Ex-Chelsea defender says Todd Boehly has "destroyed" club

Former defender Frank Leboeuf has claimed that the current Chelsea hierarchy have «destroyed» the Premier League club.

Since their arrival in May 2022, co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have spent in excess of £1bn on new signings, many of whom are younger players with potential.

However, as a result, Chelsea have lost their standing towards the top of the Premier League table, instead being on course for a second successive bottom-half finish.

Although Mauricio Pochettino guided his team to an EFL Cup final earlier in the season and the Blues are in the FA Cup semi-finals, their inconsistency in the top flight has kept the pressure on the Argentine.

That was ramped up on Saturday as Chelsea were held to a 2-2 draw by Burnley, who played over a half with 10 men and twice came from behind to earn a share of the spoils at Stamford Bridge, also almost winning the contest in added-on time.

Leboeuf arrived at Chelsea in 1996 and played a key role in taking the club to the next level at that particular time, winning two FA Cups, a League Cup, the Cup Winners Cup and a UEFA Super Cup.

The centre-back scored 17 goals from 144 Premier League games before returning to France, but 23 years on from his departure, Leboeuf has launched a scathing attack on the current Chelsea board.

Speaking to ESPN, he said: «Sorry, but the people on the board have destroyed this club. That's what you have to face. How do you rebuild that? I don't know, it's going to take a long time.

»I've talked about it a lot and I'm fed up repeating myself. As long as you don't have people to rely on, meaning experienced players, you can't build anything. This is what you face when you're trying to build an academy team."