John Henry has already made Liverpool transfer stance clear as £900m landmark nears
Among the spectators at Stamford Bridge on Sunday were three of the most powerful men in English football.
Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali of Clearlake Capital watched their side, after a summer of tremendous churn in terms of player transfers, start life under new boss Mauricio Pochettino against a Liverpool side managed by Jurgen Klopp that were in search of their own relaunch after last season’s disappointing fifth placed finish that saw them miss out on the Champions League.
Boehly and Eghbali, whose first Chelsea season ended as an unmitigated disaster as the London side went through three managers and enormous spend to finish the season in the dismal position of 12th, were joined as interested billionaire onlookers by Liverpool’s principal owner John Henry, chief of club owners Fenway Sports Group.
If the first game of a new season and a meeting between two of English football’s heavyweights to kick start a campaign wasn’t enough, the build-up to the game had been dominated in the days before by the transfer battle that was ongoing for Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Moises Caicedo.
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So long a Chelsea target, the Londoners had seen four bids rejected in their attempts to prise the 21-year-old Ecuadorian away from the Seagulls, with Brighton standing firm on their £100m-plus valuation. On Friday it emerged that Liverpool had seen a £111m offer accepted for Caicedo and the expectation was that it would be a done deal for a British transfer record. But despite Chelsea having spent more than £750m under Boehly and Clearlake’s reign they refused to be
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