Welcome To European Football, Todd Boehly

It’s no secret that this transfer window has been nothing short of disastrous for Todd Boehly’s newly acquired European Football giant, Chelsea FC. Upon Boehly’s arrival, a brief stint of fresh air was available for Chelsea fans to inhale, only for it to be slowly sucked out of the room as the following summer months came and went. For an owner who’d just made (at the time) the largest sports-franchise purchase in world history, how did it all go so wrong so quickly?

Boehly made it relatively clear that he intended to make a big splash — as many new owners across all sports (especially Americans) do. Fittingly, the weeks following the completion of Chelsea’s sale were met with rumors suggesting the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Raphinha, Matthijs de Ligt, Jules Koundé, Nathan Ake, and Raheem Sterling, amongst others, could be close to joining Chelsea. Boehly’s west-London project was off to a roaring start according to mainstream media outlets ranging from ESPNFC, to Sky Sports, and most notably, the king of all Football transfer updates — Fabrizio Romano.

Romano, the most relied upon twitter-force in world football, let it be known that many of the headlines linking Chelsea with some of the sports' biggest names were true. With news of Cristiano Ronaldo not so shockingly wanting out of yesterday’s Football royalty, Manchester United, in hopes of not wasting his latter years competing for a Europa Title, a meeting immediately commenced between Boehly and Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes. Mendes offered his star client's services to Chelsea and naturally, Boehly was intrigued.

From a new owner's perspective, the opportunity to sign a name, so big that even most Americans were familiar with, at such a cheap cost seemed too good to be true. And it was — as news of Ronaldo’s interest in joining Chelsea was met with disapproval by Chelsea’s highly-regarded manager, Thomas Tuchel. At that point in time, early in the window, Tuchel’s rationale was sound. Chelsea, a young squad full of attacking players who were already in constant competition for playing time, need not add an attacker that would apply more pressure on said young players to produce while simultaneously making it more difficult for them to find meaningful minutes and focus on much-needed development.

Ronaldo was simply a luxury piece that Chelsea didn’t view as crucial to their future success. On the other hand, fresh off losing central defenders (center-backs or “CBs”) Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen, two centerpieces of their 2021 UEFA Champions League (“UCL”) Title campaign, came the true area of improvement that needed to be addressed in Boehly’s first window in charge — Chelsea needed two UCL-quality CB’s ASAP. As noted above, Chelsea had been linked with high-profile CB’s Matthijs de Ligt, Jules Koundé, and Nathan Ake. In fact, Chelsea had agreed to personal terms with Jules Koundé a year prior, only for the transfer to be put on hold due to the Roman Abromovic saga that saw Chelsea’s ability to conduct business put on hold for multiple months.

Here’s the part of the story where things start to go wrong for Boehly…

While Boehly’s intentions were pure in his desire to bring needed quality improvements to Fulham Road, it quickly became evident that he’d spread himself too thin and, like a kid in a candy shop or me in a casino, was blinded by the lights of every option he could dream of being placed in front of him at once. While the deal with Koundé was in advanced stages, rather than concentrating on getting that business over the finish line, Boehly was meeting with Barcelona president Joan Laporta in hopes of establishing friendly relations with one of Europe’s biggest clubs. After his meetings in Barcelona, he flew back to London to complete an, at the time, accepted bid for highly sought-after Raphinha from Leeds United…

At this point in time, Boehly was thinking that his first transfer window was going swimmingly, and public perception concurred. It was time to move forward with business and meet with Manchester City over the rights to Raheem Sterling and Nathan Ake, with news that both were on the outside looking in at Pep Guardiola’s future plans. Meanwhile, the club that he’d just met with, Barcelona, was not so secretly pursuing two big names in the transfer market — Jules Koundé and Raphinha…

Raphinha made no secret of his true desire to join Barcelona over Chelsea from the get-go and immediately applied pressure on his current club, Leeds United, to allow Barcelona to make a bid by opting to agree to personal terms with them over Chelsea. In the meantime, Barcelona head coach, and Spanish midfield legend, Xavi Hernandez was reportedly calling Jules Koundé multiple times per week in hopes of convincing the young French CB to buy into his project over Chelsea’s. Boehly promptly handled business with City by agreeing on a fee of 45m pounds + add on’s for Raheem Sterling, while Pep Guardiola changed his mind and decided that Ake was a pivotal piece of his team’s future, ultimately opting to not sell.

Chelsea had now lost Matthijs de Ligt to Bayern Munich, and Nathan Ake over a decision by City to keep him. It was time to shift focus back to Chelsea’s original number one option, Jules Koundé… but it was too late. The French CB had made up his mind that he wished to join Barcelona and, like Raphinha, opted to agree to personal terms with the Catalonians over the Blues, putting Chelsea in the unique position of having their second transfer bid of over £50 million ($61.25 million) accepted by the club, only to be denied at the request of the player.

Public perception of Boehly and Chelsea’s summer had shifted from refreshingly aggressive to naïve and poorly executed. The new American owner had been ingratiated into the world of European Football by being swindled in what can now be perceived as a greater willingness and propensity to spend, than due diligence to understand how business is conducted on the other side of the pond. In Baseball (Boehly owns the Los Angeles Dodgers), players have a level of power that allows them to utilize the media as an ally in the player empowerment movement that can apply pressure on owners to oblige their demands or face a blow to their credibility amongst the players, potentially impacting future business dealings. In European soccer, players can flat-out deny movement by simply not agreeing to personal terms with a club, so even if two clubs agree on a fee — if the player does not agree to join the purchasing team, the deal won't be completed.

With the departures of former Transfer Director Marina Granovskaia and ex-Chelsea legend Petr Čech, Boehly chose to attack his first transfer window as Chelsea’s owner with no real help or experience by his side and was forced to learn the hard way that it takes more than an open checkbook to get business done. While his intention of signing high-profile, young players that his head coach, Thomas Tuchel, envisioned as crucial building blocks to the greater Chelsea project was pure, his efforts were inadequate, as Chelsea only managed to complete two deals — Raheem Sterling from Manchester City, and 31-year-old CB Kalidou Koulibaly on a late, £33 million fee from Napoli.

Now Chelsea face a position where they’ve made only three new signings since winning the UCL Title 14 months ago while losing two of their most important players in the same period. With pressure mounting to add more depth at the back as the English Premier League season starts in five days, Chelsea are said to have entered the race for Brighton CB Marc Cucurella, who had been heavily linked with a move to Manchester City prior to their £40 million bid being rejected by the club. This means that if Chelsea are to land the 24-year-old CB, their bid will likely eclipse £50 million, a heavy tax on a player that wasn’t even on their radar two weeks back.

Chelsea fans across the world can unite in their hopes that Boehly has learned his lesson in dealing with hectic-summer transfer windows — as he will need to hire a real Transfer Director with both in-depth knowledge of how to conduct business with players and teams alike, as well as manage the business as an owner and not a one-stop-shop for all things Chelsea-business related…

So, welcome to European Football, Todd Boehly, and good luck.