Todd Boehly and Chelsea Cannot Keep Spending Money to Solve Their Issues
This season, London's Blues have spent outrageous sums of money with hardly any on-field success, so something has to give.
According to Transfermarkt, Chelsea spent €611.49 million (almost $670 million) on player transfers in the 2022–2023 season alone under new majority owner Todd Boehly.
As of this writing, such expenses have been sufficient to propel the Blues to an embarrassing 11th place in the Premier League, a quarterfinal exit in the UEFA Champions League, no trophies, and no participation in European competition for the upcoming season.
According to Capology, Chelsea's payroll for this year is little under $266 million, and Spotrac estimates that the club has $283.7 million already set aside for the 2023–24 season. After Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter were fired this season, they are now on their third manager; none one of them is able to carry a scent strong enough to cover up the foul odour coming from Stamford Bridge at the moment.
Following Tuesday's 2-0 UCL loss to Real Madrid, World Cup-winning center-back Thiago Silva, who joined Chelsea from Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in August 2020, scolded Boehly, telling him to change the club's current transfer policy because the 35-year-old thought it was indecisive.
If we don't accept responsibility, we can't be criticising the management, Silva stated. "New players arrived, the ownership changed, and we had to expand the locker room because it wasn't big enough for the team."
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APR 19, 2023 EXECS & ENTREPRENEURS
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Todd and Chelsea Boehly Cannot Keep Spending Money to Solve Their Issues
via Getty Images, Will Palmer/Sportsphoto/Allstar
This season, London's Blues have spent outrageous sums of money with hardly any on-field success, so something has to give.
According to Transfermarkt, Chelsea spent €611.49 million (almost $670 million) on player transfers in the 2022–2023 season alone under new majority owner Todd Boehly. As of this writing, such expenses have been sufficient to propel the Blues to an embarrassing 11th place in the Premier League, a quarterfinal exit in the UEFA Champions League, no trophies, and no participation in European competition for the upcoming season.
According to Capology, Chelsea's payroll for this year is little under $266 million, and Spotrac estimates that the club has $283.7 million already set aside for the 2023–24 season. After Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter were fired this season, they are now on their third manager; none one of them is able to carry a scent strong enough to cover up the foul odour coming from Stamford Bridge at the moment.
Following Tuesday's 2-0 UCL loss to Real Madrid, World Cup-winning center-back Thiago Silva, who joined Chelsea from Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in August 2020, scolded Boehly, telling him to change the club's current transfer policy because the 35-year-old thought it was indecisive.
If we don't accept responsibility, we can't be criticising the management, Silva stated. "Due to a change in ownership and the arrival of new players, we had to expand the changing room.
The club is without a doubt tremendously talented. The 22-year-old Enzo Fernandez played a key role in Argentina's World Cup victory in December, and Chelsea paid a staggering €121 million to sign him from Benfica in January. Raheem Sterling, an English attacker, was acquired from Manchester City last summer for €56 million. Wesley Fofana from Leicester City, Marc Cucurella from Brighton, Benoit Badiashile from Monaco, veteran Kalidou Koalibali from Napoli, and Malo Gusto from Lyon were all added to the Blues' defence for an absurd €251 million.
However, Silva, a defender who has been personally influenced by all of these signings, emphasised emphatically that Chelsea simply have too many players.
The current members of the team, such as Reece James, Mason Mount, and Ben Chillwell of the England national team, Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovecic, and Christian Pulisic, haven't even been named. (This excludes any of the 20+ players the Blues have on loan, including Tiémoué Bakayoko, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Romelo Lukaku.)
Todd Boehly is acting like a football executive who is still learning how to take team identity into account when bringing in talent from around the world, rather than someone who feels under pressure to spend lavishly to justify the $5.4 billion spent to buy the club last May. If there isn't a real plan in place that takes how these players fit together into consideration, playing fantasy football with a legendary team like Chelsea rarely works.
If Boehly chooses to examine himself, accept the advice of seasoned experts like Silva, and deal with Chelsea's obvious problems, the team may be able to remove its clown mask and white makeup and redouble its efforts to satisfy its devoted supporters.
Squad fit and player development are significantly more crucial in the long run than transfer money, which does not equal roster formation. That's the foundation Champions League winners are made of, so this summer at the Bridge should be an interesting one as the window opens up once more.
