After all the jeers about buying success Chelsea are proving that failure can also come with an intimidating price tag. Jose Mourinho has usually done his best not to dwell on that. A St Stephen's Day dirge about lacking Arjen Robben and Joe Cole, for instance, passed without an admission that, in Shaun Wright-Phillips, there was still a £21 million winger on the payroll. Similarly the manager could lament a paucity of centre-halves without conceding that he had one in Khalid Boulahrouz, who did not merit so much as a seat on the bench for the Reading game even if he had cost £7m.
A high-profile normally accompanies a steep valuation but those who disappoint Mourinho become the disappeared of Stamford Bridge. The names only crop up if he wants to lambast them but the public has not forgotten these people. There are too many for them to slip the mind entirely. Chelsea's frequent misadventures in the transfer market are a greater menace to grandiose ambition than any sequestrated disc in John Terry's back.
It is often like this and moralists can rejoice that wealth is a regular shortcut to anguish. Internazionale, now doing exceedingly well in Serie A, have spent many seasons as a cautionary tale about the way in which discernment dwindles as cash accumulates. With the transfer window open, Chelsea need to take a deep breath before they turn into London's version. When Mourinho warns that the club will not be held to ransom, you cannot help but wonder whether his bosses have decided to ask more questions instead of bankrolling him without reservation.
His investments have been patchy and his prowess has lain in the motivation and organisation of the Chelsea line-up. It is also true that identifying players is a perilous pursuit. There is, for instance, a myth being propagated that Alex Ferguson has methodically been hand-crafting a great new Manchester United.
Were Diego Forlan, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson and David Bellion, not to mention Juan Sebastian Veron, all part of a meticulous scheme? The cosmopolitan market place makes a bungler of everyone when even a virtuoso like Veron can fail entirely to adjust to the English scene. Everyone at United, however, is now excused from dwelling on that when Chelsea are putting on the most garish exhibition of the perils of purchasing.
The only relief for them is that it is so hard to name the guilty parties. Should Roman Abramovich take the rap for Andriy Shevchenko, considering he was speaking to him long before Mourinho hit London? Frank Arnesen focuses on identifying young talent, but has he proposed some of the senior acquisitions as well? To what extent does the chief executive, Peter Kenyon, involve himself? Do the power brokers take the suggestions of passing super agents too seriously? Analyse the machinations as you will, it is Mourinho who gets the blame. Didier Drogba is now so burdened that he must feel as if he is the sole hope of a little club. At a joint outlay of around £30 million, Salomon Kalou and Wright-Phillips were mere bystanders at Villa Park.
Whoever is accountable, Chelsea's scouting is erratic, veering from the brilliant acquisition of Petr Cech, before Mourinho's time, to a variety of follies. The situation has been rescued on occasion, as when Mateja Kezman was off-loaded for a small profit, but the club is no byword for smart deals. The bill for Mikel John Obi ran to £16m, but he has made headlines purely by apologising for unprofessional conduct. At least he has years in which to mature. The conduct of someone like Michael Ballack is not under scrutiny but he may be too set in his ways to complete a transition to the English scene.
Mourinho spoke of the smallish, multi-functional squad he had engineered, never realising that he would have even fewer resources as several individuals lost his trust. Chelsea can still send out a very able side and the four points they wrested from Barcelona highlight just how capable they can be. Injuries, though, have exposed limitations when they must square up to the grind of the Premiership.
In practical terms, the club is really seven points behind United, whose defence and attack have developed an advantage of 14 in goal difference that will probably not be overhauled. Ferguson's side must waver here and there, but in the reshuffling of the Chelsea squad intrepidness has been mislaid and Mourinho will have to relocate it if there is to be any prospect of tracking down his rivals.
Guardian Service
