All is not well on the Chelsea front, that much is abundantly clear.

Four defeats on the bounce, three of them by three goals. No goals scored for 300 minutes. More goals conceded than we care to count. A season that’s gone from promising, to concerning, to outright infuriating (or depressing, depending on your approach). Owners, coaches, players, all seemingly out of their depths. Protests mounting outside the gates, discontent growing inside. Bad results, worse vibes, and little prospect of things turning around.

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I used to hate international breaks. I welcomed this one with open arms, letting me forget about Chelsea completely for a few days.

But our players keep talking to the media, and they keep dragging me back in, and back down.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to get mad at them.

Here’s Marc Cucurella, spitting some hard truths.

“Results like [PSG] are always hard to take. You are fighting and training every day only to realise, at the very end, that when games matter, we are still a bit away from the top level.

“I understand this is part of the club’s policy, and that they want to take this direction — signing young players and looking to the future. But, for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged.

“We have a good core of players. The foundations are there. But to fight for major trophies such as the Premier League or the Champions League, you need more. Signing young players only might complicate achieving those goals. Against PSG, we lacked players that had gone through situations like that.

“You need time as well, and I know the young players are the ones that will have the experience in the future. But you need to find the balance between both worlds.”

This interview with The Athletic was conducted late last week, before Cucurella’s admission yesterday that if Barcelona came calling from the motherland, he would have to think long and hard about it (i.e. would jump at the opportunity without a second thought). At age 28, in the prime of his career, he ain’t got the time to wait around for the rest of the team to grow into their potentials as well.

“[Rosenior] is a very good person and has been great at handling the group, the characters. He likes to stay close to us and his football ideas are good, but we don’t have the time to train them. We train on competitive games, because we play every three days and that leaves you with no time to work on the training ground. In this context, it is normal that your plans sometimes don’t work out, and then we go through difficult moments.

“With Enzo Maresca in charge, we were more stable, because we worked together for 18 months. If you look at our first pre-season with him, there were doubts. You need a process for every player to understand what we need to do. In our last months with Maresca, we played almost by heart. If we changed the system, we knew what we had to do. You need that time. Look at Arsenal now, who are fighting for every trophy. They’ve been with Arteta for almost seven years and they have not won much. But that trust in the project gives rewards.”

“We knew what Maresca wanted from us. Winning a title like the Club World Cup also helps, strengthens the bond, and you create great relationships during the celebrations. When a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles, you’d die for him.

“The moment Maresca left, it had a big impact on us. These are decisions taken by the club. If you asked me, I would not have made this decision. To make a change like that, the best thing is to wait until the end of the season. You would give everyone, the players and the new manager, time to get ready, have a full pre-season…

“The instability around the club comes from this, in a nutshell. We had a caretaker (former under-21s coach Calum McFarlane) first, then a new manager, with new ideas and no time to work on them. It is what it is.”

-Marc Cucurella; source: The Athletic

It is what it is. That we’re pining for Maresca is amusing, but there is no doubt that the players all liked him and respected him (in the end).

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And Cucurella’s isn’t saying anything controversial here, or novel for that matter. These issues have been articulated by many others in the stands, in the streets, in various media, and of course online. Not that anyone in charge is listening.

Of course, these things happen all the time in football. Players grow disillusioned at one club and go somewhere else. This also isn’t new. But Cucurella’s unlikely to be alone with these concerns. It’s not just him, or Enzo, or Malo Gusto. They’re just the ones who have talked about it openly.

The direction in which this club’s going has set off alarm bells throughout the fanbase. But the alarms are now ringing in the dressing room as well, and those flames could burn the whole place down.