Gary Neville has urged Todd Boehly to stop meddling with football matters at Chelsea and believes that this season's "mess" is "purely down to him."
Boehly, who was part of a consortium which paid £4.25billion to buy the club last May, has been responsible for sacking two managers and spending around £600million on transfers during his eventful first year at Stamford Bridge. Yet the underperforming Blues still lay in the bottom half of the Premier League table with just five games to go, as fans wait for Mauricio Pochettino to become the third permanent boss of Boehly and co's "chaotic" reign.
Neville infamously claimed earlier in the campaign that the American tycoon was "playing Football Manager " and has been a constant critic throughout his regime's tenure. Now, in the wake of Tuesday's shambolic 3-1 defeat away to London rivals Arsenal, the Manchester United legend has once again gone in on Boehly - but this time offered a solution.
"Boehly has had a nightmare and misread this league," Neville began on his Sky Sports podcast. "I'm sure he'll learn quickly. What has happened this season is purely down to him. He needed to keep the footballing department together. He's the non-footballing department.
"You're the owner. You're not a player or a coach. You've got no experience in this league so stay where you are and allow the people to run the football club [who have done so] successfully over the last 10 years. Try and get a year out of them to learn the ropes and keep the stability and consistency of Chelsea.
" Petr Cech left, Marina Granovskaia left, Thomas Tuchel was gone after a few games and all of a sudden you're in complete turmoil. Then they flipped it to a model giving players eight-year contracts to 22-year-olds!
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"When you start sacking groundsmen, physios, sports scientists, directors, managers, then you are throwing everyone under a bus saying, 'it's their fault not mine'. Chelsea had a successful way of running the club. This is now what Boehly has created. He created this mess. Like playing football manager, it's been terrible."
The ex-United captain then went on to claim that Chelsea could make an emphatic return to their usual level next season, challenging for Champions League qualification and silverware. Former Tottenham boss Pochettino is preparing to succeed Frank Lampard, who's lost all five games as interim manager, and lead the Blues for the 2023-24 term.
"I do think someone will mould them into a decent team and challenge for top four and trophies," Neville declared. "I think they are capable of challenging the top three. That makes the Arsenal performance even worse. People will think I'm mad after what we saw on Tuesday but that makes it worse that players have stooped to that level.
"We saw it with Manchester United last season when they chucked the towel in under Ralf Rangnick. Those Chelsea players have chucked the towel in, they're not bothered at all. They may as well have not turned up. If they were on 42 points and mathematically safe, you'd leave them all out and play the kids.
"I think Chelsea can have a decent season. It's never as bad as you think and it's never as good as you think - unless you're Manchester City. They've had a shocker but it can be resurrected with an appointment of a strong manager who can control a group of players and stop the meddling from the ownership."
Boehly has regularly spoken about the Blues' struggles this season and insists that the club hierarchy always have their "long-term project" in mind. "The fans are demanding, they want to win. We get that, we want to win," the 49-year-old acknowledged at an event in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.
"Our view, though, was that this is a long-term project and we are committed to the long-term and we very much believe that we are going to figure it out. We have got the best league in the world, what I think is the top city in the world and we have an unbelievable location in the top city in the world."
