There has been a massive claim made about one of the Chelsea owners after some news came out latest week regarding a change of structure at the very top of the club.
As revealed by the Daily Mail, Chelsea have an “extraordinary” agreement in place that allows the club to exchange chairmanship every five years.
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Current chairman Todd Boehly is expected to step down in 2027, allowing majority shareholders Clearlake Capital to assign a new club chief for the following five years.
And according to finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about Chelsea’s ownership structure and decision to change chairman, Boehly has “failed to deliver success” as Chelsea chairman so Blues fans will be eager to see him step down in 2027.
He says that Boehly has caused a breakdown in relationship with fans, and I don’t think there will be too many Blues fans who would disagree, even though it’s perhaps harsh to pin all the blame on Boehly here, because there are other owners and directors at the club.
“The written agreement that Clearlake Capital have in terms of their investment with Chelsea is that Todd Boehly will step down as chairman,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“He is taking much more of a backseat role.
“I think it’s fair to say that the first 12 to 18 months of his position as chairman has been mediocre at best.
“He has failed to deliver success on the pitch, has spent money in a haphazard manner and has caused a breakdown in relationship with fans.
“I would imagine for fans, 2027 can’t come soon enough.“
Not sure anyone in Britain has made the least effort to be fair to Todd Boehly and give him his due. From day one there’s always been a not-so-thinly-veiled prejudice toward “the Yank” which has meant the media and the fan base have leapt on any and every opportunity to confirm their bias that he “doesn’t know what he’s doing.” For example, when the British government slow-walked the sale to the point that Boehly had no time to properly staff the club hierarchy and had to act as the de facto Director of Football for many months, they accused him of hubris and criticised every move he made in the transfer market. Well, what exactly should he have done? Sat inactive through two transfer windows?
Meanwhile, they’ve mocked Boehly’s commitment to investing in youth and his strategy for amortising player contracts over seven years. But not a single British commentator or pundit appears to have done the first bit of homework on how, using a similar approach, he took a foundering LA Dodgers baseball franchise and made it a perennial winner. It’s one thing to level fair criticisms at a billionaire (they’re big boys and should be able to take it), but all too often the criticisms we hear of Boehly serve mostly to reveal the utter ignorance of the parties leveling them. They say, “look the team just lost,” as if that’s the trump card and Boehly (or the manager, or the players) is a failure. But they don’t seem to have any inkling that the owner’s are in this for the long-term—a sustained dynasty, and not some high-priced flash in the pan. Everyone wants to win in the end, but the whole strategy under the new ownership is to be in a position to sustain it like City and Liverpool have—for a decade. That doesn’t come from sacking your manager every 8 months!
Finally, the Chelsea fan base seem to have already passed judgment on Boehly’s failure because they expect their dessert and they want it now!! [spoiled child puts on pouty face] But, honestly, the jury is still very much out on whether Boehly’s audacious overhaul will ultimately come good. Unlike American sports fans, who are all well accustomed to a 2-3 year “rebuilds” at their favorite clubs, the British public appear to be totally unfamiliar with the concept. Indeed, the Chelsea fan base are so entitled that they seem to have never heard the adage, “Rome was not built in a day.” They have their eye on “dessert” and its pitchforks and torches for anyone who stands in their way—and especially if that anyone is an American.
So, go ahead, burn it all to the ground—just like you did last year when you got Graham Potter sacked. Yeah, maybe he wasn’t the right man for the job in the long run, but the hysterical fan base insured we got the absolute WRONG man for the job—Frank Lampard—to totally throw away the last two months of the season for us with not a bit of growth to show for it. So, go ahead, rage, rage, rage at Boehly. Tear down Poch. Call for the players to be summarily executed. And then sit and ponder why Chelsea FC isn’t sitting top of the table. I wonder why??? Maybe it’s because the loudest “supporters” don’t have an ounce of patience OR know anything about running a football club. They want to bellow and roar FOR a winner, or bellow and roar AT a loser. They will give vent either way, and don’t need logic or reason to encumber them in the process!