Chelsea are a total circus… but football fans should be scared if Todd Boehly’s mental model somehow leads to trophies
CHELSEA are a circus — aren’t they?
But the bigger concern should be if somehow, some way, Todd Boehly’s insane master-plan brings about success this season.
Finish in the top four. Win a trophy like the FA Cup.
He will then turn around and say: “See, it works” and all of a sudden, other clubs will begin considering copying this mental model to try and compete in the Premier League.
Before you know it, there will be a bigger divide between the top clubs and the rest and this country’s top flight will become something we have been fighting against — a Super League.
The smaller sides and promoted teams will be wiped out by the elite and will end up saying, ‘What’s the point?’
Football as we know it will change, and there will be no going back.
As a neutral, you don’t want to wish failure on a club or a regime, but it’s depressing to think about.
We should almost be looking at it in amazement — the owners have come in with this model and they’ve treated it as if they are buying stocks and shares, not players or human beings.
Fee of £100million? Seven-year deal? No bother. Bang, bang, bang.
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All they need now is a manager to put all the pieces together.
Two years down the line and they still haven’t found one, yet.
But onlookers are understandably asking: “What is this? This isn’t what success looks like.”
Every Chelsea signing under Todd Boehly
Here is a list of all Chelsea's signings under Todd Boehly...
- Raheem Sterling – £50m
- Kalidou Koulibaly £33m
- Gabriel Slonina – £8m
- Carney Chukweumeka – £20m
- Marc Cucurella – £57.5m
- Cesare Casadei – £13.3m
- Wesley Fofana – £70m
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – £10.3m
- Denis Zakaria – £2.7m (Loan fee)
- David Datro Fofana – £10.6m
- Benoit Badiashile – £33.7m
- Andrey Santos – £11.1m
- Joao Felix – £9.7m (Loan fee)
- Mykhailo Mudryk – £62m
- Noni Madueke – £30m
- Malo Gusto – £26.75m
- Enzo Fernandez – £107.8m
- Christopher Nkunku – £52m
- Diego Moreira – FREE
- Nicolas Jackson – £31.5m
- Angelo Gabriel – £13m
- Lesley Ugochukwu – £23.3m
- Axel Disasi – £38.9m
- Robert Sanchez – £20m
- Moises Caicedo – £100m
- Romeo Lavia – £53.2m
- Deivid Washington – £13.7m
- Cole Palmer – £40.1m
- Djordje Petrovic – £13.6m
- Tosin Adarabioyo – FREE
- Marc Guiu – £5.1m
- Caleb Wiley – £8.63m
- Renato Veiga – £12m
- Aarón Anselmino – £14m
- Omari Kellyman – £19.2m
- Filip Jorgensen – £21m
- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – £30.2m
- Pedro Neto – £51m
- Joao Felix – £42.6m
That bloated Chelsea squad is now full of highly talented but highly paid players feeling even more entitled than the average Premier League star does.
They all believe their own hype, they all believe they should be starting and all believe in the mad price tags that they arrived with.
There is no chemistry, too much competition for places, and that has all the ingredients of a huge mess.
I don’t agree with the bombshell statement Raheem Sterling put out after being dropped.
The timing of it was selfish, uncalled for and he knows that.
But he has done it because he can get away with it.
The club are playing silly buggers, handling things poorly. So why can’t he? He’s fed up and hurt — and reacted accordingly.
He would never have done that at Liverpool or Manchester City and he’s never acted like this before.
But you can almost get away with that when you’re inside a circus.
It was summed up in Chelsea’s 2-0 Prem opening defeat. Dominated by an under-strength City team and without a striker that can score goals after spending more than £1billion under Boehly.
It feels weird to call Chelsea a “badly run club”. They’ve spent a lot, but also sold a lot of players for big profit, they’re financially pretty solid.
Swapping Conor Gallagher for Joao Felix on the face of it isn’t a bad deal.
Plenty of clubs — like Manchester United — have spent lots of money of worse moves in recent times.
But when you take a look at the bigger picture, Chelsea’s model is incredibly hectic.
I used to love going to Stamford Bridge as a kid and as a player.
An old-school ground, getting to watch the likes of Gianfranco Zola and Dennis Wise — and they occasionally won a trophy.
You tended to have a soft spot for them. Not any more.
Boehly has wiped away any sense of sentiment or old-school values from that club and the worrying thing is that he doesn’t seem to care.
Does he even like football?
Should Chelsea’s loyal fan base turn on the ownership — protesting, refusing to come to games — that will make Boehly take notice.
The older generation are already questioning some of the decision-making but a lot of the younger supporters just want a team that is popular on socials and good on the pitch.
I don’t know any fan of any team that complains if their team is winning and, when Chelsea do start to be successful, I worry what will happen next.
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He told Sky Sports: “Chelsea have just got to stop buying players and players have got to stop signing for Chelsea.
“If I was a player and look at Chelsea, why would you sign?
“The only reason you’d sign is because someone might say – your agent might say – ‘We’re getting a seven-year deal’.
“You know what I’d say? ‘Back yourself as a player, sign a four-year deal at a proper club and back yourself to do well’.
“And then when you’re due for renewal your money goes up anyway.
“I don’t understand why you’d sign a seven-year deal. Back yourself.”
He continued: “All players need competition. But every team I played in there were seven or eight players who knew they were playing every week.
“Then you’ve got six or seven players who are fighting for three positions, and then you’ve got another six players who know they are squad players.”
And of the Blues’ swollen array of talent, Carragher asked: “Where are they going to fit in the changing room?
“How are you going to put on a training session.”
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