The plan must have looked so good to Todd Boehly.
On the back of fronting the $2.5 billion purchase of Chelsea, bring in a visionary “project manager” for the long term, regenerate the squad — to the tune of an unprecedented $630 million spend across two transfer windows — with young and hungry players, and just watch the good times roll.
Right?
Hasn’t worked out that way.
Boehly, an American businessman with no previous experience in soccer, is learning the hard way in his first year as the face of Chelsea’s new leadership.
Just look at the situation Chelsea is in — languishing in 11th place in the Premier League and now without a manager after Graham Potter, the guy brought in on a five-year deal to replace Champions League-winning coach Thomas Tuchel in September, was fired late Sunday after less than seven months in charge.
To say it has been a tough start for Boehly at Chelsea is an understatement.
And the money being thrown at the club in the early days of the post-Roman Abramovich years is staggering. Apart from the spending in the transfer market — $280 million in Europe’s summer window then $350 million in January — Chelsea paid a reported $26.5 million in compensation to Brighton to get Potter to Stamford Bridge, a reported $16 million in compensation to Tuchel, and now has to settle the 4 1/2 years left on Potter’s contract.
Then there’s the length of the contracts handed to many of the team’s new signings, such as Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk, who both penned 8 1/2-year deals. The idea is to spread “amortization” costs of transfer fees across the whole deal to get past financial fair-play constraints but it leaves Chelsea in a vulnerable position if the players recruited prove to be flops and can’t be moved on.
Is it an innovative idea — it has already prompted UEFA to tighten its rules — or just pure madness? Time will tell.
Chelsea also stands to miss out on at least 80 million euros ($87 million) it typically earns each season from playing in the Champions League, should the team fail to qualify for European competition, which is looking increasingly likely.
Given its position in the league, winning the Champions League looks the only route back into the competition. However, Chelsea’s opponent in the quarterfinals is titleholder Real Madrid, with either Bayern Munich or Manchester City lying in wait in the semifinals.
Boehly and the rest of Chelsea’s board also perhaps showed their naivety in choosing to fire Potter right in between a schedule of two Premier League games in a four-day span, when a better time seemed to be during the recent hiatus for international games when there was a two-week break and a new manager could have been bedded in.
Tuchel, remember, was fired in September, a few days after the summer transfer window shut.
So much for having a plan.
As it stands, Chelsea will be led into Tuesday’s game against Liverpool — another fading candidate for a top-four spot — by Bruno Saltor, who has no senior coaching experience and was a member of Potter’s backroom staff after following him from Brighton.
Boehly has even gotten some grief in recent weeks from fans angered that a banner honoring late club great Ray Wilkins was tweaked while producers of the TV show “Ted Lasso” filmed scenes at Stamford Bridge for one of its episodes. Boehly took to Twitter to apologize.
Boehly cannot have expected to be in this position 10 months ago, when fronting the takeover of a club that was still at the time the champion of Europe.
The wild start to his time in London is far from over. Aside from the need to get in a new manager, Chelsea probably requires a fire sale of players in the offseason to lower the wage bill, while there are big decisions to be made over certain high-profile players.
What to do with Romelu Lukaku, who is set to return from his loan spell at Inter Milan?
Can Chelsea get any more seasons out of injury-ravaged midfielder N’Golo Kante?
Is there room for big players bought in the first spending spree, like Kalidou Koulibaly, Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang?
And will Chelsea look to offload Hakim Ziyech, after his midseason move to Paris Saint-Germain collapsed on deadline day to the fury of the French club and the despair of the Morocco winger?
Much will depend on the identity of Potter’s replacement and what his vision is.
Boehly will surely go for a tried-and-tested coach this time, someone with experience of managing an elite club. Julian Nagelsmann looks a good option, especially since he used to work alongside Christopher Vivell — Chelsea’s recently hired technical director — at Leipzig.
Then again, when it comes to Boehly, fans should just expect the unexpected.
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AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this story.
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