London: No sooner had another turbulent transfer window for Chelsea shut than reports emerged of a power struggle between chairman Todd Boehly and majority shareholder Behdad Eghbali.
In just over two years since the pair joined forces to buy the Blues, the Premier League club have spent more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) on a bloated squad will little to show for it.
AFP Sport looks at the current state of the two-time European champions, who were serial winners during the Roman Abramovich era.
Battle for the Bridge
LA Dodgers co-owner Boehly was the face of a 2022 takeover after sanctions imposed on Russian billionaire Abramovich forced a quick sale of the club.
However, the vast majority of the world-record #2.5 billion price for a football club came from Eghbali’s private equity group Clearlake Capital.
After Boehly’s brief stint as the club’s sporting director during the first six months of the new regime in west London, Eghbali has become the most hands-on figure within the ownership group.
The relationship between the pair is said to have deteriorated in recent months, with differing opinions over the club’s recruitment policy, poor results and the failure to make progress on the building of a new stadium.
One of the key disagreements came over the position of now-departed manager Mauricio Pochettino.
The Argentine oversaw a strong finish after a troubled start to his sole season in charge, with Chelsea ending sixth in the Premier League to qualify for the Europa Conference League.
Boehly is believed to have backed Pochettino, now in charge of the US men’s team.
However, Eghbali and the club’s co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were reported to have favoured a fresh approach and Enzo Maresca became the club’s fourth permanent appointment as manager in less than two years.
Bloomberg have reported that Boehly and Eghbali are looking into whether they could buy the other’s Chelsea shares.
Raising the money to do so would be far more onerous for Boehly, who owns just under a 13 per cent stake, compared with Clearlake’s 61.5 per cent.
Money yet to buy success
Boehly and Eghbali have managed to splash out an estimated £1.1 billion on dozens of players with nothing to show for their investment.
Just over three years ago, Chelsea, then still owned by Abramovich, beat Pep Guardiola’s dominant Manchester City side to win the Champions League.
With Ben Chilwell one of a number of expensive recruits deemed surplus to requirements, captain Reece James is the only survivor from the squad that won that night in Porto who is currently in Maresca’s plans.
Chelsea twice smashed the British transfer in little more than six months for Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in 2023 yet the two midfielders are yet to gel.
A host of other big-money signings have been frozen out due to the stockpiling of players.
Chelsea will reportedly pay around #10 million for Raheem Sterling — the first signing of the Boehly-Eghbali era — to play for Arsenal this season.
During Abramovich’s 19-year tenure, Chelsea won five Premier League titles and never went two straight seasons without silverware.
Yet they have still to lift a trophy under the new regime and have finished 12th and sixth in the past two Premier League campaigns.
“The club have become a laughing stock both on and off the pitch,” the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust said in a statement earlier this year.
Method in the madness?
There have been some success stories from Chelsea’s lavish outlay that has mainly focused on young talent from across the globe.
Cole Palmer’s £40 million move from Manchester City now looks a bargain after he was one of the standout Premier League players last season, with Noni Madueke also impressing.
And the club say they have slashed the average salary of the squad with long contracts heavily incentivised, based on performance.
Chelsea’s transfer splurge has stood out even more as other Premier League clubs have become more cautious in the market to meet financial regulations.
But the Blues have so far cleverly managed to stay ahead of the rules, including by selling two hotels on the Stamford Bridge site to companies under the control of Boehly and Clearlake.
