Wembley Stadium, London
When US billionaire businessman Todd Boehly arrived at Chelsea in May 2022, he had massive plans.
“We’re all in – 100%,” he told fans, promising the BlueCo consortium would help bring in the very best players and cement the club’s long-term future at the top of the game.
But almost exactly four years on from getting the keys to the Chelsea kingdom, Boehly’s legacy is one of a bloated squad, frustrated fans and a distinct lack of direction.
The issues facing the club have all come to a head this season. Chelsea is languishing in ninth place in the league, having already failed to qualify for next year’s Champions League – the bare minimum expected for a club of Chelsea’s size.
The team’s unlikely run to the FA Cup final barely papered over the cracks of this campaign, but it at least offered fans hope amid such a poor run of performances. Any semblance of that hope was extinguished on Saturday, though, when Chelsea lost the final 1-0 to Manchester City.
The dejected scenes after the full-time whistle, both on and off the pitch, reflected the deep divisions within the club and the disconnection between the team and its fans.
It’s hardly what Boehly would have envisioned when plotting the takeover four years ago.
‘We’re going to get smashed’
Even the most ardent Chelsea fan had to dig deep to find any source of optimism heading into this weekend’s final. After all, some of the team’s recent performances have been nothing short of embarrassing, with Chelsea failing to win in any of its previous seven league games.
“I think we’re going to get smashed,” one Chelsea fan said when traveling to the stadium on the tube, about three hours before a ball was even kicked.
“I think you’re probably right,” his friend chipped in.
The exchange was lighthearted, with the fans almost weary after watching the season fall apart since the turn of the year.
Those feelings of dejection are shared across the Chelsea faithful, a fanbase so familiar with success that they now demand it. Those lofty expectations have simply not been met this season, and fans are increasingly frustrated by how the new owners have handled the club since taking over.
A protest against the BlueCo group before the FA Cup final spoke to that frustration, as fans marched down Wembley Way on Saturday behind a banner that read: “BlueCo out! We want our Chelsea back.”
Hardly a sign of a club in unison, is it?
$1 billion later
Once inside the stadium, Chelsea fans got behind their team, belting out the songs that once reigned over English soccer. In truth, the players responded and produced a decent performance against Manchester City.
In the end, though, the London club just lacked the necessary quality, a quite incredible conclusion when you consider how much money has been spent on the squad since the new owners took over.
It isn’t a typo: Chelsea has spent over $1 billion on player transfers under Boehly. Yet, despite all that money, they lacked the quality to really trouble its rival at Wembley.
Recruitment really needs to improve and quickly. This apparent strategy of signing young players to ridiculously long contracts in the hope of selling them on for a profit just isn’t working. In fact, it’s been painfully detrimental.
As a direct result of the strategy, the squad is too big and utterly bereft of experience and leadership – two traits that are vitally important to building a successful soccer team.
There is also the issue with the manager. Calum McFarlane led Chelsea out for the FA Cup final on Saturday, but the Englishman is merely serving as an interim basis until the end of the season.
Behind him lies a wake of former managers, each with their own horror story. Liam Rosenior is the latest, sacked in April after being poached from Strasbourg, a club also owned by Chelsea’s hierarchy.
Before him was Enzo Maresca, a talented coach with big ambition who helped secure the FIFA Club World Cup for Chelsea last year. He, however, stated he could no longer work under the current regime before stepping away in January. Yet another red flag.
Reports now suggest Xabi Alonso will be the next man in the hot seat, leaving a massive job on the hands of the former Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen manager.
All eyes on the ownership
What’s worse is how severely the relationship between the club and its fans has broken down.
That breach was evident after the Chelsea team solemnly applauded the supporters inside Wembley at full-time on Saturday. Thousands of fans simply turned their backs and streamed toward the exits – uninspired and unenthused by what they had just witnessed.
The pressure will now ramp up on Boehly and the ownership, with nothing left to play for this season. The problem is, there has been little sign of any impending change in approach.
It’s incredible just how poor the ownership has been when you consider that Boehly has extensive experience in sports ownership. He holds varying levels of control over the LA Dodgers in MLB, the Lakers in the NBA and the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA.
But soccer, it seems, is proving to be a very different beast. The list of problems feels endless. Recruitment needs to improve, there needs to be leadership across all facets of the club and efforts to repair the broken bond with its fanbase must be urgent.
Now the FA Cup is over and fans have watched yet another defeat, there is literally nowhere left for the ownernship to hide.
