'It's a f***ing mess' - Insider slams Chelsea

Stuart Telford

• 9 Apr 2023 09:37 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea are already on their third manager of the Todd Boehly era, with Frank Lampard following Graham Potter and Thomas Tuchel this season, and they lost the returning legend's first game back in charge…

Boehly - alongside Behdad Eghbali - replaced Roman Abramovich as owners last May, and have sanctioned a spend of more than €600 million on new players across the two transfer windows since.

But results have simply failed to follow. Potter was appointed to replace Tuchel, whom Boehly reportedly described as a 'pain in the a**' to deal with', in September, but after a win ratio of just 38.7 per cent, he was given his marching orders last Sunday.

READ: Lampard makes astonishing Champions League admission in leaked text

Lampard - a club legend who scored 211 goals from midfield for them between 2001 and 2014 - was reinstalled as manager in Potter's stead, lost his first game back in the Chelsea dugout 1-0 to Wolves on Saturday.

'No one pretending this was the plan'

"It's a f***ing mess, of course it is,' a figure close to the Chelsea executives reportedly told the Daily Mail last week. "No one is pretending this was the plan."

Lampard was previously in charge at Chelsea in the Abaramovich era, but was sacked in 2021 - to be replaced by Tuchel - with the club in ninth, having conceded 15 goals in their previous five games.

READ: Nagelsmann to Chelsea: Why Bayern are desperate for a deal

However, he was hamstrung by a transfer ban, and the more generous of the Chelsea decision-makers are willing to give him a chance beyond the summer - if he can do a Robert Di Matteo and win the Champions League.

In the meantime, Chelsea have been linked with a host of managers, from former bosses Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti to Mauricio Pochettino and Julian Nagelsmann. Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique are considered to be the front-runners, though.