One has to question whether Todd Boehly actually knows what he’s doing at Chelsea because it seems he clearly hasn’t grasped the fact that the west London club can’t be run like an American sports franchise.
His decisions as owner thus far has placed him very much front and centre, and if you’re a manager looking at heading to Stamford Bridge as your next job, that’s potentially something that puts you off.
Julian Nagelsmann, an early favourite to take the position after the summer, has ruled himself out, hinting at behind-the-scenes goings on that are not to his liking, via Melissa Reddy:
Julian Nagelsmann felt there were fundamental structural, recruitment and process decisions at Chelsea that wouldn’t best serve his management. Club’s position is he wasn’t the favourite for the job and there were mixed feelings on him.
— Simon Phillips (@siphillipssport) April 21, 2023
Given how difficult a bloated squad with a new owner would’ve been to work with, Graham Potter has been the unfortunately fall guy, though as we’ve seen with Boehly’s appointment of Frank Lampard, it’s not an easy fix at Stamford Bridge.
It doesn’t help when the owner decides he wants to go into the dressing room and undermines the manager either, with The Sun reporting on two recent instances where this happened.
In the last few days it’s also come to light that Boehly almost certainly sacked Thomas Tuchel because the then manager didn’t allow Boehly’s children to go into the dressing room at half-time of Chelsea’s match against West Ham in September (via talkSPORT).
With all of this considered, it still seems that the post is a coveted one, and ex-Tottenham boss, Mauricio Pochettino, has now been installed as the new favourite according to The Guardian.
The job appears to have quickly become a poisoned chalice and time will tell if Poch is ready to enter the lion’s den.
0 Comments