Let’s make this clear, Chelsea owner Todd Boehly is an ambitious man. After acquiring possibly the biggest club available on the market for a world record fee (£4.25bn), Chelsea’s Todd Boehly has made various proposals for his club and for improvements in the English Premier League.
IS HE SUGGESTING BIG CHANGES TOO SOON?
THE ALL-STAR GAME SUGGESTION
Earlier this month the owner suggested that the Premier League could take a leaf out of the NBA and NFL in terms of improving its revenue and also made a suggestion that a play-off should be played in order to determine who gets relegated from the English top flight.
“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports. And really starts to figure out, why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four sports teams, why isn’t there an All-Star game? People are talking about more money for the pyramid, in the MLB All-Star game this year we made 200m dollars from a Monday and a Tuesday. So we’re thinking we could do a North versus South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily.”
His suggestions were widely met with criticism and his critics pointed out that these kind of changes could destroy the culture of football in England with Jurgen Klopp expressing his disapproval,
“He doesn’t wait long. When he finds a date for that he can call me,” he added. “He forgets that in American sports these players have four-month breaks so they are quite happy they can do a little bit of sport in these breaks. It’s completely different in football. Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well? I’m surprised by the question so please don’t judge my answers too much, but maybe he can explain it to me at one point and find a proper date. I’m not sure people want to see that.
“Imagine that, (Manchester) United, Liverpool, Everton, Newcastle players all on one team that’s not the national team, just a north team. Interesting game. All the London guys together. Arsenal, Tottenham. Great. Did he really say it? Interesting.”
But while Klopp and others have expressed disapproval, his idea seems to have worked but it has been revealed by The Times that the All-Star Game will be played amongst the best Premier League XI and the best XI from Spain, Germany and Italy with the main objective of increasing revenues through these matches.
Premier League XI could face Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga teams in different plan for All-Star games. It hasn’t gone away….https://t.co/0LADJj22lF
— Matt Dickinson (@DickinsonTimes) September 29, 2022
SEARCH FOR A NEW SPORTING DIRECTOR
The American owner has made it clear many times that he wants to have a clear structure at Chelsea and he has been making serious moves to fulfil those promises. He almost convinced RB Salzburg’s Christoph Freund to join the club but he was met with a strong rebuttal by the RB Group and even after agreeing on personal terms with Fruend, Boehly couldn’t land his target due to Salzburg’s stance on not allowing him to leave.
Official. RB Salzburg confirm they’ve decided to keep Christoph Freund at the club and he will not join Chelsea. 🚨🔵 #CFC
The agreement reached on contract between Freund and Chelsea last Sunday has been cancelled as Red Bull Group will keep the director. pic.twitter.com/bo5h8ntWfl
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 20, 2022
New candidates like Victor Orta of Leeds United, Lee Congerton previously of Celtic and Leicester fame now at Atalanta BC, Monchi from Sevilla and Rui Pedro Braz from Benfica all are set to be interviewed in the next week for the vacant Sporting Director position. Additionally, another name which has been doing the rounds is Bayer Leverkusen’s Sporting Director Tim Steidten. Jacob Steinberg of the Guardian has revealed initial talks between the two parties have been positive.
Chelsea set to interview candidates for Sporting Director next week. These include Spaniard Victor Orta at Leeds, former Leicester and Celtic talent scout Lee Congerton who is now with Atalanta. There is Monchi at Sevilla plus Rui Pedro Braz at Benfica.
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— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) September 29, 2022
Part of many promises given to Graham Potter prior to his appointment as the new Chelsea were that he wants to have a new sporting director before the start of the January transfer window so that he can sign new players who will fit his style of football.
PLANS TO BUY A NEW CLUB TO IMPLEMENT HIS MULTI-CLUB MODEL STRATEGY
Todd Boehly has mentioned his admiration for the RB Group’s model of owning multiple clubs, something very similar and implemented by Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour. The RB Group has clubs in Germany, Austria, the United States of America and Brazil while the City Football Group now owns a massive eleven teams across five different continents.
He indicated that a country like Portugal will be ideal and with the aid of super agent Jorge Mendes, discussions have been held with Portimonense, who are fourth in Portugal’s top flight. Additionally, plans for a team in Belgium’s top flight are in the rounds while his approaches for French side Sochaux-Montbéliard and Brazilian giants Santos have been rebuffed.
The effects of Brexit have forced the owners in England to make arrangements if a player fails to get a work permit in the United Kingdom which could result in transfer deals collapsing. The new hierarchy also believes an affiliation with other clubs will help them give their young players more opportunities in the top flight as quickly as possible.
