'Downward spiral' - Boehly blasted amid latest Chelsea crisis

Tom Weber

• 5 Feb 2024 13:41 CST
• 3 min read

Graeme Souness has torn into Chelsea owner Todd Boehly amid the club's latest results crisis.

Every time it seems that Chelsea have turned a corner, they find a new way to disappoint. Mauricio Pochettino's inconsistent side are once again in the midst of a slump, being winless in three and having conceded a whopping eight goals in their past two outings.

Chastening losses to Liverpool and Wolves have seen the latter overtake the Blues in the Premier League table, with the Stamford Bridge side now occupying 11th place - an embarrassing position for them to be in, albeit not an unusual one since Todd Boehly's takeover.

Indeed, while head coach Pochettino will inevitably be held responsible for these poor results, questions must also - once again - be asked of Boehly and company. Despite north of €1 billion having been spent on new players, any organised side with a bit of quality can easily slice open the Blues, which raises questions not only about Pochettino's tactical set-up but also the players brought in by the owners and the recruitment department.

Boehly to blame

According to Liverpool legend Graeme Souness, Boehly is squarely to blame for Chelsea's ongoing misery, which stretches back to last season. “Chelsea are in trouble," he told the White and Jordan Show. "Since the ownership change, it’s been a downward spiral...The damage is done. They’ve spent way, way too much money on good players, not top, top players.”

“They’ve got a couple of young midfield players that may be good enough for them one day. They have spent over £100 million on both of them. I was sitting down last week watching the Liverpool game and as an old midfield player, that’s the first place I would look. I’m thinking, ‘I’ve not really seen these guys [Moises] Caceido and [Enzo] Fernandez.’"

"I’m saying, ‘come on’ because I know Liverpool is a very difficult place for anyone to go and play. They’re going to be put under pressure every minute of the game. Let’s see how they deal with it. Didn’t turn up. I’m not just blaming everything on those two but I think it’s been a succession of buying players for the sake of buying players."

"I think there’s a couple of players they bought believing that maybe Man City or Liverpool were interested in them. They weren’t buying them because they were the No.1 targets from 6-9 months, a year ago. They have gone out and spent money for the sake of spending money and they’ve made a pig’s ear of it."

“I’ll finish on this, they listen to the wrong people, whoever is advising them on football matters, they have given a masterclass on how not to do it. That’s Chelsea right now.”