After Todd Boehly singled out a Chelsea player in his dressing room speech, the player became "disillusioned."
After the team's 2-1 loss to Brighton at home on Saturday, Todd Boehly reportedly singled out one of his underwhelming Chelsea acquisitions in a passionate speech.
The American made a beeline for the dressing room following the defeat, Chelsea's third straight under interim manager Frank Lampard, and wasn't seen exiting for an hour.
After Lampard had done his post-game analysis, Boehly addressed the team alongside fellow co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Hasjorg Wyss.
He called their current condition, which has them stuck in 11th place in the Premier League standings, "embarrassing," but his address was meant to shake the players out of their funk and energize them ahead of their Champions League match against Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
The Guardian is now claiming that one player was left "disillusioned" after being singled out and "heavily criticized" by Boehly during his speech, suggesting that his strategy may have had the opposite impact.
Although the player in question's identity has not been made public, he is a veteran player that the new ownership recently signed for a sizable sum.
Only one player, Raheem Sterling, is over the age of 22 and might be regarded as a senior member of the locker room out of the five permanent acquisitions recruited in the past year who started against Brighton.
Boehly's statement was referred to as "weird" despite the fact that owners speaking to players is not uncommon; in fact, Kepa Arrizabalaga characterized it as "normal" at his pre-Real press conference.
Since the criticism, the player he singled out has "cut a disgruntled figure" in practice, which is not ideal given that Chelsea needs to overcome a two-goal deficit against the Champions League holders.
Goalkeeper Kepa was questioned about Boehly's much-discussed trip to the locker room but chose not to provide any significant details about what was said.
The Spanish goalie responded when asked about the owner's visits to the locker room, "Todd comes to the changing room every game so he had different chats with us after different games."
"I won't say what he said, but it is typical when he enters the changing room," I added.
During the loss to Brighton, Boehly was challenged by incensed fans, who were seated above the director's box and hurled insults at Stamford Bridge.
