There is nothing inherently wrong with an owner occasionally entering the dressing room, but the alleged details of Todd Boehly’s pre-Real Madrid speech to the Chelsea players should set alarm bells ringing again among supporters.
Boehly and fellow board members Behdad Eghbali and Hansjorg Wyss visited the dressing room after Saturday’s home defeat by Brighton where the American reportedly told the squad that their season had been “embarrassing” and singled out one senior player, signed for big money in the past year, for heavy criticism.
The visit, described as “not good at all” by one insider, was presumably intended as a timely pep talk ahead of Chelsea’s last chance to save their season against the European champions at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night but, if the details are correct, it is hard to imagine Boehly’s intervention will have improved morale.
No doubt Boehly is embarrassed by how his first season at Chelsea has unfolded, but his feelings are unlikely to be a motivator for the players, particularly when they could fairly point out that the co-owner has caused plenty of the embarrassment himself during the campaign.
Plainly, there are a number of senior Chelsea players who have underperformed, but none is likely to have taken kindly to being singled out by Boehly, a football dilettante who allegedly advised former head coach Thomas Tuchel to play a 4-4-3 formation.
The player in question could fairly point out that he was signed for Tuchel — a world-class coach who was sacked by Boehly and replaced by Graham Potter, who was then sacked and replaced by the man replaced by Tuchel — and has now played under four different managers this season in an environment lacking in direction.
The players are not blameless for Chelsea’s demise, but Boehly is the first person responsible for the current mess. In his defence, at least he appears to care, but he would be better served by keeping some of his opinions to himself, especially when he still has so much to learn about English football.
Boehly’s intervention also undermines Frank Lampard — who has insisted he had no issue with the visit — at a time when the interim boss is still working to win over the players and stamp his authority on a dispirited squad. As for Lampard, Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final decider is a chance to pull off a comeback from 2-0 down which would entirely justify his appointment and enhance his legend among supporters.
The players are not blameless for Chelsea’s demise, but Boehly is the first person responsible for the current mess
Barring another miracle in this competition, however, it is increasingly hard to see logic in his return to the club from a football standpoint. The 44-year-old’s appointment has proved decent PR, lifting the mood of a fanbase which had turned on Potter, but as a coach Lampard is already proving ill-suited to what Chelsea need.
A bloated squad, which had played under three different bosses before Lampard, is desperately in need of consistency and stability, preferably in the form of a coach with a clearly defined way of playing.
Lampard, who has never displayed much in the way of a tactical philosophy as a coach, has instead brought further changes. He has used three different formations in as many games, and between the League matches against Wolves and Brighton, he changed the right-back, a centre-back, the left-back, a midfielder and each of his three forwards.
To be fair, Chelsea have long since given up on the League and perhaps Lampard’s intention is to experiment, to try to find out what works to aid whoever eventually becomes Boehly’s third permanent manager. But a coach whose only qualifications for the job were essentially familiarity, club DNA and a link with Chelsea’s glorious past is only sowing more instability.
Chelsea have the chance to dramatically change the narrative around both Boehly and Lampard with a famous win tonight but, as it stands, their relationship looks like going down as another blunder from a co-owner who is building up quite a collection of misjudgements.
