Boehly admits fault in first year at Chelsea
Days after Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League, Boehly held a closed-door meeting with bankers and business partners at Stamford Bridge. Among the attendees was Anthony Gutman, co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, one of the banks involved in Boehly and Clearlake Capital's takeover of Chelsea last year.
According to The Athletic, at this meeting, Boehly admitted to making many mistakes in the first year of Chelsea management and shared his vision and plan with the club before the 2023-2024 season. However, the Chelsea owner did not give specific details about the mistakes made at the club in the past 12 months. The American billionaire and Gutman both declined to comment on the matter after the meeting.
In the first transfer window after taking over at Chelsea, Boehly approved to spend $300 million for the transfer mayor to bring in Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Wesley Fofana, Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Denis Zakaria, Carney Chukwuemeka and Gabriel Slonina .
At the mid-season market, Chelsea were even stronger when recruiting Benoit Badiashile for $ 43 million, Andrey Santos 22 million, David Fofana 12 million, Mykhailo Mudryk 109 million, Noni Madueke 36 million, Malo Gusto 32 million and Enzo Fernandez 131 million (excluding surcharge). That is not including the fee to buy 17-year-old young talent Jimmy-Jay Morgan from Southampton, or the loan fee of Joao Felix from Atletico.
In total, Chelsea spent a total of 668 million USD for the 2022-2023 season, breaking Barca's old record of 415 million USD in the 2017-2018 season. They are also the first team in history to surpass three billion euros ($3.28 billion) to buy players.
Chelsea also have up to three managers this season. In September 2022, the Stamford Bridge owner spent $ 12 million to cancel the contract of Thomas Tuchel, after 100 days of Boehly's reign. Chelsea then paid Brighton $28 million to break the contract and appoint Graham Potter. Less than seven months, Chelsea lost again $ 16 million because of canceling Potter's contract more than four years ahead of time. In total, Chelsea lost $ 56 million in contract compensation under Boehly.
Chelsea appointed Frank Lampard as interim manager until the end of the season and lost all four games in all competitions. They lost to Brighton 1-2, Wolves 0-1 in the Premier League, lost to Real in both quarter-finals with a score of 0-2 and left the Champions League. Chelsea were also soon eliminated from the FA Cup, the League Cup. In the English Premier League, before the 32nd round, they ranked 11th in the English Premier League, 14 points behind the group participating in the European Cup next season.
