Chelsea are never out of the news these days. It is all a far cry from the days when Roman Abramovich effectively ran the club as a family business and he was the only sheriff in town.
Since Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea by the UK government just over two years ago, a group of US-based investors have been running the club.
To begin with, Todd Boehly, who owns 13% of Chelsea, appeared to be in charge even though US private equity firm Clearlake Capital were the majority owners with a 61.5% stake.
With Boehly as an inexperienced interim sporting director, Chelsea went on a spending spree in the summer of 2022 buying players such as Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. They also replaced Thomas Tuchel with Graham Potter as head coach.
Graham Potter’s appointment did not work out for Chelsea
A dizzying number of transfers and a head coach later, Behdad Eghbali, who co-founded Clearlake with Jose Feliciano, seems to be very much in charge now.
With Boehly effectively sidelined, Bloomberg has reported that Chelsea’s main owners – Eghbali and Boehly – were considering buying each other out.
A marriage of convenience which had been quickly arranged to buy Chelsea now appears to be on the rocks.
Have Eghbali and Boehly fallen out?
Eghbali and Boehly are said to have a cordial working relationship
Eghbali and Boehly were never best friends but it does definitely appear as if their relationship is less close than it was when they first arrived at Stamford Bridge.
They are both very successful, strong-headed businessmen and it is natural that they will both have their own ideas about how the club should be run.
In private conversations up until last year they put on a united front, but it is now clear that Boehly has reservations about the club’s new recruitment strategy and the failure to make significant progress on redeveloping Stamford Bridge.
Having said that, all major decisions at Chelsea have to be signed off by Eghbali, Feliciano and Boehly so Boehly is still closely involved in the overall strategy.
Relations between Eghbali and Boehly can best be described as professional and cordial at the moment. Boehly visited the Clearlake box at Stamford Bridge before the opening game of the season against Manchester City three weeks ago.
Does Eghbali want to stay or go?
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Chelsea – who have had a mixed start to the season – draw at home to Crystal Palace last time out. Watch free highlights here
Eghbali and Clearlake are not going anywhere. They are not interested in selling any shares and they have not held any talks about selling any shares.
At the moment, Clearlake appear to be totally committed to Chelsea and Eghbali has been leading from the front. He has been at all three Premier League games this season and he was closely involved with the recruitment strategy during the transfer window.
It is fair to say Clearlake would recognise that mistakes have been made over the past two years and results and performances need to improve. They would argue that they have made many of the changes which needed to be made and Chelsea are now back on the right path to challenge for trophies again.
A new commercial team has been hired, there is a new sporting structure, a new head coach and new players. There is a feeling now that everyone should be focusing on delivering on and off the pitch. Stability is key. There is no appetite for a power struggle behind the scenes.
Will Boehly sell his shares and walk away?
Boehly has a 13 per cent stake in Chelsea
Boehly is said to be committed to Chelsea but he may feel that now is the right time to sell his stake – especially if he feels that he has been sidelined by Eghbali and Clearlake. Boehly may have his own ideas about how a football club should be run but he can never be the ultimate decision maker at Chelsea when someone else owns 61.5% of the club.
Eghbali and Clearlake would be interested in buying Boehly’s shares if he wants to walk away. If there really is a power struggle at Chelsea, then it is difficult to see how Boehly is going to come out on top when Eghbali does not want to sell.
Why can’t they all just get along?
This is modern football, not a romantic comedy. Foreign investors are buying clubs to make money not because they want to make friends.
If Eghbali and Boehly really have fallen out, it wouldn’t be the first – or last time – two very rich men have disagreed about how a business should be run.
Of course, Chelsea is more than a business and that is just one of the reasons why the stakes are so high.
Will it ever be quiet at Chelsea again?
No. When has it ever been quiet at Chelsea? It may not have been quite so noisy in the past but it has never been quiet. Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in the world now and the media spotlight is not going to leave any time soon.
Saturday 14th September 7:45pm
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However bad things may seem though, communications and PR professionals will tell you that one of the upsides of working in club football is that there is always another game just around the corner. Fans want to talk about what is happening on the pitch not what is going on in the boardroom. Nothing else matters as long as the team is winning.
Chelsea’s next game is away at Bournemouth on Saturday. No pressure, Enzo.
