Todd Boehly (right), Chelsea owner, during the 0-0 draw between his club and Fulham on February 3rd.
Foto: Justin Setterfield (Getty Images)
It’s been fifty years since Pink Floyd sang: “Money / It’s a scoop / New car, caviar, four stars, daydream / I think I’ll buy a football team.” Todd Boehly was born in the year Roger Waters wrote this grandiose «Money». He’s a hedge fund manager, made rich in a business that requires insider knowledge. And he is the face of the group of five who had the pleasure of buying a football club last May. She put 4.74 billion francs on the table to take over from Roman Abramovich at Chelsea.
Abramovich was the oligarch who changed and shaped football with his billions. Compared to Boehly, however, he now comes across as a poor fellow. Boehly throws money around like it’s worth nothing. The Guardian put it nicely: “He walks through the shark-infested casino floors of football with a sack of money and asks how you play blackjack. That’s not rational.”
In two transfer periods, Boehly has thrown 600 million francs on the market for new staff on behalf of his colleagues, 280 by September, and even 320 in January, which is more than was spent in Spain, Germany, Italy and France combined. At best, this is a dubious understanding of philanthropy, to which the Bernese entrepreneur and Boehly partner Hansjörg Wyss is committed. At worst, it’s just plain unscrupulous.
Boehly partner: The Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss.
Photo: Peter Klaunzer (Keystone)
In the summer it was said: 80 million for Wesley Fofana? No problem. 65 for Marc Cucurella? Marc who? But no problem either. 9 million for an 18-year-old goalie from Chicago? Do we. That’s how it went on and on. Boehly would have loved to have had Cristiano Ronaldo as well, almost as a collector’s item. Thomas Tuchel was able to prevent that. A few weeks later, the coach, who had won the Champions League for Chelsea the previous year, was no longer in office.
Who can find a fool paying the moon prices of the unsuspecting at Stamford Bridge?
In place of a world coach came one with no track record, Graham Potter from Brighton. At least he got a five-year contract. The fact that the results were not correct was forgiven him. Boehly followed suit in the winter. Another eight players were brought in – some with contracts like for Mychajlo Mudryk. The Ukrainian, 22 and with a palmares even narrower than Potter’s, was allowed to sign for eight and a half years. By 2031, he will collect 110,000 francs a week.
Cost Chelsea 120 million: Enzo Fernandez.
Foto: Justin Setterfield (Getty Images)
Mudryk’s old club Schachtor Donetsk will be paid a maximum of 110 million. Enzo Fernandez is a bit more expensive. After six months at Benfica Lisbon and winning the World Cup, the Argentine costs 120 million. He is the same age as Mudryk and is said to embody the new Chelsea’s philosophy of buying young talent and hoping they become more valuable. Chelsea aren’t the first club to try that. Chelsea have done it themselves and failed miserably. Above all, there is one problem: Who can find a fool who pays the moon prices of the unsuspecting from Stamford Bridge?
Fernandez makes his debut on Friday night. Mudryk also plays. Against their small neighbors Fulham, the Blues just managed a 0-0 draw. They then continue to bob up and down in 9th place.
Found a mistake?Report now.
– Chelsea between clueless and unscrupulous
No transfer fee is too high for club owner Todd Boehly. And yet the English Premier League team is only 9th.