Well, rival fans may not agree, and fans of clubs like Liverpool and Manchester City would definitely have something to say about it, but here me out! When I say that Chelsea is the best run Club in England, I mean it!
If you look at clubs in a holistic manner, they include not only the Men's team but also the Academies, the Women's Team, and the general structure of the Club. When we look at Chelsea FC in a holistic manner, it is indisputable that Chelsea is the best run Club in England. Here is the supporting material....
Chelsea Men's Senior Team:
We all know everything that we need to know about the Senior Men's team, so we will not spend a lot of time discussing it. Suffice to say that over the last decade, i.e. 2009-2010 to 2019-2020, Chelsea Men's Senior team has won 3 Premier Leagues (2009-2010, 2014-15, 2016-17), 1 Champions League (2011-12), 2 Europa Leagues (2012-13, 2018-19), 3 FA Cups (2009-10, 2011-12, 2017-18) and 1 EFL Cup (2014-15). This makes them the second most successful club in England in the last decade, behind Manchester City.
Chelsea Women's Senior Team:
The Chelsea Women's Senior Team is currently one of the most successful teams in England. The Women's teams has, in the last 5 years, won three Premier League titles (2014-15, 2017-18, 2019-20) and two FA Cups (2014-15, 2017-18), more than any other side in England.
The Women's Team also has one of the best Managers in the Women's game in Emma Hayes, and truly world class players such as Fran Kirby, Ji So-Yun, Guro Reiten, Erin Cuthbert, Maren Mjelde and Beth England, who have all found a spot in The Guardian's list of the top 100 Women Footballers in the World. Chelsea has, in this transfer window, also broken the record for transfer fees in the Women's game by paying 300,000 Pounds to Wolfsburg for one of the best Women's players in the World, Pernille Harder.
This shows the commitment of the Club, not only towards the Men's game, but also the Women's Team.
Chelsea Academy:
It would not be an understatement to say that currently, the Chelsea Academy is the best in England, and one of the best in the Europe. Chelsea is currently producing truly top class talent, who are finding opportunities at Chelsea, and also in other Clubs around England and Europe. If one takes a look around the teams in England and Europe, you will find Chelsea Academy graduates in the first teams all over, when a majority of academy players coming out of most clubs do not even make it as professional footballers, let alone make it into the first team.
Even in other big Clubs in England, many Academy products may make it into the first team like the Rashfords, Greenwoods, Fodens and Sakas of the World, but most would never even find a Club to play professional Football at the senior level. However, most of the Chelsea Academy graduates are currently, if not making to the Chelsea first team, are finding opportunities at other Clubs at a professional level. Most Premier League teams currently have a player who graduated from the Chelsea Academy. The same would be the case even more so in the Championship.
The Chelsea Academy at Cobham today is like a world class university, which will ensure you get a good job at the top level, even if all of them may not make it to the Chelsea first team. Despite the opportunities to get into the Chelsea first team being limited until recently, top young talents like Ethan Ampadu, Billy Gilmour and more recently Xavier Mbuyamba still choose to join the Chelsea Academy, despite being coveted by top clubs all around the UK and Europe, which is proof of the quality of Cobham.
The Chelsea Academy has also been one of the most, if not the most, successful academies in England in recent times and one of the most formidable in Europe. That is clear from the honours that they have won in recent times.
Reserves Team:
2 Premier League-2 (2013-14, 2019-20),
1 Premier Reserve League- National Champion (2010-11),
1 Premier Reserve League- Southern Champion (2010-11).
Academy Team:
2 UEFA Youth Leagues (2014-15, 2015-16),
2 U-18 Premier Leagues (2016-17, 2017-18),
4 U 18 Premier Leagues (Southern) (2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18),
7 FA Youth Cups (2009-10, 2011-12, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18) and
1 U-18 Premier League Cup (2017-18).
Also, over the past few years, players from the Chelsea Academy like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Fikayo Tomoro and Billy Gilmour have established themselves in the Chelsea first team.
While there are other talented youngsters impressing out on loan or knocking on the first team doors like Ethan Ampadu, Conor Gallagher, Marc Guehi, Trevor Chalobah, Armand Broja, Jake Clarke-Salter, Juan Castillo, etc.
Also, some of the notable names coming out of the Chelsea Academy plying their trade with other Premier League and around Europe are Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Patrick Van Aanholt (Crystal Palace), Nathan Ake (Manchester City), Declan Rice (West Ham), Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal), Patrick Bamford (Leeds United), Nathaniel Chalobah (Watford), Tariq Lamptey (Brighton), Rhian Brewster (Liverpool), Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth), Chris Mepham (Bournemouth), Jeremie Boga (Sassuolo), Bertrand Traore (Lyon), Daishawn Redan (Hertha Berlin), Jonathan Panzo (Monaco), Ola Aina (Torino) and Clinton Mola (Stuttgart) to name a few.
This shows the immense commitment of the entire hierarchy to create a truly professional and well run Club. The same has also been evident in the manner Chelsea FC has conducted itself during the Covid-19 pandemic with its philanthropic work for the NHS workers, paying full wages to playing and non-playing staff, opening up the Chelsea hotel for NHS staff, etc.
A lot of this success comes down the structure of the Club, the well defined roles of persons within that structure and the personnel in charge of it.
The Owner: Roman Abramovich
Roman Abramovich took the Premier League by storm in the early 2000s by pumping his millions into Chelsea to make it a formidable and world class team. Even though the headlines regarding the takeover by Roman were captured by the millions he pumped in towards acquiring world class players, his greatest contribution has been the the structures and the personnel he put into place at Chelsea and his commitment towards the club as a whole. In the later tenure of his ownership, he has tried to make Chelsea self sustaining, but has always been there to back it wherever there has been a need. It would not be an understatement to say that Roman is one of the most dedicated owners in world football.
The Boss: Marina Granovskaia
Marina is Roman's eyes, hands and mind when it comes to Chelsea. Known as one of the best negotiators in World Football without being off-putting (like a certain Daniel Levy or De Laurentis), she is incharge of everything related to transfers at Chelsea FC.
From getting 100 million plus for Eden Hazard who had one year left on his contract to fleecing Athletico Madrid into buying Alvaro Morata for 52 million, she is known to be a maverick at optimizing revenue on the Football side. Marina also finalized the deal for Kai Havertz for an initial 62 Million pounds, with 9 Million pounds in add-ons when Bayer Leverkusen were demanding 100 Million euros. From turning a buy-back clause for Jeremie Boga into a sell on clause, to bringing down the asking price for Ben Chilwell from 80 Million pounds to 45 Million pounds, Marina shows time and again why she is most powerful woman in world football.
The Technicals: Michael Emenalo & Petr Cech
Emenalo was one of the best Technical Directors in Europe during his time at Chelsea. After the spine of world class players in the Chelsea first team such as Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, Michael Balack, Ashley Cole, etc. neared the end of their footballing careers, Emenalo was the person who began the rebuild by bringing in coveted young talents like Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Willian, Mo Salah, Lukaku, Zouma, etc. Its a pity that Mourinho happened and still had the weight to overpower Emenalo into selling Mata, KDB, Salah and Lukaku. In the fitness of things, it was Emenalo who was instrumental in Jose leaving Chelsea the second time around. However, today would have been the time when Emenalo's Chelsea would have been at the peak of their powers and dominating world football with players like KDB, Salah, Lukaku, Hazard and Mata setting the Premier League alight in the same team.
When Emenalo left Chelsea in November 2017, Chelsea did not replace him, probably waiting for Petr Cech to replace him as and when he hung up his gloves. The result was the disastrous transfer windows of 2017-18 when Chelsea spent 185 Million Pounds to bring in Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, Davide Zappacosta and Willy Cabellero. That was also the transfer window following the Chelsea's title win under Antonio Conte.
The next transfer window was a little bit better, with Sarri having a bigger say in the transfers and Jorginho and Kovacic (loan) coming in. Pulisic was bought in the winter transfer window for safety and loaned back to Dortmund as it was almost certain that Hazard would leave in the coming summer. But paying 72 Million pounds for Kepa, and giving him a 7 year contract on high wages, showed that Chelsea needed another Emenalo like figure to work with Marina and act as a bridge with the Manager.
Enter Petr Cech. Petr Cech played for Arsenal in the Europa League Final at the end of the 2018-19 season and immediately joined Chelsea in a new role as the Technical Advisor, reporting to Marina, but acting as the bridge between the Board, the Manager and the scouts. But he also entered at a time when Chelsea had a transfer ban, and could only do the business of making the signing of Kovacic permanent. Even though the ban was lifted in January 2020, no business was again done with no primary targets being available. But, no panic buying also showed that Petr Cech knew what he was doing.
He was instrumental in striking a deal with Ajax for Hakim Ziyech to join Chelsea for the 2020-21 season while the 2019-20 season was ongoing marking the start of what would turn out to be a revolutionary transfer window. Soon followed a swoop for Timo Werner from RB Leipzig, and signings of Ben Chilwell for 30 million less than the quoted fees (equal if not more credit to Marina), Thiago Silva, Malang Sarr and Xavier Mbuyamba for free and a generational young talent like Kai Havertz. The signing of Edouard Mendy from Rennes for around 20 Million pounds looks close, with Cech being instrumental again.
All interviews with the news signings demonstrated the pivotal role played by Petr Cech and Frank Lampard in them choosing Chelsea, including personal visits to the signings' respective countries by Cech.
Cech has been the best signing Chelsea has made in recent times!
The Youth Boss: Neil Bath
Whenever one mentions Neil Bath, all you hear are superlatives, including from rival clubs and from the England and FA officials. The turnaround in the destinies of the Chelsea Academy is attributable to this one man. He joined the club as a part-time school boy coach in 1992, but worked his way up to becoming the Academy Director in 2004.
His tenure as the Academy Director has coincided with the Chelsea Academy becoming truly world class, with the first batch of truly top level academy players, who would have joined Chelsea between the ages of 6-8 when Bath took over in 2004, reaching the u-18 level around the same time when Chelsea began dominating European football at the Youth Level.
Neil Bath was also awarded the Eamonn Dolan Award for his contributions Academy Development by the Premier League. Chelsea Academy has also been one of the most significant contributors to the England National side which has dominated world and european football in recent times at the youth level.
But there are no greater testimonies to Neil Bath's work at the Chelsea Academy than the glowing reviews by Academy Staff and the Players, whether they be in the First team, plying their trade elsewhere, or even those currently involved in endless loan cycles.
These are only some of the significant persons who make Chelsea the Club it is today.
And now with our greatest ever player, Frank Lampard, at the helm and backed to the hilt with world class talent and also a squad filled with homegrown top quality academy graduates, in the years to come, in a season or two, Chelsea should be ready to dominate European football yet again.
A lot of it would come down to the manner in which the club is run.
