This is not a season review, because this season happened already!

The phenomenon of déjà vu is quite common to us nowadays, endlessly chronicled in movies and novels. As my comrade Alex Bogatiryov stated in his blog piece, one of the questions on all of our minds recently has to be, “Do we have luck?”

Well, it seems to me that if you compare the past season to the one ending right now, Chelsea are quite lucky indeed. We managed to have the same season twice! (Even if it was a slightly disappointing one, it’s still lucky by definition)

Think about it. The managerial job is in question yet again, we finished behind Manchester United in the league, and were cruelly robbed of a chance to extract revenge on United in the Champions League Final as well. Now it is true that we have the perfect opportunity to close the season on a high note by sending Guus Hiddink back to the Motherland with a FA Cup win, but that is beside the point.

The main problem is we are back at square one! And despite the fact that this season was more or less a disappointment, we should look at this summer with optimism. We have the chance, yet again, to appoint a coach for the future and begin to build a more youthful squad around our core. We must not take this for granted; we cannot afford another season that leaves the club in limbo. Even if we don’t win a damn thing next season, we must begin to look towards the future once again.

Of course we must applaud Guus Hiddink for saving our souls; if it wasn’t for him we could have been “enjoying” Europe League football next season along with no chance at the FA Cup or the CL this year. But the future is now, and this time next season Guus will be working on his Russia side for the 2010 WC, and not walking the sidelines at Stamford Bridge. So in closing, this summer will be pivotal and will arguably shape the next 5 years of Chelsea Football Club. We cannot have déjà vu, all over again.

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