Todd Boehly will put data at the heart of his Chelsea revolution if his bid to buy the club is successful, with maximising youth talent one of his key visions for the future.
The co-owner of the LA Dodgers has made the use of analytics central to his success with his baseball team, who won the World Series in 2020.
A fundamental part of that has been the development of home-grown players or bargain finds — and improving the ratio of talent that progresses from Chelsea’s heralded academy to their first team is expected to be a focus of his ownership.
While the Dodgers are also known for their mega-money signings, including the record £227million, 12-year deal for Mookie Betts in 2020 and a wage bill that has topped £240m, it is their success at using data to add value to players that has put them at the forefront of US sports.
Raine Group, which is handling the sale of Chelsea, has told the four shortlisted bidders they need to commit a further £1billion as part of their proposals. That sum is intended to be put towards stadium renovations and the first-team playing squad to ensure that Chelsea can continue to compete at the top end of European football.
The Dodgers’ spending power has made them one of the super powers in baseball, but it is their intelligent use of money that has underpinned such a period of dominance — winning eight straight National League West titles, as well as the World Series.
Boehly has told people close to his bid that his ability to use money wisely is a reason why he is such a strong candidate to buy out Roman Abramovich.
Under his ownership, the sort of wastage that has been absorbed by Abramovich’s fortune is unlikely to continue. The idea of allowing a Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah or even Declan Rice to depart before realising their potential could be a thing of the past.
The Dodgers have utilised data-led strategies to unearth unheralded talent. Max Muncy is an example of how their scouting system uses the minor leagues to spot future stars with a Moneyball approach that was made famous in the film of the same name, starring Brad Pitt, about Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane and his mastering of metrics to identify talent.
While Boehly has been part-owner since 2012, it is president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman who is the mastermind behind the Dodgers’ success.
He would be the equivalent of a director of football, which will make planned conversations with Marina Granovskaia intriguing. Her future remains in doubt, but she runs Chelsea’s transfer policy on behalf of Abramovich.
For all the credit she has received for money made from sales of the club’s academy prospects, she has also overseen a significant amount of waste.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is the world’s most expensive goalkeeper but is only back-up to Edouard Mendy. Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger are both free agents at the end of the season, which could see the best part of £100m of talent walk away for nothing.
Romelu Lukaku, a club-record £97.5m signing, has also been pushed to the fringes because Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel is struggling to integrate him into his team.
Boehly, who has joined with Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and property developer Jonathan Goldstein, is described as “hands off” in his ownership.
But talking about his philosophy in a recent interview with Yahoo, there was much to encourage Chelsea fans.
He said: “We’ve now [won] eight NL West titles in a row, we’ve got our World Series ring… and we want to keep winning.
“You always just have to keep remembering that the fans are the centre. And the second that you veer, just go back to thinking about the fans, think about the fans, the fans. And if you are always the fans’ eyes and thinking about it from that perspective, and you have the good fortune of also having a major market like Los Angeles, those two things go together very nicely.”
But Boehly is a man who also cares about profit. As the co-founder of Eldridge Industries, he has made his billions out of maximising investments.
Media rights were a big draw for him when buying the Dodgers, describing them as “a really valuable investment-grade bond.”
While the centralised nature of Premier League TV rights bargaining gives him less power at Chelsea, he will still see it as an opportunity to bring in enormous sums.
Whether he can guarantee the same returns on the pitch is another matter entirely.
