There are some strange things happening in the London based Chelsea football club. It's just over a hundred days since the new owners took over from and there's been a host of changes both on and off the field. From the seemingly premeditated dismissal of Thomas Tuchel to the latest comments by Todd Boehly, suggesting that English football can learn from American sports and maybe even have a North vs South All Star game. One wonders what it is they are smoking up there, and why doesn't someone stop them?
Tuchel's dismissal
The more time passes, the clearer it becomes that Thomas Tuchel was not in Todd Boehly's plans for the future of Chelsea. It came as a shock to many when Thomas Tuchel was sacked by Chelsea with only 7 games played in the new season, 6 days after the close of the transfer window and and after having spent £260m on new players. Nobody thought that a defeat to Dynamo Zagreb could be the end of a man who has given so much for Chelsea. Besides winning the Champions League in his first 6 months in charge, Tuchel guided Chelsea through one of their toughest period in recent history especially with the sanctions on the club as a result of the Russia and Ukraine conflict. Through it all, Tuchel gave a good account of himself while protecting the club's image in the media as well as making the finals of both domestic competitions (losing both on penalties) while qualifying for Champions League with all the obstacles in his way.
Enter the new ownership with their own ideas. They quickly got rid of some of the background staff that's been influential in the success of Chelsea over the last 20 years. Marina Granovskaia the former football director who was responsible for most of Chelsea's signings as she had a wide network of trusted mediators who ensured Chelsea got the players they wanted and made a good profit on the ones they were releasing. Bruce Buck also vacated his position as chairman of the club and Petr Ceci also left his post as the Technical director. Those are three very important positions that are yet to be filled as Todd Boehly, who has no prior experience with European football, has decided to fill those roles until the appointments are made. Chelsea's recent transfer dealings exposed how underprepared he was for the job as Barcelona signed all his top targets while buying his players on the cheap. The next casualty of the big reform was a manager who had spent 16 months in the job, had just finished his 100th game in charge with 60 wins, 24 draws and only 16 defeats. He won the European Champions League, the European Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup in his time in charge, one can't help but feel sorry for Thomas Tuchel.
Boehly's American Revolution
Todd Boehly does not seem content to making changes at his newly acquired club, he has also suggested that the English Premier League can "learn" from American sports and introduce amongst other things, a relegation playoff tournament for the bottom 4 teams instead of the current relegation format as well as having a North vs South All star game featuring the league's best players from said locations. His reasoning for the "innovation" it will bring more money to the league which can trickle down all the way to the smaller clubs.
I have just 3 things that Mr Boehly hasn't taken to account in his "revolutionary" thoughts;
The relegation tournament is not unique to American sports... because American sports DO NOT HAVE relegation! France and Italy's Serie B already have such tournaments.
Americans are able to have All Star games because their athletes get four months breaks in between seasons. So, where will we find the time for the All Star game. Who covers player injuries etc?
The American All Star viewership ratings last season had a total of 7 million viewers... in a country of 350 million people. The Super Bowl drafts have higher ratings than All Star games.
Someone needs to remind Mr Boehly that nobody likes a narcissistic new comer brimming with hubris. Perhaps he needs to sit down with other American owners who have been in the EPL much longer than he has and get a few pointers on the way things work. Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Leeds all have American owners who also own Baseball and American Football teams. Maybe Todd Boehly needs to set up a few meetings.
Comments