Which 'senior Chelsea player' did Boehly single out in rant?

Stuart Telford

• 18 Apr 2023 16:23 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly let rip in the dressing room after their defeat to Brighton last Saturday, and reportedly singled out one player in particular for criticism. But who was it?

Boehly has spent more than €600 million on transfer fees since replacing Roman Abramovich as Chelsea owner last May, but results have simply failed to follow, and the American billionaire is already on his third manager in Frank Lampard.

Defeat to Brighton last weekend left the Blues languishing in 11th in the Premier League, 17 point behind Newcastle, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League place.

READ: Boehly 'heavily criticised' big money signing after Chelsea defeat

Boehly reportedly entered the dressing room at full-time and told the players the defeat was "embarrassing".

"It is understood one senior player, signed for a large fee in the past 12 months, was singled out for heavy criticism," reported the Guardian.

"That player, whose identity is not being disclosed, is believed to be disillusioned with the situation and cut a disgruntled figure in training before Chelsea attempt to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first leg against Madrid."

READ: Raheem Sterling's agent calls out Fabrizio Romano

Undisclosed that player may be, but there are cues in the language, set against who Boehly and Chelsea have signed in his tenure.

— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) July 14, 2022

Senior, large fee, and criticised

No fewer than 14 players have been signed for at least €10m in Boehly's two transfer windows, but that is no longer considered a 'large fee', so rules out Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang and Joao Felix.

Other winter arrivals like Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk have hardly been there long enough to make good on their exorbitant fees, and they are 22 anyway - hardly 'senior.'

That likely leaves just three players who might have been on the receiving end of Boehly's rant: Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella.

And only one of those - Sterling - is an attacking player expected to impact more games than not. The other two have been poor, but Sterling's return of seven goals in 31 games is likely to have disappointed Boehly most.

The safe money - perhaps not €56.2m in transfer fees - is on the England winger being the "disgruntled" player.