Todd Boehly's vision for Chelsea is starting to take shape after a difficult first year at the helm of the football club, which included plenty of transition from the old regime. The American investor, backed by Clearlake Capital, completed a takeover of the Blues in May 2022 from former owner Roman Abramovich.
Winning the race to buy the west London outfit, the new owners looked to make a host of changes to set the operation up in their vision. A whole host of signings were needed first to replenish the squad before the controversial decision to dismiss Thomas Tuchel was made.
Graham Potter was seen as the new man for the future of Chelsea, but after a January window that included another heavy investment, a lack of results eventually saw him let go too. Bruno Saltor was handed one game in charge as caretaker boss before former midfielder and manager Frank Lampard took over as interim until the end of the campaign.
A painful year came to an end with the side in 12th in the Premier League, a feat that the new owners will be looking to avoid for the foreseeable future. Behind the scenes though, the implementation of changes has been taking shape, with the recruitment team just one of the backroom departments to be completely restructured.
There's a clear goal of being sustainably run for the future, be that through young signings or the use of the academy and loan exits in the years ahead. One of the ideas that could help this is a multi-club model, similar to that of Manchester City's City Football Group or the Red Bull clubs.
READ MORE: Chelsea news and transfers LIVE: Medical booked, Moises Caicedo bid, Mason Mount deal, Havertz move
It could allow for players to be signed through the system to be developed for the top level or for the easy facilitation of loan spells that work for not only experience, but also for potential work permit reasons too. “We’re going to be continuously adding resources. We’ve talked about having a multi-club model,” Boehly told the SALT Conference last year.
“I would love to continue to build out the footprint. There’s different countries where there’s advantages to having a club. Red Bull does a really good job at Leipzig and at Salzburg, both of which are playing in the Champions League, so they’ve figured out how to make that work. You have Man City that has a very big network of clubs.
“I think the challenge that Chelsea has now, or one of them, is that when you have 18, 19, 20-year-old superstars, you can loan them out to other clubs but you put their development in someone else’s hands. I think that our goal is to make sure we can show pathways for our young superstars to get onto the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time."
Boehly has moved one step closer to that dream after an official statement from RC Strasbourg confirmed Boehly and his investors have completed a takeover of the club. The deal is said to be worth £65million, which could allow for the start of his vision in regards to transfers.
The move has provoked angry reactions from fans of the club though, with some holding banners that say: "Boehly, not welcome," as their club looks set to change under new ownership, bringing into question the morality and place of multi-club models in the modern game.
