The arrival of Laurence Stewart signals a key moment in Todd Boehley's early days as Chelsea majority shareholder as he now looks to have completed the backroom team will work towards implementing his long-term ambitions in West London.
The technical director joins from current club Monaco, having previously held a role within the Red Bull Soccer International as global head of scouting. The Brit was also formerly head of performance analysis at Manchester City and boasts an impressive CV within world football.
Having worked within both the Red Bull system and with Manchester City, who are part of the wider City Football Group network, he is well positioned to bring Chelsea towards their goal of building such a group for themselves. Boehly confirmed this plan at a recent SALT conference, saying: “We’ve talked about having a multi-club model.
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“I would love to continue to build out the footprint. There are different countries where there are advantages to having a club. Red Bull does a good job. Manchester City has a big network of clubs.
“Our goal is to ensure pathways for our young stars to get on to the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time. To do that is through another club in a really competitive league in Europe.”
In the announcement, Stewart was said to be in a 'new position as technical director to focus on football globally'. He is to work alongside fellow new technical director Christopher Vivell, who has also worked as part of the Red Bull system in order to replicate the smart recruitment which took Chelsea target Christopher Nkunku to RB Leipzig.
Following his appointment, Stewart said: ‘I’m delighted to be joining Chelsea and excited about the vision and direction of the club under the new ownership group. I am excited to join them to help them build a world-class global sporting organisation to consistently win on the pitch at the highest levels and provide player pathways to help develop our talent.’
The appointment - along with Vivell's - could also signal a turn away from the model which saw the Blues linked with Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly all joining as big names during the most recent window with Boehly in charge of transfers.
Ronaldo has again been touted as a potential target for Chelsea amid his falling out with Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag which saw the Portugal forward dropped for the 1-1 draw between the sides at Stamford Bridge last weekend. Given Chelsea's ambitions towards a long-term transfer strategy under the new regime, a potential deal for the 38-year-old seems further away than ever before.
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