On the 15th of February, I sent a public message to Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly on X. The aim was to share my frustrations with how he has accepted being muscled out of the way by now controlling owner Behdad Egbhali.

Of course, I am not delusional. I did not expect a response. I am just a large account on social media, but I care. I have supported Chelsea my whole life and have attended matches every week since I was eight years old.

I backed Todd publicly recently for a reason – I felt that he had more of a winning desire in him than Egbhali, I felt that he cared more about the fans, I felt like he would adapt our recruitment model and after all, he has been trying to buy us since 2019.

Today though, I lost all of that hope. In a live interview at the FT business summit in London, Boehly came across as a delusional and defeated man, a man who realised he can’t buy out Clearlake and a man who has been subjected to acceptance.

In this piece, we will unravel some of his most important quotes and explain why I have no faith in any of the ownership anymore.

Boehly was asked to share an insight into his relationship with Clearlake Capital and the working dynamic currently at Chelsea FC, as well as if he would do anything differently if he was in day to day charge :

“The one thing I’ve learned about the British press is they exaggerate a lot and leave stuff out. I am not going to comment. We have agreed on a strategy and a way forward and stuff is getting done. And I don’t look in the rear-view mirror.”

Boehly is likely referring to the reports that came out suggesting that there was a rift between himself and Clearlake and that he wanted to buy them out. Now, he is suggesting that this was not true and that it was overcooked.

We know though that this news was true, as these outlets are very trustworthy and at the time, there was no urgency from Todd’s side to shoot these reports down.

We know through The Athletic that Boehly’s side believed Egbhali was “obsessed with player trading” and even disagreed with the structure of the higher-ups, preferring to hire “experts” and let them get on with it, rather than “micromanage” like Egbhali.

Fast forward a few months to today and Boehly is a defeated man, he has perhaps realised that he cannot buy Clearlake out and make the changes he wants, so instead he has accepted the strategy in place that he does not agree with and would like to make changes to.

Boehly declined comment on what he would do if he was in charge, which is again another sign of someone who knows he has no chance of gaining majority control back and someone who has been defeated by the very same people he brought on board as part of the bid.

However, we know what he would do, It has been reported reliably. He would adapt the model, appoint a CEO of Football, make faster progress on the stadium decision and be less hands on day to day.

Basically, EVERYTHING that most Chelsea fans have been asking for, yet he has lost all will power to regain majority control back and this is why he has lost my respect amongst other things.

Boehly seems to think that fan protests and criticism is “par for the course” :

“I just think it is par for the course. The sooner you learn you are not going to keep all the people happy all the time, the freedom shows up. We are just trying to execute a plan and recognise things aren’t linear, and we are trending in the right direction. The trend is moving in the right direction and that’s the thing that really matters. In June, it will be three years in charge. That’s not a lot of time, especially when you get to 50, 60 or 70 years old in life. It’s a whirlwind of activity and steep learning curve, but I think that’s also a good thing.”

No, fan anger is not par for the course – natural disagreement is, but lining up in the streets in the hundreds with paid banners is not. These are angry, angry fans who feel their club is not going to get back up to the top and fans who have no concrete reason to think the contrary.

Instead of taking these concerns on board and perhaps being more along the lines of “We take notice of the fans frustration, the first three years have not been at the standards we expect of Chelsea Football Club and we are going to do everything we possibly can to make our fans happy and trust us and win trophies” Boehly just thinks that everything is going fine.. “we are trending in the right direction”.

It is too early this season to say we are trending in the right direction.. if anything we have got worse as the season has gone on.. also, right direction of what? Winning the league and / or Champions League? Certainly not, the club are as flimsy as can be, and they do not make the necessary changes to even be in this conversation.

The club are going to struggle to make the Champions League spots this season yet again due to their own failings in the squad building process.

Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have spent over 1 billion pounds of loans may I add, not the ownership’s own injected money like some people claim online, and yet we are no closer to bringing the glory days back.

The squad still lacks a world-class striker, centre back and goalkeeper. Other positions could also be majorly improved and in any other line of work with expectation, heads would roll, let alone a multi billion pound operation.

But here under this ownership, why would they? We don’t have owners who have that inner drive to win.

They can spend a billion plus pounds of loans, win no trophies and maybe only just squeak into a competition we were always in under Abramovich and everything’s fine!.

It gets even more laughable when Boehly today says that “we are trying to balance the short and long term”….

No you are not. If you were, you would have built the squad in a way which aligns with that statement. There would be players for the future and players for the now so that we remained competitive on the highest level.

Every footballing decision is based on projection and what the player can ultimately become, not what they are now. There is no Olivier Giroud style signing to achieve short term objectives. Those type of signings are “too old”, “too risky” and “cost too much wages” for these lot.

The reason they buy young players in the first place is because even if they “flop” they still have re-sale value, every recruitment decision is based upon business first, rather than what’s best for the club’s chances of winning trophies.

The severe lack of knowledge and understanding of Football was again highlighted when Boehly was asked about the model, stating “You can’t turn left or right every three minutes”

Errrrrm, hello? It has been three seasons… not three minutes.. THREE SEASONS, TODD!

Three seasons in and they are still relentlessly sticking to a model which has provided us no on-pitch results to the standards of Chelsea FC and a model which is in desperate need of adaptation due to the lack of being able to deal with on-pitch adversity.

This goes for staff, too. Mauricio Pochettino was not a favourite of mine, but he was booted out because he didn’t agree with the model, he spotted the deficiencies, he spotted that you need a mixture of youth and experience, players who have been there and done it who can provide quality for the now but also help the players day to day.

The ownership continues to ignore advice from ex-players across the game who have been very successful. They ignore all advice on how history tells you to build a winning team, especially in the Premier League.

I suppose that’s what you get with egomaniac billionaires who think they know it all in a sport they have never ventured into before.

When you couple that with two sporting directors who have never led the ship at winning clubs, have no pressure to deliver and are simply nothing more than puppets who are carrying out their job briefs, as well as the removal of all winning staff behind the scenes, you paint a very worrying picture for anyone like me who wants the glory days back and is hurting every single day.

It seems that the ownership want a war and perhaps that’s what they’ll get in the next 24 months or so.

With no adaptations of the model and owners and sporting directors who only care about protecting their own egos, more protests outside the ground seem a very likely possibility, perhaps even nastier next time as the anger amongst us all gets greater.