When Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali made the statement that in general football clubs weren't well-managed, he was strongly criticised. The American private equity businessman was coming from a position whereby the Blues were struggling in mid-table having spent lavishly in the transfer window and very little that the new owners had done had paid off.
Skip forward 11 months and on the face of it, not a lot has changed. The club are still not where they want to be and the10th place standing is an embarrassment for the riches thrown at new players — even with a sizeable return from sales as well. There is an injury issue that continues to thwart plans, just as it did in December 2022, and the manager is relatively new to the team as well.
What has changed is nearly everything else. Directors, physios, backroom staff, more than half of the playing squad, stadium features, media team, kit, sponsors and all the granular details as well. It is in this week of all weeks though, not just the international break, that Eghbali's statement here is most important.
Speaking at SporticoLive's «Invest in Sports» Summit he explained the decision-making process behind getting into European sports and what the plans were for taking the Blues forward. Along with former president Guggenheim Partners and Eldridge Industries chair Todd Boehly, the consortium took over at Stamford Bridge in May 2022 with ideas to modernise the successful English team of the past two decades.
«We thought Chelsea was a good beachhead, it was frankly an asset, a business that was not terribly well managed on the football side, sporting side or promotional side, so meaningful opportunity at the club and we'll get to it for us, who needed the beachhead to then look at
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