The ownership battle will recommence soon: Todd Boehly needs to win it & needs our backing

Todd's our only realistic hope of change

Feb 11, 2025

In a report this week, the Telegraph reported regarding the ownership of Chelsea, how “there remains an expectation that either Clearlake or Todd Boehly will eventually take sole ownership of the Stamford Bridge club.”

We all saw the “civil war” back in September 2024, which seemed to end as quickly as it had begun, with Chelsea’s success on the pitch up till Christmas papering over the cracks and seeing both parties put on a united front whilst things were going well.

But it does seem that its bubbling under the surface, and there are clear signs that at some point sooner or later either Todd Boehly will take full control of Chelsea, or Clearlake will. And I’m pretty sure most fans right now are going to back Todd Boehly.

It will benefit Todd for this to be played out in the media, simply as this can rally the fans behind him and fans can come out for him at games. Todd is a classy guy so he’ll play this respectfully, but also ruthlessly. And if he’s to succeed, he needs us to make sure we publicly voice it, and show how much damage Clearlake are doing.

One thing which still annoys me is Todd Boehly’s image being used to symbolise failure, when all the fans know its not Todd doing the real damage, and Behdad Eghbali and Clearlake who have this Borussia Dortmund type vision for us, with no experience, no strong managers who are winners, and all kids, with a project manager who will do what he’s told. And that’s not a recipe for competing with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Real Madrid.

I think we’ve gone so far from his vision that people have forgotten what Boehly promised and what Todd Boehly is about, so I’ve done some research and found some quotes from Todd over the last few years to show what he’s about, which you’ll find below with some expansion on what they mean.

“Football is the biggest sport in the world. The passion the fans have is unparalleled. When you think about what you’re trying to build with these teams, is what you’re really trying to do is A) Win and B) Be part of the community.”

Todd Boehly, 2019

So this one is pretty clear. Todd values the passion of fans, football is huge, he wants to be huge in football, and his two goals are winning and connecting with the community, the fanbase. Simon told a story of how when he bought the club, he went to pubs to meet, talk to and listen to fans about what Chelsea is and what it means. That’s this quote in action.

So the next quote:

“In order to compete, you have to have growing revenue. And I think a brand like Chelsea really allows for that.

Growing that brand, especially globally, is predicated on winning. I think that winning is at the top of the things that’s most important.”

Todd Boehly, 2024

Todd here shows what he feels about profit, the business of football and how it works alongside success on the pitch.

He makes it very clear here, that winning on the pitch is the priority, and part of the reason is it draws the biggest revenues, and makes the business more successful. And that last sentence says it all - winning is the number one priority for him.

And the next set of quotes:

“Winning is clearly the most important thing. We are focused on winning.”

Todd Boehly, 2024

“Obviously, our commitment is to win, right we're here to win. Our perspective is: How do we build something that has real staying power like we have with the Dodgers?"

Todd Boehly, 2024

I put these two together deliberately. He was discussing Chelsea in these two conversations last year. Again, he states, his number one priority, focus and commitment is to win, and to build sustainable, long term success, winning consistently, as he’s done at the Dodgers, one of the best run and most successful sporting franchises in the world right now.

For those worried about “pure profit” academy sales, he says this:

“You figure out how to make the academy collaborate with the first team. You show players the pathway.

You treat your academy players as academy products not academy players.”

Todd Boehly 2022

What Todd means here, is instead of treating players from Cobham as if they’re still from Cobham just getting a chance with the first team squad, treat them as successful creations of the academy for the first team. So they’re Chelsea players, not Cobham players. He’s also saying that you put structures in place to ensure the best Cobham talent has a clear pathway to the first team squad and opportunities.

I’m sure some Cobham talent would be sold with Todd as owner - not every Cobham player makes it - but Todd values the academy and understands its connection with the heart of the club, so you’d never see this nonsense treatment of Trevoh Chalobah or Conor Gallagher.

Todd treats players as people, he’s always been good at building relationships. According to Felix Johnson from a video of his about 18 months ago, it was Todd Boehly who ensured Levi Colwill wasn’t sold to Brighton and turned into a loan. He also attempted to persuade Billy Gilmour to stay, he knew his talent and knew his value. Sadly it was too late. He also happily gave new contracts to Reece James, Armando Broja and Trevoh Chalobah, all Cobham talents, to ensure they stayed.

One interesting side scenario, potentially for the future, is that Todd Boehly didn’t fall out as hard with Thomas Tuchel as Behdad Eghbali did. Rumours have swirled for a while that Todd and Tuchel worked out their differences and rebuilt their relationship, to the point where Todd would be open to him coming back. It’s Behdad Eghbali who fell out with Tuchel hard (no shock there, to be honest) and would block any return. I’m not saying Tuchel would come back if Todd took the reins, but if the job were available and he were available, it would certainly be more possible than with Behdad and Clearlake.

The other thing Si has told me constantly is that Todd is anxious for ex-players to be involved at board/director level. Maybe as a co-sporting director or technical director under a world class CEO of Football, or in a football consultancy role, or Petr Cech type role. He understands the importance of club culture and having people who know, feel and understand this involved, to maintain that culture through the club and have a connection with fans.

My choice would be Frank Lampard but we know that’ll never happen as he wants to be a manager and is doing well at Coventry. Of the other choices, I would suggest Roberto Di Matteo, legendary player and Champions League winning manager for Chelsea, a true winner, who loves the club, has been a Technical Director at a club in South Korea, so could likely fit into the role alongside a world class CEO of Football, like Andrea Berta, latterly of Atletico Madrid.

Again, this idea of using club legends to help run the club, is a huge green flag for me for Todd Boehly taking sole charge.

Todd is not perfect, no owner is, but I believe he has a sense for what it takes to win, how a successful club is run, and knows how to do things well and properly. He’s got the humility to know he’s not an expert and listen to those who are and ability to cultivate relationships. He’s got the track record of winning as a sports owner. He’s got an emotional investment in Chelsea too in my view.

I know many think his return is unlikely, but I’m not so sure. He made an emotional investment in Chelsea not just a financial one. I think he’d find it tough to buy another PL club and feel quite the same. He wanted Chelsea for 3-4 years before the takeover happened and made an offer for the club in 2019, so he’s been in for Chelsea on the Chelsea bandwagon for a while - long before Clearlake were.

But he needs us behind him, he needs supporters groups, CPO if possible, and as many voices as possible, making loud noise for him to buy out Behdad and Clearlake. To me this is the only way out of the mess we’re currently in in terms of how we’re run on and off the pitch.

Todd Boehly is a winner, winning is his aim, like ours, and he has a vision of a successful Chelsea FC, winning on and off the pitch for the next 20 years. I think it's time to get behind him and fight for our club.

We can’t let things go on as they are, with zero accountability, consistently bad decisions, the lack of a winning mentality from those at the top and lack of respect for the fans. Something has to change, and it has to change at the top first.

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