Frank Lampard is not the only member of Chelsea royalty to have been left unimpressed with the current state of the club. He, unlike others, has had inside experience into just what is going on under the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly ownership.
During the interim run between April and June 2023 he attempted to pick up the remnants of a disastrous first season since Roman Abramovich's forced sale. What Lampard saw, he did not like.
With no skin in the game beyond what turned out to be just 11 games in charge, the club's all-time top goalscorer made no bones about calling out the problems. He drew attention to the size of the playing squad, the motivation of those within it, the lack of leaders during a tough period, and was honest when essentially publicly criticising those who had overseen a messy transition by imprinting themselves so heavily on matters.
Speaking just over 12 months ago, at the start of what would be a revival for Mauricio Pochettino as manager, he reflected on those problems. "So when I left, and I said it quite a lot whilst I was there and people sort of threw it back at me a bit, I was like 'the standards have not been good here'," he told JOE.
"You have to have a level of standards to be a top club. Forget about tactics, [they are the] layer on top, but things below have to be right to perform and I didn't see it there."
It was nothing that he hadn't already said but instead reiterated a consistent message. At the time Chelsea were once more mid-table despite throwing out the squad Lampard oversaw, and his words are still prevalent now.
Lampard was speaking, in fact, at almost the exact moment that Chelsea's 2023/23 season would turn around. Pochettino lost only one of his final 14 Premier League matches including a five-game winning run to secure a sixth-place finish and a spot in European football, although that was relegated down to being in the Conference League.
Inheriting a young and new group which had been thrown together across the two 2023 windows, Pochettino eventually steadied the ship in a way Lampard was hopeful of seeing. "Now, in the summer players moved on, probably some rightfully so for them and for the club, and new players came in, so I think that probably would have freshened up the feel," he explained, analysing what had been a tough season up to that stage.
"Pre-season for the new manager, respect to Mauricio, because he's known as a good manager and rightly so, he deserves respect. But in my opinion it was going to be a challenge to keep moving forward like people expect and that has proven the case."
Pochettino's departure and subsequent replacement has, in some cases, seen the process restart. A new manager is now trying to instil a culture - which took Pochettino the best part of nine months to see the fruits of - and holes in the squad have been exposed.
Lampard could see the issues in player development coming. "You have to be very careful to point fingers at the manager himself or point fingers at young players that are trying to find form in a team that hasn't really got an experienced spine there that they can rely on and look up to," he said.
"The strategy has been to bring in young players. You've got young kids coming over at 21 from another country, trying to fit into a team now. I'm not saying 'in my day', but in my day, when you bring in those younger players, they sit themselves on the bench, or they train alongside and watch how competitive it is in training. Watching [Didier] Drogba and how he trains. John Terry and how he leads the club.
"And they [the young players] learn and then they get into the team, or they don't and they don't come through at Chelsea. To ask a lot of players to do that at the same time and develop is not an easy thing. I think we've got to be very careful.
"The strategy will, of course, be questioned and there probably will have been things that have been done that you can look at now that have been done and think, 'Could it have been different?' Yes. It's getting it right now and changing it but it's going to be a process."
Although Chelsea have shown signs since Lampard's interview of moving forward and overcoming the issues, a current run of just two league wins in nine under Enzo Maresca has seen a nasty head rear itself once more. Those in charge are being questioned over the composition of players, methods of appointing coaches, and also the wider plan in place.
On a micro level, there is still nobody setting 'the standards' at Cobham, at least not in a way which is being seen on the field. Levi Colwill is 21 and a starting centre-back with no obvious leader around him.
Tosin Adarabioyo is nicknamed 'Uncle' by some in the squad and he is only 27. His impact has been felt but he is also less than 10 months into his time at Stamford Bridge. Reece James is still emerging as a voice in the changing room despite being club captain.
When Chelsea's players fall short on the field or things go wrong, there is no evident fulcrum to rally around. Cole Palmer has been the magician at the centre of it more often than not since arriving but he is 22, only in his second full senior season, and has lost his patience in recent weeks.
There is no Thiago Silva-like figure to bring players together at Chelsea and Maresca himself is still a novice at this level of management. He cannot rely on a core to tighten up and there is little promise of being granted with the tools for that to form.
The premise is that this young team, the youngest in the league by a distance and second only to fellow BlueCo-owned outfit RC Strasbourg across Europe, will grow together. That is a nice theory but is not as simple in practice.
Without experienced heads to turn to in the changing room there is nobody to keep Chelsea's talented stars in line. It is something Lampard envisioned before Maresca even arrived and it is currently being proven right.
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