Opinion: Boehly/Clearlake’s model has clear big differences to Abramovich

I think this one is actually quite simple. There are certainly similarities between how Roman Abramovich operated as Chelsea owner compared to how Todd Boehly and Clearlake have operated, so far at least.

However, it’s impossible to judge these similarities this earlier in their tenure-ship, because I don’t believe this is how they will be operating going forward and this is just the initial big squad rebuild. However, none of us know how they will move, and one of the problems of course has been Boehly and Behdad Eghbali having differing views on how the club should be operating.

But in terms of spending big money, the new owners have basically just done exactly the same as Abramovich, they’ve been cut-throat and taken no prisoners with a bit of a blank chequebook at times.

Before I go on, let’s just see what former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton said on that this week.

Sutton said:

“While we were all putting the boot in, Chelsea knew what they were doing.

“But, in many respects, has what has happened in the past couple of seasons been that different to the Roman Abramovich era? It’s just that Abramovich was bringing in players who had already been there and done it.

“The difference is that Chelsea are now bringing in younger players to develop. They seem to be a team who are young and pretty fearless – so good on Enzo Maresca and good on Chelsea.”

So he has complimented the new owners, which is deserved right now too. But he’s compared the operations to Roman’s.

Going back to that, I think the only similarity is the big spending right now. The huge difference is the kind of players that the new owners have targeted, at least since the co-sporting directors were hired. They have been young players and largely unproven players, apart from the summer of 2024 where they took a small turn and signed players who were more established, Premier League proven, and came with a bit more experience. I believe this turn has hugely helped our success so far this season.

But on the whole, they sign players such as Malo Gusto and Renato Veiga, who have so far both proven to be gems off the back of clever scouting. We are signing young players on long contracts and putting faith in our own scouting and judging of talents. This can be risky, but if you are looking at it from the start of this season, the first 15 games played, then you have to say it is paying off.

The former ownership under Roman loved the big names, they loved the marquee signings. The new owners have signed players like Moises Caicedo, who can be called a marquee signing, so there has also been some balance. But on the whole, it’s more unknown players they go for, backing their own scouting.

The reality is we cannot really see if all of this comes to fruition until we see where we finish the season. But so far this season at least, so good. The same cannot be said for the last couple of seasons, but some of that would have also been down to managers as well as the squad just not being anywhere near mature enough at that point.

I’ve never doubted the owners ambitions and visions, they’ve always had that. I always thought it was unfair for anyone to doubt that. They want to win. Of course they need and want to make profits, they have to, it’s a business after all. But the ambition, I have always fully backed and believed in. After all, winning brings more profits and better sponsorship deals.

They’ve made mistakes and even they will admit that. The way they have operated is brand new and I think that’s why many of us have been overly cautious with it all. We don’t like change generally as humans anyway, so this has all been very foreign.

Will it work? We still don’t know, but the signs are VERY good.

But the truth is, the way Roman operated compared to how we are operating now was VERY different in all reality. Roman was all about winning here and now, and it actually worked very well for him. We hired and fired managers [although these owners have so far been doing that as well], signed the big names, spent the money, and won trophies. There is no right and wrong. I truly hope this new way of operating pays off, and right now the signs are looking very good.