American billionaire Todd Boehly has already left his stamp on Premier League giants Chelsea after recently becoming co-owner of the capital side, pushing for immediate changes at the club after the Blues finished well behind the title race in 2021-22.
The highly-successful successful businessman and investor, whose net worth is $4.5billion (£3.7billion) according to Forbes as of this year, has brought an American general manager’s touch to the Stamford Bridge outfit this summer as Chelsea has aggressively moved for big names to supply Thomas Tuchel with a senior squad that can hopefully push for major honors.
David Ornstein: “Chelsea want Fofana from Leicester, in for De Jong. There is interest in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang if he leaves Barcelona. So, the new owners are trying everything they can do to be successful at Stamford Bridge and get this new era off to a positive start.”
— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) August 6, 2022
Chelsea aggressively pushed for completed deals for Kalidou Koulibaly, Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella, and Carney Chukwuemeka, with the club also looking at further business that could potentially include moves for Frenkie de Jong, Wesley Fofana, Benjamin Šeško, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with Boehly – on more than one occasion – targeting possible deals that Chelsea’s closest rivals expressed considerable interest in.
But Boehly will not be operating in this capacity for the foreseeable future, with reports coming from both The Athletic’s David Ornstein and CBS Sports’ Ben Jacobs that the American owner will look to call on none other than Michael Edwards to take up the mantel as the new club sporting director.
David Ornstein: “At some point, Todd Boehly would appoint a Sporting Director at Chelsea and Michael Edwards is the first choice.”
{NBC Sports}
— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) August 6, 2022
It was reported three days ago by Jacobs that Chelsea met with Edwards on multiple occasions, with the club’s presentations of their project said to have blown him away.
Despite the Blues’ plans giving Edwards something to seriously think about, he maintained his stance that he was not yet ready to end his break away from football after spending a total of ten years with Liverpool in various roles, including nearly six years as the club’s sporting director.
And it is worth noting that the way Liverpool was run with Edwards in a director role was in stark contrast to how Boehly has steered the ship thus far. Though Boehly has done well, this manner is not sustainable over the long-term, but certainly, it was meant to get Chelsea trending upward in their attempts to close the gap to both Liverpool and Manchester City.
Should Chelsea eventually add Edwards into the fold, it could offer another dynamic that could potentially shift the landscape in the Premier League back toward the English capital.
