Why fan anger has reached boiling point at Chelsea

It may surprise Chelsea fans to learn that Todd Boehly is considered something of a master operator in Hollywood for the way he turned around the fortunes of the Golden Globes following a crisis.

Not that many of the stars who attended this year’s ceremony will have even recognised the billionaire who snuck in wearing jeans, arriving before Timothee Chalamet, Steven Spielberg and co. took to the red carpet.

Boehly became interim chief executive of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – owners of the Golden Globes – after the awards became mired in scandal, made moves, secured new television rights deals, restored faiths, and ratings have increased.

The 50-year-old’s stock is so high in the finance, entertainment and sports worlds across the Atlantic that at this year’s do, held at the Beverly Hilton, he was trailed by journalists writing a profile for the illustrious American business magazine Forbes.

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Still, that his multi-billion pound Premier League project is failing — and that perceptions of Boehly in England are somewhat at odds with elsewhere — was given only a fleeting reference.

Fans seeking answers in rare public comments on Chelsea had to read right to the end of the glowing 3,000-word profile of their club’s owner and were left disappointed by a few meagre lines about “letting the process develop” and “staying on course”.

At the Globes ceremony, Boehly would watch as Beef, created by a production company his Eldridge investment firm owns a stake in, won three awards. The entire premise of the Netflix show is the escalating feud between Danny Cho and Amy Lau sparked by a road rage incident.

It is kind of like what has developed between Chelsea’s owners and the club’s fans ever since Boehly partnered with Clearlake Capital to buy the west London club two years ago next month.

Episode after episode filled with disaster: billions spent on struggling young players, promises of a new stadium seemingly back to square one, two failed managers, another still unable to endear himself to supporters, successive failures to qualify for Europe.

It has all led to an astonishing nadir (at least, many hope it is the lowest ebb) when the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust published an open letter accusing the owners of turning them into a laughing stock and stickers sprung up around Stamford Bridge depicting Boehly and Clearlake Capital owners Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano as clowns.

“Everything is going wrong at the moment,” Dan Silver, a CST board member who has been a regular at Stamford Bridge for around four decades, tells i.

But where has it gone wrong? Why has it gone wrong? How has such an accomplished businessman in so many fields — Eldridge invest in more than 100 companies — including American sports failed so spectacularly in the Premier League and in the process created a divide with the fanbase filled with toxicity and anger?

Perhaps the early years after Roman Abramovich, forced to sell the club due to his links to Russia’s war in Ukraine, were always destined to play out this way.

Pochettino is likely to be given more time (Photo: Getty)

“Whoever replaced Roman was going to have big shoes to fill,” Silver says. “It’s a bit like replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. The difference was then we were successful on the pitch. To go from world champions to mid-table in three years is a huge fall from grace.

“There’s no real connection to any of the squad. Reece [James] and Conor [Gallagher] from the academy, but that’s it. When Abramovich took over from Ken Bates you still had [Frank] Lampard, [John] Terry, [Eider] Gudjohnson, [Jimmy Floyd] Hasselbaink, and a few others. There was a connection. That was something to build on.”

Silver adds: “The owners have come in and haven’t understood British football culture. It’s unique. In America it’s very different — they’re franchises, not clubs. The fan culture is very different.”

Sources see the problems stemming from Boehly, who immediately installed himself as chairman, removing the foundations of the club and trying to do too much too soon. Remnants of the Abramovich era were swiftly removed, including the core executive trio of Bruce Buck, Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech, leaving the new, inexperienced incumbents building on shaky ground.

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Chelsea have been accused of poor communication with supporters and perhaps some honesty about the initial years may have smoothed some of the rougher edges. Yes, there was talk of “the project”, but there was also talk of winning things right now, from the owners to Graham Potter, the first manager, to Frank Lampard, the fan-favourite former player brought in on an interim basis, to Mauricio Pochettino.

“I think if they’d come out and said this is the project, we’re going to have a couple of year of ups and downs, poor results, maybe no European football, but we hope by the start of season three we’re going to be more stable and where we want to be [it would have helped],” Silver says.

Some sources point to new songs emerging about new players — such as Cole Palmer, the young English forward an undoubted success since signing from Manchester City, and Malo Gusto, the 20-year-old full-back who was little known before he joined — as early signs of a connection forging between the squad and the supporters.

Club officials have held regular meetings with various fan forums and groups. They understand supporter frustrations, but are trying. The previous ownership were like a brick wall.

Indeed, the Fan Advisory Board, made up of seven supporters, sits in board meetings and released a statement in response to the CST’s open letter insisting executives are working with them to shape the club’s future.

Pochettino, a hugely likeable figure in the game, is yet to win fans over. But he has said himself he has no interest in kissing the badge or playing up on the touchline, wanting to earn their respect organically.

In the summer, when executives review everything about the season, Pochettino’s performance will be looked at but he is expected to be given more time. By then he will have one year remaining on his contract — with the club retaining an option to extend it by 12 months.

The volume and severity of injuries has certainly played a part in the struggle.

Nonetheless, the perception, among the wider fanbase and beyond, that Chelsea’s owners don’t have a handle on things has not been enhanced by the protracted situation with the stadium.

From the start, Boehly identified the club’s relatively small home — Stamford Bridge, with a 40,341 capacity, is only the ninth biggest in the Premier League — as a significant growth area, but the dense central London location is notoriously difficult to work in.

Boehly’s American success is unrecognisable at Chelsea (Photo: Getty)

The potential option of building a new stadium in nearby Earls Court was explored, but the site was sold for housing. And any plans are further complicated by the fact Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), a non-profit made up of fans, own the freehold to Stamford Bridge and the club’s name.

Addressing members at the CPO’s recent Annual General Meeting chair Chris Isitt said: “Having embarked on this project some 18 months ago, it appears that the club has more or less gone back to the start of the process following the recent appointment of new senior executives, and consequently it appears that the timeline for the redevelopment project will stretch well into the future.”

Last week, however, the club completed the £80m purchase of the Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions site next to Stamford Bridge. It extends the club’s footprint by almost two acres, enabling them to knock down the existing stadium and build a larger one. That is emerging as the most likely direction of travel.

Still, Silver fears that “unless they find some land somewhere magically we’re at least seven to 10 years away” from a new stadium. “If they do something at Stamford Bridge planning will take another two years at least, then building. I can’t imagine we’re in a new stadium before the next decade, unless a miracle happens. A new stadium is a long way off.”

Add to this the unprecedented approach of making big bets on a bunch of young, unproven players tied to the club on long contracts has, so far, not worked. And the idea that all of these footballers will come good is the sort of satisfying conclusion to the TV shows that won trophies at the Golden Globes. The Premier League tends to have more unforgiving storylines.

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With all this going on, fans have taken to the boards of Reddit to ask Americans what they make of Boehly and why his time at Chelsea is so contrasting to the LA Dodgers.

At the start of the last decade, the Dodgers were one of the worst-run sports teams in the States when Boehly, alongside a consortium, became co-owner. They are now one of the world’s leading baseball teams. It is considered one of American sport’s great revivals.

Yet intriguingly, some fans have never heard of him, and point out Boehly is only a minority owner. In some reports he is hailed as the man who pulled the strings behind the curtain, but how much influence he has had is unclear. Certainly not as much as at Chelsea.

Either way, the cards could barely be more delicately balanced at a time when clubs everywhere are infuriating far more contented fanbases by ramping up ticket prices during a cost-of-living crisis.

Should fans be charged more? The league campaigns have been dismal but Pochettino has guided them to one cup final and remains in the last four of another.

“If they do a massive increase on season tickets, it’s going to be a problem,” Silver says. “They’ve got to get the next few steps absolutely spot on. If they get it wrong they’re going to be even more unpopular.

“If they’re sensible they’ll do it in line with inflation and won’t make too many changes. If they want a win they’ll freeze season ticket prices because everything has been so bad. It will get them some good grace.”

If not Chelsea may see the beef extending into a third season.