Behdad Eghbali, the co-founder of Clearlake Capital and majority shareholder of Chelsea through BlueCo, made a rare public address ahead of Chelsea's match against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge this weekend. He said the club will start signing 'ready-made' players in this summer's transfer market. Eghbali stated BlueCo were looking to add more experience to their pre-existing 'core' group of players, emphasizing that the view is to keep, sign, retain, compensate, and extend some of the world's best players.
He listed Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Levi Colwill, Estevao Willian, and Reece James as part of a core of good, global players, noting the team has been together for two or three years and there is no intention to rebuild every three or four years. 5 billion on new players since the 2022 takeover, with BlueCo's transfer strategy focusing on acquiring young, high-potential talent on lucrative long-term contracts. This strategy has led to criticism, including from some players, that the side has lacked experience.
The view was to recruit and build elite players that can, frankly, be together and have that stability in the squad.
Meanwhile, supporters are planning to protest against Chelsea's ownership at the match against Manchester United, with disaffected Chelsea fans set to be joined by supporters of Strasbourg, also owned by BlueCo, in a planned march. Organizers NotAProjectCFC described the protest as against the 'systematic destruction' of both Chelsea and Strasbourg under BlueCo/Clearlake. Chelsea are at risk of missing out on qualifying for European competition.
We’re still in the 40th, 50th minute of that process. But the view is to keep, sign and retain and compensate and extend some of the world’s best players, and ultimately the view was you need, eight, 10, 12, 15 elite players to win and win sustainably, year after year.
I think we’ve done a few things right, a lot of things right. We’ve got to be better on a few things, to add more ready-made players at this part of the project, to take (it) to the next level, to be consistent over time.
We recognise we need balance. We have world champions, we have Champions League winners, we have elite, elite young players. Experience has developed now. The team has been together for two or three years. The objective is to keep your best players, and we’ve done that, and there’s no intention to rebuild every three or four years. You tweak a model, you improve, you learn from mistakes.
Our goal is to have elite, elite players on the pitch, elite characters off the pitch that our fans can bond with, that will be at the club, that will be club legends for the next 10 or 15 years and beyond. I think, generally, we’ve been fortunate, not in getting everything right, but we do have a core (of) good players, global players. Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Levi Colwill, Estevao Willian, Reece James.
The view is now that we’re here with a great core base, to add some of that experience, to take the team to the next level and have consistency. That fact is not lost on us, and we’re at a point where we can take that next step, hopefully in the next year and beyond.
Systematic destruction.