By any measure it has been change on an epic scale at Chelsea. In the playing squad, the manager’s office, and among those who work at Stamford Bridge and the Cobham training ground, a lot has happened in the space of two years under a new ownership.
The impending departures of Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah are the latest from among a playing staff who developed under the old regime of Roman Abramovich. More than 40 players have left the first-team squad since the May 2022 takeover, not including loans. But it has not ended there – under a restless new ownership, eager for its own success on the pitch to match that of the previous two decades, tumultuous change has ripped through the club.
From managers and their assistants, to doctors, physiotherapists, football staff, at Cobham and beyond to Stamford Bridge’s commercial, financial and communication staff – everyone can agree on one thing: Chelsea is very different. So much so that it is easier to name those who have not gone, rather than those who have.
From groundsmen to masseurs, marketing executives to academy managers, even the HR specialists whose job it is to negotiate departures – the people who ran the Abramovich regime have been swept away. On the playing side, there have been four managers, including one interim, and all those players, including many academy graduates who – like Gallagher, Chalobah, and Armando Broja, all three on the brink of leaving – have spent much of their youth at Chelsea.
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Each story has been different, and not all the details of many of those who have left have yet fully emerged. Neil Bath, the cornerstone of Chelsea’s academy for so many years, and the club’s old sage who predated Abramovich, was in a wider role at Cobham when he announced he was leaving last month. That was connected to the departure of his friend Jimmy Fraser, who left his role as Bath’s successor as academy director.
At the other end of the scale there have been some brought in by the new ownership since May 2022, who have already gone, such as technical director Christopher Vivell, and president of business, Tom Glick.
What is going on? At the heart of it is the ownership consortium, and in particular Behdad Eghbali. He is the Californian private equity billionaire, who controls the Clearlake Capital fund that in turn controls 62 per cent of the club. Eghbali and his Clearlake partner Jose E Feliciano have a 50-50 share of decisions with fellow consortium principal, the US investor Todd Boehly. Each decision requires all their signatures. Yet those on the inside agree that it is Eghbali’s presence that is felt at the club above any other.
‘Chelsea are in a race to catch up’
What is going on? At the heart of it is the ownership consortium, and in particular Behdad Eghbali. He is the Californian private equity billionaire, who controls the Clearlake Capital fund that in turn controls 62 per cent of the club. Eghbali and his fellow consortium principal, the US investor Todd Boehly, have a 50-50 share of decisions and each requires both their signatures. Yet those on the inside agree that it is Eghbali’s presence that is felt at the club above any other.
Eghbali’s view is understood to be that Chelsea are racing to catch up, and that building a club will invariably involve some casualties. Abramovich sacked his managers regularly, but underneath that Chelsea changed relatively little. Among the now-sanctioned Russian’s leading aides, Marina Granovskaia, his former PA, became the key power. Abramovich’s long-term New York lawyer Bruce Buck was chairman. Beyond that were Chelsea employees who had been there for decades.
The view of Eghbali is understood to be less than complimentary on that front: that the club was run more like a family business. To the extent that in at least one department, more than one generation of a family were employed. Certainly, that is no longer the case as the wind of change whistles through the club.
To others who have worked there, the pace of change is simply too dizzying. The speed with which decisions are made about the suitability of new hires is too rapid. Some say the ownership is too susceptible to chasing the latest shiny new thing, whether that is a new player or an exec at a rival club. They also point out that for all the eagerness of the private equity money to create a business in line with its own corporate ideals – Chelsea once used to win trophies.
One thing is clear, the Eghbali way is not going to change. Hires deemed the wrong fit are quickly moved on. He tells those around him, better to concede a mistake has been made rather than struggle on with those who do not fit.
For Vivell, now working at Manchester United, the seven months he lasted having left RB Leipzig will not have been enough. Glick arrived from Manchester City in June 2022 and departed in November of the following year. That first summer of the new regime, when Boehly was the sporting director on a temporary basis, did not deliver the successful new squad that was intended. The defender Kalidou Koulibaly lasted one year before he was dispatched to Saudi Arabia. The club now seem to be listening to offers for Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke.
That is before one gets to the managers: Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, the ill-starred Frank Lampard caretaker period and then Mauricio Pochettino’s single season. What has not changed are the co-sporting directors, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, who have had their roles expanded since their appointments in late 2022. They have Eghbali’s absolute trust. Although beyond the inner circle at Chelsea, the jury is still out on both of them.
No love for the previous regime
There is no love lost between the Eghbali-Boehly regime and the one that preceded it. That starts with the self-reporting of financial issues under the Abramovich regime – not yet fully disclosed – that are currently being investigated by the Premier League and have been the subject of a settlement with Uefa. But it goes further. The new ownership sees fault everywhere with the club they inherited. From the shortcomings on digital and licensing revenue, to why it was that Chelsea academy players needed extensive loans to prepare themselves for the senior team while Manchester City’s young talent have been Premier League ready.
Either way, there have now been four managers, one disastrous 12th-place Premier League finish and last season’s sixth. There will be no hiding place for the Eghbali-Boehly consortium in 2024-2025. Key figures there say they have learned from mistakes. Fellow underachievers Manchester United, also under new leadership, have stuck with their manager. Eghbali-Boehly have changed again with Enzo Maresca.
The club’s profit and sustainability compliancy appears to have been achieved by the sale of hotels and the women’s team within the group, to the dismay of rivals. The club has sold academy graduates to help balance its huge transfer spend. Its wage bill has been reduced. Nevertheless, the unique challenge the Premier League presents goes beyond just hiring executives and recruitment experts. But if there were titles available for that alone, Chelsea would be in contention.
Joe Shields from Manchester City, and Sam Jewell from Brighton make up the rest of the recruitment and academy inner circle around Eghbali. The new chief executive, Chris Jurasek came from the US, as did the chief operating officer Jason Gannon, who worked on the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. There are new chief revenue and marketing officers and more British-based US football execs to come. United’s chief executive of digital, Phil Lynch, is serving his notice at Old Trafford. So too Tottenham Hotspur’s chief commercial officer, Todd Kline.
Culture clash at the club
As for those who have left, it would be right to say the medical department has changed beyond recognition, starting with the director Paco Biosca and including almost all the physiotherapists. Dissatisfaction with the state of the Stamford Bridge pitch resulted in the departure of the club’s long-serving head groundsman Jason Griffin after 34 years. He was replaced by Paul Burgess, now the club’s director of global sports services and landscaping, who was previously at Real Madrid and then Monaco with Stewart.
The club’s director of facilities, Paul Kingsmore, a key figure in ensuring Chelsea complied with the regulations laid out during Covid, has departed. So too Joanne Stone, the club’s director of human resources. The head of global merchandise Richard Milham is expected to leave after 27 years. Simon Hunter, who has run Stamford Bridge’s matchday commercial businesses for 21 years, is also expected to leave.
Among the communications department, Steve Atkins and Adrian Phillips, who both worked more than 10 years with a range of Abramovich managers, have both gone. Toby Craig, recruited by Glick from City post-takeover, has also left. He is now in a similar role at United
The survivors? David Barnard, the club secretary, a key administrative role, started at the club in 2002, before the Abramovich takeover. The financial director Paul Ramos remains in post, although there is a new chief financial officer. The club’s general counsel James Bonington is expected to be given an expanded role.
One can only hope that among the new executive line-up someone has an answer to what might be arguably the most difficult question facing Chelsea: the future of Stamford Bridge. No announcements have been forthcoming.
As for the homegrown players in the first team squad, the ownership has backed Reece James and Levi Colwill with new deals but by the end of the window they may be the last two. Yet the squad is currently enormous: 53 including the four out on loan.
At the very least one could say it has been a culture clash – the frantic and disruptive tech business creed of 2020s America meets a football club made successful by a mysterious billionaire and his small inner circle. The Chelsea of Eghbali and of Boehly lay claim to be completely different to the Abramovich regime. Although perhaps in the way in which they reflect the personalities of their super-rich owners, they are more similar than they think.
Source Agencies
