Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s BlueCo consortium bought the club from Abramovich in 2022. Boehly made himself the subject of dressing-room ridicule the following year, when he addressed the squad after a defeat by Brighton and told the players the season had become “embarrassing”.
Boehly, co-owner Behdad Eghbali and the club’s sporting directors still make regular trips to the Chelsea dressing-room at the end of games to congratulate the team or offer their support. Learning from Boehly’s mistake, the owners have since avoided making big speeches.
Talking last week at CAA’s World Congress of Sports event in Los Angeles, Eghbali said: “It’s easy to support when you win. It’s harder when you’re struggling. So the intent [of entering the dressing-room] is to say ‘hey, good match’ and just show you’re there for your club, your coach and your players. And I think it’s something we’ve done win, lose or draw just to support that. There’s no big speech. We’ll leave that to the coach. It’s just ‘good luck, hard luck’ or whatever it is. ‘Sorry, tough game’. That’s it.”
James and Moisés Caicedo have reaffirmed their commitment to the BlueCo project by signing new contracts, but the sacking of Rosenior has placed renewed scrutiny on the running of the club.
Tuesday night’s league defeat by Brighton means Chelsea face the threat of more embarrassment in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Leeds United.