Chelsea is surrounded by intrigue at the moment, at just about every level. It will certainly be intriguing to see what team Frank Lampard picks against Brentford tomorrow night considering all that is going on around him.

There must be a temptation to stick as close as possible to the side that started against Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge last week. Even though we are now out of all the knockout competitions, and it has been a season well below par in terms of the club’s recent history, there was something about the first 58 minutes of the performance that warmed the heart, even though we eventually lost 2-0.

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After thinking about it for some days, I reckon it was just the feeling that for nearly an hour, we were at the very least a match for Real Madrid, still one of the great sides in Europe and the current holders of the Champions League trophy. After such a difficult season it says to anyone out there Chelsea can be competitive again with a bit of tweaking, while ensuring we get the right players on the pitch at the right time with the right attitude.

We will not be having those Champions League nights next season but the road back there starts right away, yes even against Brentford tomorrow night, and it must be the same work rate as there was against Real.

Crucial not meaningless close to the season

Having had some experience running a football club, okay at a smaller level with Motherwell in Scotland’s top flight, I grew to understand and to recognise the transitional moments and their long-term importance. Decisions made in the next weeks and months will largely determine much of what will happen in the next few years at Chelsea. These are crucial weeks not meaningless ones at the end of the season.

While I was a chief executive there was more than one occasion when I had to find and appoint a new manager at the club. It was slightly complicated by me uniquely still being in the first team squad and playing, as well as being the chief executive for the first couple seasons. It is a long story and I have written a book which is out in June about the entire adventure. The book’s title tells a story in itself. It is called ‘Football and How to Survive it’.

Now this may seem a little dramatic but when you are in the middle of a maelstrom at a football club, like changing a manager or any number of other storms that can blow up out of nowhere, it sometimes can feel as if you might not survive the pressure and the tension. Well not survive it with your sanity intact anyway.

This is when you need to be at your most calm, to make the correct decisions with a clear head, but it is also when you are under the most pressure and you feel the world is screaming at you from every angle at the top of its voice. Being able to filter this noise, without ignoring it, is crucial. What is also crucial is not to be rushed or bounced into decisions you are unsure about. Us fans want everything done today but as the old proverb goes, ‘act in haste, repent at your leisure.’ These are momentous times.

Like everyone else I hope the managerial situation is sorted sooner rather than later, but the imperative is to make the right choice at the right time. I recall getting lucky when replacing the manager in the third season at Motherwell. I put a duo in place in the interim to give me breathing space and time to check out every candidate thoroughly. It was a huge help that they oversaw a couple of wins which calmed the stormy waters for a while. It gave me the opportunity to meet the top-four candidates face to face with time to understand them.

Back then it was hard but not impossible to do this without the media and then the nation finding out who I was considering. There is no chance of that happening now. Whether it is the agents, good hard-nosed journalists, or anybody in the vicinity of the meeting with a camera phone, keeping it quiet is now bordering on impossible if you want to check out a few people before deciding. In time however it will all be forgotten if the next manager is a success.

Every player has to prove

For all that you must make sure you don’t rush these decisions, clearly too much delay is just as dangerous. Whoever is next will want to get to know and see the players. That may still be from afar, from match footage, but preparation is everything for most coaches.

I well remember when Thomas Tuchel had taken over in his first season, by the summer he still hadn’t been able to work out the capabilities of every single player under his control, especially when a whole bunch more came back from their loan spells. It was tough and some players suffered – for example Conor Gallagher.

You can’t get every call right, especially when the decision making is so condensed, so the more time the next manager has the better, particularly before next season’s campaign starts. He has to know who can do a job for him and who he has to try to move on.

The players in the meantime, like any other employee in any other business, just want certainty and knowledge about what is happening next for themselves and of course the business/team. That is just human nature and when they have some certainty, the ones with the best attitudes, outlooks and talents will grow again.

This all starts with tomorrow night against Brentford. Every player still has to prove, in every game and every training session, that he wants to be with the club and he wants to be part of the next phase of our history.

We think we know what it is like to try to run a football club but it is close to impossible to fully understand the complexities unless you have been there, done it, seen it – or you could of course read my upcoming book obviously.

Here is the inside track. I did ‘survive‘ football and so will Chelsea. In time we will thrive again but how good the next few months’ worth of decisions are will decide exactly when that happens.