It is hard to believe that a team that are stacked with Springbok internationals are performing so badly in the United Rugby Championship (URC). It is halfway through the season and they find themselves rock bottom on the log with a 1 win and 9 points.
Their last result can speak volumes on their current form. They were facing the Lions in Durban. They were leading 18-3 for most of the match. However, it was a late surge that cost them the match 18-20. The facial expressions of the Sharks' players could tell the whole story. They were distraught and heartbroken.
There were World Cup winning players such Makazole Mapimpi, Eben Etzebeth and Lukhanya Am in their squad. If anything, the phrase, "all that glitters is not gold" best describes the situation. Just because you have star power doesn't mean that you can conquer the world. There's more to it in sports than meets the eye. The Lions are a prime example. They have been together for a few years and no Springboks in the squad. Winning teams all have two things in common: cohesiveness and chemistry.
You can't expect teams to succeed if they are only 'super' teams: only containing superstars. A prime example of this would be Chelsea Football Club. Ever since the new ownership has come in, their decline has slowly gotten steeper. To me, it all began with the sacking of Thomas Tuchel. It was a ridiculous decision. It's obvious (at least to me) that they were not aware of the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Just because the new ownership had a vision of what they wanted, it doesn't mean that they should implement it right from the offset. It should be done at a snail's pace. Sacking a manager after a few bad results is a naive move. At the end of the day, their "golden manager" Graham Potter didn't produce the ideal results.
A big part of this has been the money spent on transfers. To date, they have spent over 1 billion pounds. In so doing, they have crossed the 100 million pound barrier twice - Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo. The ultimate result is an overly bloated squad. It sends the picture to me that the majority of the signings have come from the owner's desire with no discussion with the manager whatsoever.
It seems to me that the owners see which players are hot and trending in the transfer market and will do anything it takes to secure the services of that particular player. Their activities has drastically changed Chelsea's fortunes. From a team challenging for the title and/or Champions League place to a mid table side. The best that they can do is challenging for the Carabao Cup and/or FA Cup. There's no identity.
This all comes down to the blog title. There is a perception that the more star studded a team is, the more likely that they will dominate the world. While that might be true in small instances, it is an overall bad and potentially dangerous idea. Their ego's might hinder their co-operation with others. Additionally, young and aspiring academy graduates who could easily fill a void and provide a solution to a potential issue might and will be ignored.