Chelsea co-owner and chairman Todd Boehly has opened up on the club’s contentious transfer strategy, admitting handing out longer contracts may have been a flawed approach given they will need to re-negotiate terms ahead of the final years of each deal.
Boehly has been in charge at Stamford Bridge since 2022 when a £4.25bn sale of the club was agreed with a consortium led by the American investor and his private equity firm Clearlake Capital. Chelsea was initially put up for sale in March that year by former owner Roman Abramovich due to his links with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Across six transfer windows since the summer of 2022, the club have spent almost a billion pounds on 39 players. Their approach has seen them acquire a number of young and inexperienced players with potential, while also signing them to long-term deals on low base salaries with hefty bonuses that are incentivised.
At least 20 of Chelsea’s first team stars are on deals that are at least six years, including Cole Palmer, who signed a new deal in the summer just 12 months after his initial move to the club and is now tied down until at least 2033. Midfielder Moises Caicedo, who joined from Brighton in the summer of 2023, is under contract until 2031, while Enzo Fernandez is tied down until 2032.
Speaking at the FT Business of Football Summit earlier this week, Boehly addressed the approach. While he feels their wider strategy is massively misunderstood in the media, he did concede the mega-length contracts may have been flawed.
“We’ve been here for less than three years and that’s been a whirling dervish of activity,” he said. “Nothing is a straight line, ever and sport is so humbling.
“If you look at contracts in football, a seven-year contract is really a five-year contract. The reality that 95 per cent of the time by then you have to make a decision or you’ll shoot yourself in the foot.
“At that point, you either agree an extension with the player or that greener pastures are out there for both sides. If you deny that you are kidding yourself.
“We felt the longer contracts meant we could amortise but it was also about how we put together a team with the ability to stay together. Teams that are dynasties over the years had superstar captains that were able to lead. But how do you find those superstar captains?”
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