, effectively emulating Brighton’s successful player-trading model, while also winning big trophies.

They had the youngest average starting XI ever recorded in a Premier League season last year, at 24 years and 36 days old.

By contrast, the youngest team to win the Premier League was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2004-05 with an average age of 25 years, 250 days, while Liverpool’s title winners last season averaged 27 years and 233 days old.

Another criticism is of Chelsea’s “bomb squad”, featuring Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Renato Veiga, Lesley Ugochukwu, Axel Disasi and Armando Broja, all not involved in Maresca’s pre-season plans and have been training in a separate group at Cobham Training Centre.

Ugochukwu and Broga have now signed for Burnley for a reported £40m combined.

Then there are alleged associated party transactions after the sale of the women’s team (£200m) and two hotels (£76.6m) helped Chelsea avoid breaking the Premier League’s PSR spending rules. Meanwhile, Uefa’s stricter financial rules have also seen the club punished.

Chelsea have spent a record £75m on agents in 2023-24, too, with a league-high total of £178.6m across the past three seasons.

Winning the Club World Cup final on 13 June has not been without its problems.

Maresca was good to his word by giving his players three weeks off but it meant they returned to the Cobham training ground on 4 August – just 13 days before their opening Premier League game against Crystal Palace.

Their only pre-season friendlies were against Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan at Stamford Bridge – although club staff say they are confident of getting players fit in time, while those close to the squad appreciate a proper holiday being fitted in.

Chelsea handled the difficult weather, travel and long season exceedingly well in the United States at the Club World Cup, but dealing with an extremely short pre-season is another challenge to take on.

When asked by BBC Sport about the impact of the short pre-season, Maresca said: “I don’t have the answer, I am quite curious because this is the first time it happened. The focus was just to rest as they played 64 games and didn’t stop for one year in a row which never happened before. The focus was recovery and rest.

“It’s strange, it’s different, Palace started when we were in USA, we had three weeks off, started two days ago with two friendlies in 48 hours, we will see game-by-game, day-by-day about how we are.”