Everyone did not like him, but when Todd Boehly landed in London in the summer of 2022 to present himself as Chelsea’s new boss, he brought a little bit of American spontaneity and billionaire glamour. He was interesting, he talked about everything, he didn’t hesitate to share some advice in the ostentatious style characteristic of such rich people, so he said that European football could learn something from the Americans.Let’s say how to get around the rules on financial fair play, which Boehly’s associates already did at the Los Angeles Dodgers when they brought in Shohei Ohtani, the world baseball star. Boehly did not bring any current football stars to Stamford Bridge, but he hoped to capture many future ones.##EDITORS_CHOICE##He spent an incredible 611,000,000 euros in his first season in London, and this year, he spent another 467,800,000. He surpassed a billion a long time ago, and let’s be clear right away: he managed to do all that without the club incurring debts that will cause immediate problems such as those (more due to politics of course) left behind by Roman Abramovich.However, Abramovich has made Chelsea a great club at the world level, while Boehly, at least for now, does not look like a man who has any idea what he is doing. Mauricio Pochettino’s team, after two consecutive defeats in the Premier League – expectedly against Liverpool and somewhat surprisingly against Wolverhampton – is only 11th in the table, points closer to relegation than to the European stage. The Champions League doesn’t even seem like an option.”It’s disgraceful. Some of these players are bang average footballers on eight-year contracts” 🗯️Tim Sherwood is NOT a fan of Chelsea’s player recruitment 😳 pic.twitter.com/v2F3pp9z7d— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 6, 2024 Meanwhile, Boehly sacked Thomas Tuchel, the man who brought the club a second European crown, Graham Potter, while fans now call for Pochettino to be replaced with the fact that the club spent so much that now it would prefer to avoid new obligations, and Pochettino’s replacement would cost another 12,000,000 euros.All this money spent on reinforcements would be easily returned if the club had success on the field and played in the Champions League. But Boehly ran into football like a madman without a plan. And pretty much destroyed the Blues.For example, Tuchel only wanted to remain a coach, and when Abramovich’s colleagues Marina Granovskaia and Petr Čech left, the German had to deal with transfers. He didn’t like that especially since he didn’t ask for it himself. He wanted Matthijs de Ligt, Raphinha, Frenkie de Jong, Presnel Kimpembe… Proven names. He got Wesley Fofana for 80,400,000 euros, Marc Cucurella for 65,300,000, then Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Denis Zakaria whom he didn’t want…Truth be told, Tuchel himself was indecisive, so Boehly said that it was a “nightmare” to work with him on transfers. So he took it upon himself to do everything himself and that was the end of Chelsea’s ambitions. Because this American – although he speaks with great confidence – is a notorious ‘soccer’ ignoramus.”Liverpool lose against Arsenal and I heard NOTHING!” 😤Mauricio Pochettino SLAMS media criticism despite @ChelseaFC’s poor form 😬🔗 https://t.co/98sPLC4tBu pic.twitter.com/TebryXhPig— Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) February 6, 2024 And when there are no results in clubs like this, it’s only a matter of time when the debts will appear. Boehly stretched the investments in reinforcements to eight to nine years, so the club really has no problems for now, but Chelsea still took on obligations in the amount of over TWO BILLION EUROS. It wouldn’t be a problem if there were results and Boehly hit the jackpot with the reinforcements. As of course he didn’t do that – or at least he overpaid them – an uncertain future awaits the Blues.UEFA is constantly changing the rules, it will soon stop the possibility of extending the transfer price for eight to nine years (it will be limited to five), and from 2025, the clubs will be allowed to spend up to 70 percent of their income on player salaries, compensation and agents’ commissions. Chelsea are currently at 90 percent. Therefore, ‘the party is over’.##NAJAVA_MECA_7855904##Now, all that can be ironed out if Moises Caicedo, brought in for 116,000,000 euros, leaves for a higher sum. Or if Chelsea somehow pulls off the 121,000,000 invested in Enzo Fernandez or even the more modest 70,000,000 invested in Mykhailo Mudryk. The problem is that it is very difficult with results like this. Especially when everyone knows a storm is coming.And, it is even more difficult since the depreciation would also be very slow due to the aforementioned contract stretching. For example, if Chelsea were to sell Caicedo today for around 100,000,000 euros, the club’s savings would, due to the eight-season contract, the first of which is slowly expiring, amount to only 12,500,000 euros per year. If the Blues want to get out of the crisis immediately, they will have to sell the club’s ‘kids,’ Conor Gallagher or Reece James.🔵 Tottenham commercial chief officer Todd Kline will sign soon for Chelsea, it’s all done — as revealed yesterday.Kline, on gardening leave at #THFC and ready for new role at Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/t43RwjzgfT— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 6, 2024 Pochettino is asking for patience, and time seems to be the only thing the Blues don’t have. And as Potter was leaving he said…”I don’t think the problem is in me. We are in a difficult period. Too many young players need to get used to the demands of the Premier League”.And indeed, during Boehly’s term, as many as 28 players arrived, 50 of them left, among them Mendy, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Jorginho, Kante, Mount, Havertz, Werner, Kovacic… From the team that conquered the planet in 2021 – only Reece James, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell remain.To make matters worse, sometimes it looks like someone randomly chose from the list of potential signings. For example – Pochettino has one striker, who is not even a classic ‘no.9’ (Nicolas Jackson) at his disposal, and as many as four goalkeepers (Sanchez, Petrović, Bettinelli, Bergstrom).Thiago Silva’s contract in the Summer is not expected to be extended, very concrete chances that he leaves Chelsea. (@FabrizioRomano) #CFC pic.twitter.com/maV7FL3f2j— Pys (@CFCPys) February 6, 2024 When you add injuries and player dissatisfaction to all that…”The last 18 months looks like complete chaos. They ruin good footballers”, said Gary Neville recently, reminding that Chelsea are used to defeats and that they have lost 30 games out of 81 since Boehly arrived.The pressure ‘broke’ Caicedo and with an average age of 23 the youngest team in the Premier League, the few veterans like 39-year-old Thiago Silva have never been in this situation, Cole Palmer is doing great, but he is still getting used to the environment, but the Blues are struggling. They have conceded more goals than they have scored in the Premier League, they have lost more matches than they have won, and they do not even resemble the great team that Europe was afraid of during Abramovich’s tenure.In his 19 years at the club, only in the 2016/2017 season did the Blues not play in Europe. But they won the Premier League that season. Currently, relegation from the Premier League seems like a more realistic option than winning it.
