Todd Boehly’s departure proves the rumours were true
On September 16, news broke that Todd Boehly, businessman, co-founder of Eldridge Industries, and Chelsea co-owner had left the club. In 2022, the 52-year-old American partnered with Clearlake Capital to buy the from the then-embattled Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich had been targeted by the United Kingdom (UK) Government when Russia president Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine. Of course there was uproar, and the UK government was in desperate need for a scapegoat. In comes the Russian oligarch, who has been running an Uber-successful business in London since 2003.
The UK forced the then-Chelsea owner to sell, and Boehly led the consortium that eventually bought it.
Since then, everything has been upside down. Boehly’s first action was to make himself interim Sporting Director, directly overseeing contracts and transfers. This did not go well, with the club spending money that did nothing to improve the team. All the players the Blues signed in that first window are all long gone, except Wesley Fofana.
The Blues have spent between £1.6 and 1.9 billion in transfer funds ever since, routinely spending over £300m every year. Yet, the team is worse for wear. More reinforcements came in last summer, but there are still complaints about the squad depth, which suggests that the money was not well spent.
Todd Boehly’s role
Many fans believe Boehly had the best interests of the club at heart, and that is likely true. After Chelsea’s 12th place finish under the new ownership in its first full season, Clearlake became impatient, and started getting more directly involved in the daily operations, through Behdad Eghbali.
To say that Clearlake’s direct involvement made things worse, would be like saying the Sun is a bit hot. Chelsea has only recorded two top six finishes since the new ownership took over. The other two times, the Blues finished 12th (2022/23) and 10th (2025/26).
The Rumour
We started hearing whispers some years ago that Boehly was not in agreement with Clearlake’s methods, and was considering selling the shares he owned. Some fans even wished that he’d buy out Clearlake’s shares, which is ridiculously unlikely considering they brought a major chunk of the money used for the acquisition.
Clearlake had aggressively embarked on a mission to buy young players for cheap, then sell them later. The issue, of course, is that they weren’t buying cheap. 17-19 year-olds were consistently coming in for relatively big money. This led to a lot of valuable transfer funds being drained away in the name of buying for the future. The plan has not worked, and now Chelsea is facing a ban for infringing on spending rules.
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This may be why Boehly is leaving, he might be bailing because the whole endeavor has been a waste of everyone’s money, and as we know, he doesn’t have as much of it as Clearlake.
What this means for the club ownership
As Chelsea has announced, Clearlake will now acquire full ownership of the club, after buying the shares Boehly held while he was chairman.
Chelsea fans should brace themselves, because where Clearlake were required to get Boehly onboard, they don’t have that constraint anymore. Boehly was the one that thought the fans are at the heart of the club, and with him gone, no one knows what motivates Clearlake’s decisions now.
Actually…I think we can all guess what motivates them.