Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has brushed off calls for him to leave the club following a fan-led protest outside Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night, claiming such occurrences are ‘par for the course’.
The Blues have shelled out in excess of £1.5billion on new signings since Boehly’s takeover nearly three years ago, but the club have only finished as high as sixth in the Premier League in that time.
Supporters have not had a major trophy to celebrate since as far back as the 2020/21 season, when Thomas Tuchel steered the west London giants to Champions League glory.
Frustrations over a lack of silverware have intensified amongst the fanbase in recent months, with Enzo Maresca’s men dropping out of the top four following a desperately poor run of results.
Prior to Chelsea’s win over Southampton, a group of Chelsea fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge to voice their discontent with BlueCo, the consortium led by Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter, and Hansjorg Wyss.
Chants of, ‘We want our Chelsea back’, and , ‘Boehly, you’re a c***’, were heard during the protest, while some took their opportunity to voice their support of their former owner Roman Abramovich.
‘I just think it is par for the course. The sooner you learn you are not going to keep all the people happy all the time, the freedom shows up,’ Boehly said when asked about the protest while speaking at today’s FT Business of Football Summit.
‘We are just trying to execute a plan and recognise things aren’t linear, and we are trending in the right direction.
‘The trend is moving in the right direction and that’s the thing that really matters.
‘In June, it will be three years in charge. That’s not a lot of time, especially when you get to 50, 60 or 70 years old in life.
‘It’s a whirlwind of activity and steep learning curve, but I think that’s also a good thing.’
Boehly took aim to the British media for fuelling the discontent among fans and ‘exaggerating’ stories for their own gain.
‘The one thing I’ve learned about the British press is they exaggerate a lot and leave stuff out. I am not going to comment,’ the American billionaire added.
‘We have agreed on a strategy and a way forward and stuff is getting done.
‘I don’t look in the rear-view mirror.’
Chelsea have been widely criticised for overspending on young talent since Boehly’s takeover in 2022, while questions have been asked of the club’s willingness to let experienced heads leave, at times for direct rivals.
‘We look at how do we put together a team that stays together,’ Boehly said in response to these questions.
‘If you look at the great dynasties in sport over the years, they all had superstar captains for many years, and part of what we look at is how we find that superstar captain or player that can stay with the team for their career.’
The Blues were linked with a number of high-profile attackers in January, but the transfer deadline came and went without a single first-team addition being made at Stamford Bridge.
Boehly was keen to stress that top strikers are ‘hard to find’ and Chelsea were not prepared to sign a player without the ‘right mentality’ to fit Maresca’s squad.
‘The most misunderstood thing is we are thinking about measuring success in years,’ he continued.
‘Strikers are hard to find. You don’t go into the grocery store and say, “I am going to get a striker”.
‘It is an amazing skillset and you have to have the right mentality.’