Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has confirmed that the club have plans to try and emulate Premier League rivals Manchester City's "multi-club" model.
Boehly's £4.25billion capture of the club was confirmed at the end of May and the LA Dodgers chief has not been shy in making sweeping changes at Stamford Bridge. The Blues spent in excess of £270m in the summer transfer window, while former boss Thomas Tuchel was ruthlessly axed last week.
Following the appointment of Graham Potter as the club's new head coach shortly after Tuchel's departure, Boehly has confirmed that the Blues are now looking at a number of possible options to help evolve their operations going forward - and plans include following in the footsteps of their title rivals.
Manchester City's owners, The City Football Group, own a network of clubs across the globe and have enjoyed sustained success over the past decade. Some of the clubs under the network include Girona, Lommel SK, Melbourne City and New York City FC.
Speaking at the SALT conference, Boehly said: "“We are not expecting to be the football experts to find the best talent. We are going to put those people in place... We have talked about having a multi-club model, and I would love to build out the footprint."
A similar model has yielded success for other teams across Europe, including the Red Bull network. Boehly highlighted the evolution that both Leipzig and Salzburg have had after operating in a similar set-up before also touching on how the approach could help take youth development at Stamford Bridge to the next level.
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Chelsea have placed a real emphasis on youth development in recent years. That approach has continued following Boehly's takeover, as the Blues have continued to hoover up some of Europe's most highly-rated youngsters in recent months.
Boehly continued: “I think there are different countries where there are advantages to having a club. Red Bull does a really good job, they’ve got Leipzig and they have Salzburg, both of which are playing in the Champions League. They’ve figured out how to make that work.
“You have Man City, which has a big network of clubs. The challenge that Chelsea has right now is that when you have 18 to 20 year-old superstars, you can loan them out to other clubs but you put their development in someone else’s hands.
“Our goal is to make sure we can develop pathways for our Chelsea superstars to get onto the pitch while getting game-time. For me, the way to do that is to get another club in a very competitive league, maybe somewhere in Europe.”
