Gary Neville has slammed Todd Boehly for not appearing at Stamford Bridge in Chelsea's first game after sacking Graham Potter. The 47-year-old was sacked on Sunday evening following the Blues' 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa.
More often than not, Boehly has been in attendance at home games this season to show his support. But, for the west London outfit's clash with Liverpool, it seemed that the American billionaire was no where to be seen.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville questioned why the Chelsea co-owner has suddenly gone into hiding after sacking Potter. The former Manchester United defender said: "I think if you’re an owner of a football club, Todd Boehly seems to have gone missing in the last few days all of a sudden now the manager’s been sacked.
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"He’s been prominent all season calling it a long-term project, now all of a sudden we’re seeing Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart quite a lot in the last few days. Obviously Winstanley was with Graham Potter at Brighton and look, I don’t think we’re surprised by the sacking but if you’re going to sack someone you must have been thinking about in the last two or three weeks.
"Why didn’t they do it before the international break?" added Neville. "Have those couple of weeks to have a breather. Bruno’s obviously in now, I thought they’d have someone in but the briefings coming out of Chelsea are that they weren’t expecting to sack Potter before Saturday and that they haven’t got anybody lined up and it’s not going to be imminent. Let’s see what happens but Todd Boehly doesn’t seem to be here tonight, I’d have thought he would have been."
Neville has taken an issue with Boehly on a number of occasions this season, accusing the Chelsea co-owner of playing 'football manager'. On his own podcast, the 48-year-old said: "Graham Potter is under big pressure at this moment in time. I hope he's not under pressure, I hope they see it through because this is a culmination of Abramovich leaving, the new owner coming in and sticking his chest out and going around Europe thinking he can play Football Manager.
"I've seen it before at this club [Manchester United], it doesn't tend to work. Chelsea have always been a really smart, efficient, clinical operator in the recruitment.
"They're one of the big stories at the start of the season and I think they'll improve but there are going to be questions asked. They're a club, and I look at Man United sometimes and think 'where's the £250m gone?' It's a quarter of a billion quid. Where's it gone?
"How have they enhanced the squad? Chelsea fans will be in a position whereby they'll have to test if the Abramovich reactive nature we've seen at Chelsea over the last 20 years is still there under the new ownership. They'll have to prove that they are a more forgiving, rational and looking at longevity."
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