Todd Boehly, Bedad Eghbali and the (new) Chelsea Board

[Max Fowler]

12 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Again Max that is absolute rubbish.

Boehly came in and immediately did everything and was super hands on because there was nobody else available at the time.

Since then he's actively employed others to do the jobs he was having to do himself.

Boehly is the face of the operation, of course he's involved, the buck literally stops with him. 

To be honest everything you write has the air of someone auditioning for the Daily Mail sports desk or talk sport where they shoot first and ask questions later! 

But Mark we just had an owner who was not "hands on" at all.

We could have conceivably got a different owner who is not so hands on. 

Boehly chose to get rid of all of the old guard - that's why no-one was available.

Clearly we should always ask questions as a fanbase - how are our owners performing?

I don't think it's insane to ask questions and be worried about what is going on right now.

For which they hold a hell of a lot of responsibility - not just Graham Potter.

[Mark Kelly]

11 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

But Mark we just had an owner who was not "hands on" at all.

We could have conceivably got a different owner who is not so hands on. 

Boehly chose to get rid of all of the old guard - that's why no-one was available.

Clearly we should always ask questions as a fanbase - how are our owners performing?

I don't think it's insane to ask questions and be worried about what is going on right now.

For which they hold a hell of a lot of responsibility - not just Graham Potter.

If you think Roman wasn't hands on you need to have a word with Shevchenko , Torres etc all bought when the hands off Abramovich wanted them above the coach's desires.

[Ham]

2 hours ago, Max Fowler said:

 

Maybe I’m over-reading the word „collaboration“ then. Why do you think Boehly put 4-4-3 up on the whiteboard when Tuchel was in charge? Same „collaboration“? Why have all the new players immediately gone straight into the first XI? It’s not just because of injuries either. Boehly should be so far out of football matters he thinks our formation is 5-5-3 but it’s not our manager‘s job to explain football to him or „collaborate“ with him on on-field decisions. Top managers would never stand for that. Why does Potter remain? Because he’s willing to say yes when the board twists his arm about certain selections.

I'm certain in this context that *the board" is the team put together by TB and Clearlake and not them specifically.  

[Bob Singleton]

46 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

But Mark we just had an owner who was not "hands on" at all.

We could have conceivably got a different owner who is not so hands on. 

Boehly chose to get rid of all of the old guard - that's why no-one was available.

Clearly we should always ask questions as a fanbase - how are our owners performing?

I don't think it's insane to ask questions and be worried about what is going on right now.

For which they hold a hell of a lot of responsibility - not just Graham Potter.

If you think Abramovich wasn't hands on... 🙄 🙄  Just because he made no public pronouncements doesn't mean he sat back and did nothing. That's not the Russian way. It's certainly not the Russian oligarch way!

As for the "old guard"; let me take you back to the club being sanctioned due to having an oligarch owner considered close to Putin. I'm not sure the new owners felt, given the circumstances - and even if they had wanted to keep them - that they had much choice but to divest themselves of anyone and everyone with close links to Abramovich. It's not as if Bruce Buck or Marina Granovskaia were 'football people' brought in from outside by Abramovich to help run the club; they were people integral to his business operations who he put in place to run the football club. They had to go!

[Bob Singleton]

6 minutes ago, Ham said:

I'm certain in this context that *the board" is the team put together by TB and Clearlake and not them specifically.  

Indeed. This "board" is likely to be Potter, the senior data analyst, and the various 'directors of football' (or whatever titles they've been given) all agreeing that PEA isn't in the long-term plans, so shouldn't feature short-term either, and someone from that group contacting Boehly to tell him the situation.

[RDCW]

9 minutes ago, Bob Singleton said:

Indeed. This "board" is likely to be Potter, the senior data analyst, and the various 'directors of football' (or whatever titles they've been given) all agreeing that PEA isn't in the long-term plans, so shouldn't feature short-term either, and someone from that group contacting Boehly to tell him the situation.

Yet here PEA is, back in the squad!

[Ham]

2 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

If the owners hadn't made such drastic changes so quickly, the team might be performing ...

I think you're right that there wouldn't be any mass criticism of the owners. But plenty of people, myself included, were asking questions of them months ago, before Tuchel was sacked, before this disastrous form. I'm not just talking about changing the head coach, and signing loads of players. There have been sweeping changes to backroom coaching staff, to football and commercial operational staff, to the medical team, to player/coach/boardroom liaison. Was it inevitable they'd change effectively everything? Yes, and understandable. Was it prudent to do it all in just a few months? I don't think so, and think it's not possible to draw a neat line between the tumult in how and who operates the day-to-day functions of the club with the tumult on the pitch.

Does f**king up this stuff now (if you're inclined to think they've f**ked at least some of it up) mean they're useless, or idiots, or not to be trusted? I don't think so. They're new to this, and we have to expect it will take some time for them to learn. But they aren't above challenge or criticism in that time.

I agree fully on the Tuchel sacking but even then there's apparently something that happened behind the scenes to justify it. 

Tuchel has not sued Simon Jordan for saying this on TS.  He hasn't attempted to challenge the rumours.  

No smoke without fire and alll that but given what I know now about Potter I'd have stuck with him regardless of anything.  

[Max Fowler]

34 minutes ago, Ham said:

I'm certain in this context that *the board" is the team put together by TB and Clearlake and not them specifically.  

Not sure how you can be certain of this. 

[Max Fowler]

3 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

If the owners hadn't made such drastic changes so quickly, the team might be performing ...

I think you're right that there wouldn't be any mass criticism of the owners. But plenty of people, myself included, were asking questions of them months ago, before Tuchel was sacked, before this disastrous form. I'm not just talking about changing the head coach, and signing loads of players. There have been sweeping changes to backroom coaching staff, to football and commercial operational staff, to the medical team, to player/coach/boardroom liaison. Was it inevitable they'd change effectively everything? Yes, and understandable. Was it prudent to do it all in just a few months? I don't think so, and think it's not possible to draw a neat line between the tumult in how and who operates the day-to-day functions of the club with the tumult on the pitch.

Does f**king up this stuff now (if you're inclined to think they've f**ked at least some of it up) mean they're useless, or idiots, or not to be trusted? I don't think so. They're new to this, and we have to expect it will take some time for them to learn. But they aren't above challenge or criticism in that time.

Really excellent post!

[Max Fowler]

3 minutes ago, Ham said:

I agree fully on the Tuchel sacking but even then there's apparently something that happened behind the scenes to justify it. 

Tuchel has not sued Simon Jordan for saying this on TS.  He hasn't attempted to challenge the rumours.  

No smoke without fire and alll that but given what I know now about Potter I'd have stuck with him regardless of anything.  

I agree with you on this now Ham. But he was talking about broader changes at the club - not Tuchel.

[Ham]

3 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Not sure how you can be certain of this. 

It just makes sense. 

[ROTG]

49 minutes ago, Bob Singleton said:

Indeed. This "board" is likely to be Potter, the senior data analyst, and the various 'directors of football' (or whatever titles they've been given) all agreeing that PEA isn't in the long-term plans, so shouldn't feature short-term either, and someone from that group contacting Boehly to tell him the situation.

More likely called out Team GP for what they are at cobham. 

[ROTG]

9 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

I worry a bit that they seem to see themselves as radicals, as "disruptors", as playing some kind of 4D chess game that everyone else is too stuck in parochial orthodoxy to understand ... When, objectively and tangibly, what they are doing is making pretty bloody reckless decisions. About operational functions, player recruitment, finances, organisational structure ... 

They will see things, and not without merit, as being a tear-down and build-up project. They will see everything they've done as pulling off a plaster, feeling intense pain quickly rather than more manageable pain over years. And perhaps they will be proven right. But that doesn't change that the pain is intense, and really I think they should have made fewer changes so quickly.

Maybe the rethink will come when they start negotiations with new sponsors. Unless they are able convince a potential sponsor about the project.  IMO the penny will drop when reality kicks in on how much sponsors are willing to pay for a mid table PL team. 

Edited February 21, 2023 by ROTG

[chara]

Bottom line....coach the f'ing squad...do that job properly and this topic and most of our concerns and majority of posts would go away.

Then we could squabble about the important things like the awful away kit the other week or anger at why the side eased off after going 3-0 up in 15 minutes.

On one hand we get the media agenda and selective nuanced information about GP v/with The Board etc and on the other we see the evidence every match day that GP isn't doing something right.

I am not a Todd and Co apologist but they saved Chelsea...remember how traumatic the sanction time was? Pay the piper?

My opening line...if things looked progressive we as fans would have patience and the media would have no fertile patch to sow seeds of doubt and very sneering "Yanks..bless'em they don't know the game like us media experts" attitude.

How often is a Todd comment blazed over the media with the above attitude and then if you actually see what he said live there is a totally different context.

Other USA ownership is treated differently or perhaps I mean different issues are used as rods,,,easy for the media to take their Chelsea line..bash the Glaziers and excuse the Red lot everything...(and then there is the Middle East connection and agenda)

It suits the media agenda to portray the GP knuckle to the forelock team selection :Thank'ee kindly sir, I'll get right on it"..Really?

For all the ToddCo bashing look at some of the owner behaviour around the game...the good the bad and the very ugly.

 

 

 

[ROTG]

38 minutes ago, chara said:

I am not a Todd and Co apologist but they saved Chelsea...remember how traumatic the sanction time was? Pay the piper?

You also have to take into account they were the preferred bidder. So there were other out there will to take the club on.

[Holymoly]

Interesting article from Simon Phillips:

"Chelsea are very much stuck in a rut right now, and it’s a very toxic feel amongst the fanbase and around the club.

Everyone has their opinions on what is wrong and what is right, and many fans this week have been calling for Graham Potter to be sacked. Yet through the media at least, the club have been fully backing Potter this week through briefings.

But former Chelsea captain Frank Leboeuf believes that there is an issue still at the club that has been around for a long time, and is actually nothing to do with any manager.

Leboeuf believes that there is still a lack of strong mentalities in this Chelsea squad and a lack of leadership and experience.

Leboeuf said: “The biggest issue we definitely have is lack of strong mentalities still in the squad. I have friends still inside the club who have been working very close to the players. And apart from Cesar Azpilicueta, there are no leaders. Thiago Silva is a technical leader but he doesn’t talk that much in the dressing room. Azpilicueta is the kind of player from my generation in the way that he is fighting for the club that he plays for, not only for himself.”

[Mark Kelly]

1 hour ago, Holymoly said:

Interesting article from Simon Phillips:

"Chelsea are very much stuck in a rut right now, and it’s a very toxic feel amongst the fanbase and around the club.

Everyone has their opinions on what is wrong and what is right, and many fans this week have been calling for Graham Potter to be sacked. Yet through the media at least, the club have been fully backing Potter this week through briefings.

But former Chelsea captain Frank Leboeuf believes that there is an issue still at the club that has been around for a long time, and is actually nothing to do with any manager.

Leboeuf believes that there is still a lack of strong mentalities in this Chelsea squad and a lack of leadership and experience.

Leboeuf said: “The biggest issue we definitely have is lack of strong mentalities still in the squad. I have friends still inside the club who have been working very close to the players. And apart from Cesar Azpilicueta, there are no leaders. Thiago Silva is a technical leader but he doesn’t talk that much in the dressing room. Azpilicueta is the kind of player from my generation in the way that he is fighting for the club that he plays for, not only for himself.”

I think that is totally believable.

They're a bunch of wet blankets.

[Ham]

1 hour ago, Mark Kelly said:

I think that is totally believable.

They're a bunch of wet blankets.

They really are. 

[Ham]

💙 Will always love the man. 

 

[Mark Kelly]

It's been an excellent year for Team Boehly , he's spent a fortune on rubbish , sacked a superior coach , been knocked out of every domestic trophy , saw the clubs reputation diminish to a footnote in footballs history and  nosedive to the point where unless the hapless coach he employed starts worrying more about the football than the wellbeing of the players then a death spiral to the Championship is almost unavoidable.

Saved from oblivion then foisted oblivion upon us. 1/10 must do better.

[ROTG]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11811529/Chelsea-Roman-Abramovichs-win-cost-approach-long-gone-one-year-decision-sell.html

Interesting piece from the Mail and sums up the direction the club were going under RA, highlighting the bond between Marina, Cech and TT

 

[Ham]

 

Thomas Tuchel Chelsea sack reasons allegedly revealed in email

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11843571/Thomas-Tuchel-Chelsea-sack-reasons-allegedly-revealed-email.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Ham

[xceleryx]

3 minutes ago, Ham said:

Oh wow! 

Thomas Tuchel Chelsea sack reasons allegedly revealed in email

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11843571/Thomas-Tuchel-Chelsea-sack-reasons-allegedly-revealed-email.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton

 

So this doesn't really tell us anything more than we already kinda knew. I don't think a single clued on person really believed Tuchel was fired based on performances alone. 

The loss of respect by players is also an old take, but still seems an odd angle given the amount of support Tuchel got from our several of our bigger named  players on social media once everything happened. 

[Mark Kelly]

10 minutes ago, Ham said:

 

Thomas Tuchel Chelsea sack reasons allegedly revealed in email

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11843571/Thomas-Tuchel-Chelsea-sack-reasons-allegedly-revealed-email.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton

 

It sounds like a painful divorce to me with some dirty laundry being aired.

 

[east lower]

38 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

It sounds like a painful divorce to me with some dirty laundry being aired.

 

Which sounds like most divorces..............