There are two ways to evaluate the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea. The initial and most obvious is that the Russian has brought unprecedented success to the club, which has won every trophy available to them at least once during his tutelage.

The other, though, is that his 15 year-ownership has been littered with missed opportunities; despite all the money spent and countless top-class players acquired, only for two of those years, when Chelsea won back-to-back Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho, have the Blues been the unequivocal dominant force in English football for more than twelve months.

No empire, Roman or otherwise, can claim to be the world’s greatest when every other year it essentially takes a sabbatical from its own responsibilities and standards, and despite having the resources to do so, it has never created a dynasty in the same way as Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson or Liverpool in the 1980s.

Of course, the top end of English football is much more competitive these days, partly because Abramovich has transformed Chelsea into a title-chasing force, but the Blues curiously seem completely unaware of how competitive it is just when they most need to be; rather than further strengthening after every major trophy in the same way the Red Devils once did so relentlessly, trophies tend to signal a sudden winding down at Stamford Bridge.

The players brought in are of a lesser quality, the ones already there fail to maintain their own standards and suddenly feeling at odds with their employers, the managers appear alienated and under pressure. It’s almost as if the Chelsea board believe trophies are a justification not to further invest in a squad that has proved to be effective. But as we all know, standing still in football is nearly always the same thing as letting yourself fall behind.

This time around, Antonio Conte will be the fall guy for another failed title defence. Manchester City’s almost immaculate form this season would have made it difficult for Chelsea to compete regardless, but 2018 has not been kind to the Italian, winning two and losing three of his ten games thus far.

That includes elimination from the League Cup at the hands of Arsenal and consecutive defeats by a three-goal margin to Bournemouth and Watford. Over the last month then, Chelsea have gone from contesting United for second place to clinging onto a spot in the top four, while essentially halving their chances of silverware this season.

But in truth, Conte hasn’t been given the right tools for the job and like many Chelsea managers, he’s quickly become a victim of his own early success. It’s been easily forgotten that Conte inherited a club in crisis from Mourinho, and that Chelsea essentially won last season’s title with a 13-game winning run which was inspired by a switch to a formation that the rest of the Premier League just couldn’t work out how to beat.

It was a smart innovation from Conte, but one that only really paved over the cracks amongst a squad that had lost three leaders in two years - Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, John Terry and Didier Drogba - and excepting Eden Hazard lacked truly world-class attacking quality.

Rather than making signings to keep the key players of the title-winning season on their toes though, Chelsea’s approach last summer was essentially one-in-one-out - Diego Costa swapped for Alvaro Morata and Nemanja Matic for Tiemoue Bakayoko - while failing to address the obvious lack of depth in certain departments, chiefly left wing-back and up front.

Of course, this complaint of not backing managers who bring silverware is nothing new. It was an underlying factor behind Mourinho’s first departure in 2007 by mutual consent and tellingly, the £66million net spend last summer was the biggest Chelsea have ever committed to straight after winning the Premier League title.

In the current transfer market, that might only get you one top-quality centre-back like Aymeric Laporte or Virgil van Dijk - it’s simply not enough to bring an entire team to the higher level they need to reach to fend off the five clubs hoping to take the title from them.

No doubt, Chelsea’s managers have made mistakes too, including Conte who has struggled to rotate his squad effectively at times this season, naively allowed himself to be pulled into a slanging match with Mourinho and stubbornly stuck to tactical convictions in the face of underwhelming performances and results.

But the trend is too longstanding to be a mere coincidence; Mourinho, Conte and Carlo Ancelotti are amongst the greatest managers in the world, yet all endured painful title defences with Chelsea. Likewise, Conte’s expected dismissal will mean all three have been sacked by the end of their title defences as well.

Conte will inevitably shoulder the blame for how Chelsea’s season has seemed to spiral out of control in recent weeks, but the problems at the club stem far deeper. They’re systematic, cultural and psychological; the way the club recruits players, the mentality towards managers who bring success and the ease in which they’re disposed of is fundamentally wrong, and it has continually stood in the way of steady, long-term dominance.

Should history tell us anything, a young, exciting and talented manager will replace Conte, and he’ll bring the Premier League title back to Stamford Bridge. But the year after that, Chelsea will find themselves facing the same problems and fighting the same battles once again as another title defence goes awry. While Abramovich would argue that short-term model has provided incredible success and will continue to do so, it will also stop Chelsea becoming the true footballing empire they're capable of being.

[ad_pod ]