Chelsea Owner Steps Back From Running Matters at the Club After Disastrous Season

Chelsea Owner Steps Back From Running Matters at the Club After Disastrous Season

Martin Moses
updated at May 25, 2023 at 1:06 PM
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  • Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly has dialled back his involvement at the club
  • Boehly's first season in charge has been underwhelming, despite considerable investment
  • The club has hired new people who are now in charge of running affairs

Chelsea's co-controlling owner, Todd Boehly has reportedly taken the bold initiative of stepping back from running the day-to-day business of the club after a catastrophic first season in charge.

Boehly led the Clearlake consortium in acquiring the London outfit from Roman Abramovich last summer, but things did not go as planned, despite heavy investment into the club.

Todd Boehly, Chelsea, Behdad Eghbali
Chelsea owners make their way across the pitch after the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal second-leg match between Chelsea FC and Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge on April 18, 2023. Photo by Clive Rose.
Source: Getty Images

The American was previously in charge of affairs at the club, which included the arrival of several players. He forked out an excess of 600 million euros on new stars, including World Cup-winning midfielder Enzo Fernandez.

The departures of Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech left a hole in the club that was filled by Boehly, who prior to acquiring Chelsea, had no experience in running a football club - let alone a top-six club in England.

Change of approach at Chelsea

Bloomberg now reports that Boehly will be less involved in decision-making at the club, after he chose to employ a raft of personnel to help out. The report now states that he only spends 20% of his time in West London as he focuses on other commercial ventures.

The club hired Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley as co-sporting directors in February this year, as confirmed by their website. The duo will spearhead any future transfer activities and are said to be playing a key role in getting the next manager. Mauricio Pochettino is the candidate who has reportedly gotten the nod.

Chelsea are set to finish in the bottom half of the table, their worst placement in 29 years, in a season where Boehly himself has admitted that mistakes were made.

Sacking Tuchel 'was a mistake'

Sports Brief reported that Chelsea's owners have admitted they made a mistake by sacking Thomas Tuchel in their maiden season in England.

Tuchel was relieved of his duties after just seven games in charge, after the Todd Boehly-led Clearlake consortium bought the club from embattled oligarch, Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea had begun the season in poor fashion, with the 1-0 loss away to Dinamo Zagreb in early September proving to be the German's final game in charge.

However, Boehly has in the past admitted that Tuchel wasn't sacked for his on-field performances.

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Martin Moses
Martin Moses is a sports journalist with over five years of experience in media. He graduated from Multimedia University of Kenya (Bachelor of Journalism, 2017-2021)