|
After completing the takeover of Chelsea last May, co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital wanted to make a splash ☀️ in the transfer market, partly to show fans their level of ambition but also to signal they would be as ☀️ aggressive as former owner Roman Abramovich was in pursuing top talent.
Acting as interim sporting director amid wholesale changes at executive ☀️ level, Boehly met with a large number of agents and clubs as he devised a strategy which would eventually lead ☀️ the club spending over €600 million to sign 17 players. Perhaps "strategy" is too generous a word to use. It ☀️ has felt haphazard, scattergun and chaotic at times, almost from the beginning when relations quickly became strained between Boehly and ☀️ the head coach he inherited, Thomas Tuchel.
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
Sources have told ESPN that after meeting ☀️ with agent Jorge Mendes last summer, Boehly became fixated with the idea of bringing a 37-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo to Chelsea ☀️ from Manchester United. The idea was presented to Tuchel, who rejected it on the basis of Ronaldo's age and that ☀️ the Portugal international's inability or reluctance to press was at odds with the profile of striker he preferred. But that ☀️ was not the end of the matter. Boehly raised the possibility of signing Ronaldo on several further occasions, much to ☀️ Tuchel's mounting frustration.
The issue became a major bone of contention between the pair; one aspect of a deteriorating relationship which ☀️ eventually led to Tuchel's sacking in early September. And, with this in mind, reports that Chelsea are tracking Neymar's situation ☀️ at Paris Saint-Germain -- with sources telling ESPN's Julien Laurens that both he and the club are open to an ☀️ exit -- should raise alarm bells.
among us jogar agora
| 
