The Blues were shocked in the 13th minute when Mislav Orcic pounced to finish off a ferocious counter-attack. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's ball then fell into the back of the net, but Ben Chilwell was caught offside by Mateo Kovacic's pass to set up the debutant. While they had plenty of possession throughout the game, Chelsea struggled to trouble the hosts and consequently had to wait for their first point of the term. Despite their possession, Chelsea were guilty of playing too many sloppy passes and needed to play the ball quickly as they were unable to penetrate Dinamo Zagreb's deep and solid defence. Unable to really test goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, they cut out too easily when Orsic raced in to open the scoring. Pushing the hosts deep, Chelsea were unable to really trouble them.
Thomas Tuchel, 5 - The Chelsea manager will be furious with his players after a poor performance, especially as Tuchel failed to make enough of an impact to salvage a point. After getting the yellow card, that disappointment came out.
In mid-July, an agent trying to block a transfer that didn't involve Chelsea had an unusual idea: "Let's call Todd Bohli." The player in question was in advanced talks to move to another Premier League club, but talks stalled for a while over his valuation. Chelsea had previously shown no interest despite many of Europe's big names closely monitoring the situation, but the Blues were linked with a number of players at the time, so the agent felt his role as new co-owner and chairman had been extended. As interim sporting director after taking over the club, it's worth a try. Bohli didn't even negotiate. After being informed of the asking price -- a substantial figure of £15m, which has been left vague here to preserve the player's anonymity -- Boehly instantly agreed in principle to the valuation and proposed personal terms. A series of internal meetings led by Bohli, coach Thomas Tuchel and co-owner Behdad Eghbali made the final assessment of the player. In the end, Tuchel wasn't so convinced and Chelsea didn't follow suit.
The player is now at a rival English club, but this example is a snapshot of Chelsea's latest transfer window, the first under Bohly and Clearlake Capital's ownership. It was a summer in which they played catch-up from the start, enduring a series of disappointments amid accusations of ineptitude, but ended with nine signings worth more than £250m. According to Deloitte's Sports Business Group, Chelsea spent more than any other Premier League club in a record summer for the division -- taking its total spend to £1.9 billion. The sums evoke memories of Roman Abramovich's first summer in 2003, when the club splashed out £121.5m on 14 players and expressed strong intentions. The methodology may be different, but in many ways, this year's goal was a similar one. Abramovich's ownership came to an abrupt end as sanctions imposed by the UK government as a result of his ties to Vladimir Putin led to the sale of Chelsea earlier this year. Despite these most despicable goals, there remains a sizeable section of the Blues' fan base willing to respect Abramovich's sporting contributions by separating them from his political influence. He built an unconditional and unrepentant winning machine: no English club won more than the 21 trophies he won during his nearly 19-year reign. A culture that rarely tolerated second place was rooted in Abramovich's money. Money was no longer an obstacle to sacking an underperforming manager or revamping a faltering player. There was no tomorrow.
So the takeover left Chelsea in the unknown, and the sense of uncertainty was compounded by the departures of lead transfer negotiator and director Marina Granovskaya, chairman Bruce Buck, chief executive Guy Lawrence and technical and performance adviser Peter Cech. Boehly chose to step into the void, becoming interim sporting director, partly out of necessity, but also reflecting a decision to change Tuchel's level of influence. The head coaches had some input into Chelsea's transfer strategy, but the final decisions on recruitment were above them. However, sources told the media that Boehly wanted to back Tuchel's judgment as one of the best coaches in the world in an attempt to make up lost ground; The club's summer plans have been delayed as UK government sanctions prevented Chelsea from talking to new signings and renegotiating contracts ahead of the sale. The decision to loan out Romelu Lukaku was seen as a pivotal moment in the club's reset. Lukaku has been a problem for months, seen as a flaw in Tuchel's system, ever since he gave an unauthorized interview to Sky Italia last December when he talked about a day returning to Inter Milan. Sources told the media that Cech was one of several key voices wanting to stay with Lukaku this season. However, Tuchel wanted Lukaku off the hook and Bohli decided to accept that opinion, accepting Inter's modest offer to loan him back to the Serie A club and pay even a percentage of his £300,000-a-week wages. A situation that could have dragged on all summer. In fact, that support for Tuchel was effectively booked in this window, initially disposing of one striker and eventually acquiring another, and Chelsea eventually signed 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on deadline day, a deal that was modest. Financial sense -- £12m-plus defender Marcos Alonso is returning to the Camp Nou -- but the mid-2010s reunited the manager with a player he held in the highest regard after two years at Borussia Dortmund. What happened between the Lukaku and Aubameyang deals was a mess. That's due to a number of factors: a bit of naivety in negotiations, opportunism from payday-looking agents, and a multi-pronged approach that isn't communicated clearly enough. Multiple agents involved in speaking with Bohli and Egbali this summer described them as friendly, polite and professional during negotiations. Both displayed a healthy knowledge of the game and sought to ingratiate themselves with key figures in the relatively small world of high-level players. But Granovskaya was known as a tough negotiator who would only move to the goal when she was confident the player was ready to join.
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