Recently, multiple media outlets have confirmed that Todd Boehly, one of Chelsea's owners, is preparing to sell his stake. The British Daily Telegraph published a column discussing Boehly's four years at Chelsea. Below is the full translation of the column.

Telegraph column: "Todd Boehly's departure from Chelsea will mark the end of one of football's strangest ownership stories featuring a billionaire."

Todd Boehly, the chairman who became the public face of the club following the 2022 takeover, is preparing to leave, leaving behind a series of puzzling decisions and new-money behavior.

Boehly's era at Chelsea will be remembered for chaos and the powerful effect of the primacy bias. As the spokesman for a loosely formed billionaire consortium, Boehly voluntarily stepped into the public eye, and the English football public has never let him fade into obscurity. Primacy bias, put simply, means that once a first impression is formed, it is very difficult to erase later. The first impression Boehly left on Chelsea fans was sufficiently complex and striking. This complexity stems from both lavish spending in the transfer market and his occasionally unprofessional remarks.

It appears to be only a matter of time before Boehly and his equivalently influential investment partner Mark Walter sell their 12.83% stake in Chelsea to Clearlake Capital, the largest shareholder in the consortium. According to multiple media reports, the deal has been struck, and what remains appears to be largely procedural. The third party in the consortium is 90-year-old Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, and the fate of his 12.83% stake remains unclear. Wyss could leisurely stroll down Fulham Road with his senior bus pass, completely unnoticed, but Boehly has not had that luxury.

However, Boehly is not actually Chelsea's true decision-maker, at least not the driving force behind core decisions—though most people mistakenly believed he was after the failed transfer activities in the summer 2022 transfer window. Some might argue that his performance in that transfer window cemented his position in the public's perception. In 2022, new to football, he served as both chairman and temporary sporting director, signing Raheem Sterling for £50 million and offering him a five-year contract worth £325,000 per week. That deal has been repeatedly cited since, not only for its price and wages, but because it essentially became a microcosm of Boehly's initial decision-making style.

If the contract had proceeded normally, it would still be active, but Sterling has essentially said goodbye to his professional playing career. If his legal case this week does not go well, it may not even be the worst outcome. In other words, the contract remains in effect, but the player's peak career has ended prematurely. Such a disparity has become one of the most memorable images of Boehly's early era.

Returning to Boehly, he once publicly questioned why the Premier League doesn't hold an All-Star match, acting exactly like a "newcomer" to football. Though his public statements are often considered inappropriate, outsiders once believed he handled matters meticulously behind the scenes, such as Chelsea's core dilemma—whether to rebuild Stamford Bridge or find a new location, which he put on the agenda. But four years have passed, and everything remains unchanged. The stadium issue still awaits resolution, and the direction has not truly been decided.

Among the American executives who attracted early attention and bore responsibility for various issues including the Stamford Bridge location decision, only Jason Gannon remains, currently holding the title of club chairman. Casper Stillesvig, as well as Chris Jurasek and Janet Marie Smith—people transferred from Boehly's Los Angeles Dodgers—have all departed. Whether Chelsea will purchase Earl's Court (the final viable new stadium site in West London) remains undecided, and there has been no significant progress on related matters.

The stadium issue and team performance—these are not entirely Boehly's responsibility and should be borne by the entire consortium. However, after the summer 2022 transfer window, Boehly's role in Chelsea's day-to-day operations was significantly marginalized, replaced by Behdad Eghbali, a senior partner at Clearlake who holds 61.5% of shares and controls the overall situation. All parties will strongly emphasize that any major decision requires the signature of all consortium members, including Boehly, Walter, Wyss, and Eghbali's Clearlake partner Jose Feliciano (who is less involved). Everyone says strategic decisions, including managerial appointments, transfer strategy, and subsequent changes, require consensus.

For most of the past four years, Chelsea has essentially been Eghbali's territory. Last year, before the Club World Cup final, Boehly appeared at the stadium alongside former U.S. President Donald Trump, one of the perks of being chairman. However, by that time, relations between Eghbali and Boehly had fractured, and the entire consortium was rife with underlying tensions.

Clearlake Capital's takeover will end one of football's strangest ownership models. It is difficult for so many prominent figures with inflated egos to work together. According to Walter's statement, Boehly will receive a modest profit from selling his stake, which no one disputes. However, no one believes Boehly originally bought Chelsea solely for this modest profit. If he simply wanted to make quick money, he would not have placed himself in the most visible position in the Premier League.

Last month, Walter sold his NBA team, the Los Angeles Lakers, for £9.2 billion. Meanwhile, he is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for financial fraud allegations, the scope of which remains unclear. Walter has expressed interest in continuing to invest in sports, but how many opportunities does a club like Chelsea face to change ownership? It was Boehly himself who brokered the 2022 deal, inviting Clearlake Capital to join the takeover; as early as 2019, he had nearly led another consortium to acquire Tottenham Hotspur.

Boehly has always wanted a Premier League giant and knows that top clubs are rarely put up for sale, so he needed to leverage Clearlake Capital's private equity funds and invite them in. However, private equity rarely stands aside when assets are mismanaged, and Clearlake was dissatisfied with operations in the first six months after the takeover. Some even believe this was a predetermined strategy: let Boehly take the fall, then seize control.

Today, well-informed Chelsea fans know who runs BlueCo—the parent company established by the consortium, responsible for managing Chelsea and France's Strasbourg. BlueCo's player transaction scale is unprecedented in football, and to meet financial control requirements, it has also sold assets such as the Stamford Bridge Hotel and the women's team through internal deals, even facing UEFA penalties as a result.

The club claims that Boehly signs off on all decisions, which we'll accept provisionally, but whether he is the mastermind behind the scenes is questionable. Signing is one thing; making the final decision is another. Now that he is leaving, it appears to be the optimal choice in his current situation rather than part of his original ambition.

Website AF đã ra mắt! Xem tin tức đầy đủ, bình luận, chi tiết trận đấu và thống kê trên máy tính. Truy cập: www.allfootballapp.com