Chelsea back to square one after season of failure

The ESPN FC team debate the effect Diego Costa's latest controversy will have on his future at Stamford Bridge.

"Chelsea's season will be over before Easter" wasn't a prediction anyone tabled in the build-up to what will long be remembered as one of the most tumultuous campaigns in the London club's history -- but Romelu Lukaku's brace for Everton, which knocked his former employers out of the FA Cup at the weekend, made it a reality.

The likelihood of the Blues falling precipitously from champions to trophy-less also-rans eluded even the canniest bookmakers who provide odds on possible outcomes as broad as the human imagination.
The once hallucinogenic concept of Leicester City winning the Premier League, rated as high as 5,000-1 with some bookies last summer, stands to net a few optimistic punters a small fortune if the table-topping Foxes oblige. To put Leicester's odds to win the title in greater perspective, those who fancy a flutter on the unexpected would only get 1000-1 on Elvis Presley, who passed away in 1977, still being alive.
Is Chelsea's spectacular failure a greater surprise than Leicester's phenomenal rise? The fact that no odds were available to back such an outcome suggests the answer is "yes" and the question now is the following: Will the Blues rebound immediately, or should their supporters prepare for a period of comparative mediocrity?
Silverware has become synonymous with Chelsea since Roman Abramovich's takeover in 2003. Fifteen major trophies, including four Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League, have been won. A glittering haul secured largely thanks to Abramovich's stellar investment in players, and his intolerance of perceived failure by a procession of managers when it comes to getting the best out of them.
The Russian's "loan" to Chelsea has long since topped the £1 billion mark, and is set to go much higher should the proposed redevelopment of Stamford Bridge materialise. Less than a year ago, shortly after Blues supporters had applauded Jose Mourinho, John Terry and co. as they celebrated a season of success, Chelsea shared publicly plans for tearing down and rebuilding their stadium. Now, with Mourinho gone, Terry possibly leaving and key members of the squad also rumoured to be leaving -- it is rebuilding the team, and not the Bridge which is suddenly back in focus.
The scale and attendant cost of the task facing Chelsea should not be underestimated. While the Blues have been phenomenally successful under Abramovich's ownership, the seeds of this fruitfulness were sown a decade before his arrival when former owner Ken Bates had the foresight to appoint Glenn Hoddle as Chelsea player-manager in June 1993.

A year after decisively winning the Premier League, Chelsea will struggle to qualify for the Europa League.

A gifted and respected player with a continental touch, Hoddle was able to persuade former Ballon d'Or winner Ruud Gullit to join his football revolution at the Bridge and when Hoddle accepted the England manager's job in May 1996, Gullit took over as Blues boss and was the catalyst for a legion of foreign recruits spearheaded by the Italian trio of Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola.
First with Gullit as manager, then Vialli, Chelsea started to win trophies. At the time coming through the youth ranks, learning his trade as a central defender from World Cup winner Marcel Desailly was Terry, who would be given his chance in the first team when Claudio Ranieri was brought in to replace Vialli. It was Ranieri who also signed Frank Lampard, thereby creating the nucleus of the team that would carry all before them.
The culture of success nurtured and propagated at Stamford Bridge over the past two decades has evaporated. Long gone are the legends of old: Gullit, Vialli, Di Matteo, Desailly and Lampard. There are plenty more names that could be added to the list. Petr Cech, Claude Makelele, Ashley Cole and Didier Drogba. The cataclysmic problem Chelsea face is that when Terry also leaves, he may as well close the dressing room door behind him.
There are no young pretenders to his "captain, leader, legend" throne. There are no genuine football icons and, Willian aside, very few players who actually look like they enjoy pulling a Chelsea shirt on. Worst still, there is no manager to believe in. Mourinho's genius may be flawed, but his messiah-like qualities and serial-winner's mentality get results.
The reality facing Abramovich is that Chelsea are back to square one, a square not too dissimilar to the one they occupied in the listless days prior to Bates appointing Hoddle. To move forward again will take a time and money. How long it will take and how much it will cost is anyone's guess.
The bookmakers of course will have their view: 5,000-1 may seem like ridiculous odds for the Blues to win the title next year, but right now it seems like a realistic price.