Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has taken a pop at his critics in the media, defending the club’s transfer strategy under his stewardship.
Boehly and his BlueCo consortium took over at Stamford Bridge in 2022 and have taken an unusual approach to the transfer market since.
They have spent big – which is nothing new – but often on young and not entirely proven talents, signed up to very long contracts.
The Chelsea hierarchy hope their gambles will pay off and in the coming years they will boast a team capable of winning the biggest prizes on offer.
The risk is that the signings were misjudged or don’t work for any number of reasons and the club is lumbered with a player who cost a substantial amount on a long contract, proving difficult to move on.
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The FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Conference League have been won under BlueCo, but the Premier League and Champions League is what they are really aiming at, given the level of investment.
Chelsea cost the consortium £4.25bn, with a commitment to spent another £1.75bn.
Until the Blues land the biggest prizes, the approach will be questioned, but Boehly is confident in what he is doing, with experience as an owner of Major League Baseball side Los Angeles Dodgers.
‘The English papers remind me every day how smart they are and how stupid I am,’ said via AFR.
‘Sometimes my wife and my family take it differently than I take it. I just find it’s one more person that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.’
He said on the current Chelsea side: ‘You’re going to continue to watch our team evolve and grow.
‘We’ve got them together for a long time. I’m pretty excited about what the future looks like.’
Directly questioned about goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and a lack of leaders in the young Blues side, Boehly was firm.
‘Sanchez is doing pretty damn well right now,’ he said. ‘Reece James has become an unbelievable leader.’
Speaking earlier this year about how he has found owning a football club for the first time, Boehly said, via Sports Illustrated: ‘We have a good partnership. Like every partnership, you have times that you have to work through and times that are better.
‘We hit the ground running in such an intense timeline that it was a complex moment. We’re through it and we’re excited about what the future holds.
‘We think we have one of the best young teams. We were early on doing seven, eight, nine year contracts because we really wanted to make sure that we could keep the team together for a long time. In order to have a really good team you need stability within the team, environment.
‘The only way that comes is through time. We set it up to be able to benefit from that.’