There was surprise when the idea of buying Gabriel Jesus from City was rejected. Sacking Tuchel, who had made Chelsea world and European champions, was not the plan. Thomas Tuchel at his final game as Chelsea’s manager, in Zagreb. Sources were soon predicting a part of the ways. The German did not want to be involved in recruitment meetings.

Above all Tuchel needed defenders, but tensions soon emerged. Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea’s brilliant but demanding manager, was said to be “screaming for signings”. Boehly stepped in as interim sporting director and the pressure grew. The former Chelsea goalkeeper had been asked to stay. Petr Cech quit as technical and performance adviser. The transition was harder when two Abramovich allies, Marina Granovskaia and Bruce Buck, left. Recruitment specialists at rival clubs predicted there would be problems. Chelsea, unable to plan for the summer market, were playing catch-up as soon as the owners took charge. They were in a state of limbo after Abramovich was subjected to sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Īntonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen left on free transfers. Chelsea were lagging behind rivals with more modern set-ups. For all the success of the Roman Abramovich era, it is possible to question some of the methodology. The approach is to defer to the experts once they are in situ.īut Chelsea are different and, to understand why it has gone so wrong, it is necessary to go back to before they were up for sale. The insistence is that Boehly’s way is always to spend the first year getting under the skin of a new business. It is stressed that Eghbali’s business partner, José E Feliciano, is another crucial presence. Another points to the influence of Eghbali, the driving force behind several key decisions. As one figure says, it was never the plan for Boehly to be so visible.

Suggestions that he is dialling back his involvement in the running of Chelsea because of their decline are dismissed as a misinterpretation. There is unease at the unflattering media portrayals of Boehly. Inside the club, though, there is perspective. They have achieved something fascinating by getting through four managers in a season, spending close to £600m on signings and leading Chelsea to a first bottom-half finish since 1996. There is no dressing it up: Boehly and his fellow co-controlling owner, Behdad Eghbali, have presided over a shambles.

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