The dark blue badge of Chelsea Football Club has, in the past decade or so, become synonymous throughout the world with unmatched success.
The club, formed more than a century ago in London, has an illustrious past. They are just one of the five European clubs to have “completed football”, having won every single major trophy in existence. In addition, Stamford Bridge (Chelsea’s grounds) was once home to legendary and iconic players. Footballers like Gianfrianco Zola, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, and Claude Makélélé come to mind. If this was not enough the club has also hired the most distinguished of managers, such as Ruud Gullit, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Di Matteo, and Jose Mourinho. These legends have worked to expand Chelsea’s huge trophy cabinet.
This huge trophy cabinet, coupled with their footballing prowess have earned the blues their recognizable status as the “Pride of London.” This title was further cemented just three years ago, when Chelsea won the highly prestigious Champions League title. After this huge victory, it seemed as though the trophies would keep coming to the Blues.
However, in these last three years since the Champions League final in Porto, the football club has had a tragic fall from grace. In current times, the once great Chelsea Football Club is but a shell of its current self. Just years ago they were winning every trophy there is to be won. Now, the Blues sit in eleventh place in a league they once dominated, struggling to climb any higher than this. Chelsea’s deviation from their path of greatness is truly hard to watch.
Thus, a question must be answered. Just how have Chelsea become so bad in recent times? The answer to this question lies within the new ownership of the club.
For 19 years, Chelsea Football Club was owned by one Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch and politician. Abramovich was very passionate about the club, putting winning over profit. Most of Chelsea’s success as a whole could be attributed to his leadership and smart spending. However, in 2022, the faithful Roman Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea, being sanctioned by the British Government due to the war in Ukraine. Owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers, Todd Boehly came in to take Abramovich’s place. This replacement has undoubtedly led to disaster.
To illustrate, Boehly’s first order of business was making himself sporting director, meaning he would be in charge of the player transfers of Chelsea. In order to assume the position he had to fire much more qualified staff who were much more knowledgeable about the inner workings of football. Furthermore, Boehly, as the sporting director, constantly butted heads with the former manager of Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel. Boehly would often disregard Tuchel’s desires even though the established manager, for obvious reasons, was infinitely more knowledgeable than the American. Until recent months, Boehly would continue to ignore actual needs of the team and would, instead, favor the signing of flashy, unproven youngsters.
Moreover, his spending habits are absolutely horrendous. Since the summer of 2022, Boehly and Chelsea higher ups have spent over a billion British pounds on player transfers alone. Despite this jaw dropping spending, their results this season are incredibly lackluster, having won only 11 games out of 27 played in the English Premier League so far.
An example of Boehly’s horrible spending habits that continues to this day is how he overpays for every single player he signs. An illustration of this was the signing of Ukrainian winger, Mykhailo Mudryk. Mudryk, prior to joining Chelsea, was one of the newest, most exciting prospects. With quick feet and blistering pace Chelsea’s rival club, Arsenal, were looking to sign the Ukrainian national. Mudryk was heavily linked to Arsenal, with the Ukrainian practically within their grasp. Boehly took this as a great opportunity to spend 89 million pounds on an unproven player, simply because Chelsea rivals were looking to buy him. 89 million pounds is the price of a proven player who can perform well immediately, not a promising player that needs time to develop before performing well. To this day, Mudryk has not received time to grow. However, his expectations are insanely high, considering his huge price tag. As a result, Mykhailo Mudryk has become known as a 100 million pound flop and, so far, is statistically one of Blues’ worst ever signings.
It is evident from this player signing and other signings, like that of Argentinian midfielder Enzo Fernandez, that Boehly’s decisions are mostly guided by his pride and ego, a recurring theme in his running of Chelsea Football Club.
It is Todd Boehly’s hubris that has led to the downfall of a once great club. However, as Boehly’s ownership continues, it seems he has acknowledged his faults, leaving the more knowledgeable staff and manager to steer the ship. However, promising signs are revealing themselves and even more promising players continue to succeed every week. While constant mistakes and failures are still seen, for Chelsea Football Club, the future seems brighter everyday.