Todd Boehly has made a positive start to life at Chelsea after arriving at Stamford Bridge at the end of May following his and the Clearlake Capital consortium’s £4.25 billion takeover of the club.
The structure of the club has been renewed, with big name departures confirmed - Bruce Buck, Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech - as well as new faces, including Tom Glick, the club’s new President of Business.
As the off the field work gets done, work is well underway in sorting out the rebuild of Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea squad. Signings have already been made this summer, two to be exact, following the arrivals of Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly.
Tuchel is set to welcome a third addition as they close in on Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, a long-term target who has been the subject of heavy interest from Barcelona this summer. Other incoming targets have been identified with work going on behind the scenes to strengthen Tuchel’s squad as much as possible before the season begins in around two weeks time.
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But with incomings, outgoings are expected. Chelsea have already received lots of interest for certain players this summer, including youngsters Levi Colwill and Armando Broja, but there are several unwanted players who they cannot, currently, offload.
As reported by The Telegraph, Tuchel faces being stuck with a number of players because of not being able to attract bids from clubs.
The likes of Michy Batshuayi, Kenedy and Ross Barkley are ready to be sold, while no clubs have come forward so far that are willing to pay a fee and the high wages of duo Kepa Arrizabalaga and Timo Werner.
Batshuayi, Kenedy and Barkley are all out of contract next summer and it is likely that if Chelsea cannot sell them this summer, they won’t be at the club after the 2022/23 season. They have a different challenge on their hands offloading the big names.
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But that is a problem for Boehly and co to deal with, cleaning up the structural ‘mess’ from the previous regime, who opted to send players out on loan spell after loan spell, penny pinching over fees which have seen them remain at Stamford Bridge.
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How they will fare in trying to sell players this summer is still ongoing and a judgement can be made once the transfer window closes, but the problem is coming to an end.
This is down to Boehly’s change in approach over contract handling.
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It was recently revealed by The Telegraph that the new owners are ‘overhauling the club’s bonus and contract structures in a bid to start rebalancing the wage bill and keep motivation levels high’.
As a result, Chelsea will see their new signings and transfer targets be offered incentivised contracts, which include Champions League group qualification bonuses and for playing 60 percent of games in a season.
The extensive problem of Chelsea having no choice but keeping unwanted players will soon reduce.
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For now, Boehly has to ensure that they don’t add to the problem to give the club an unwanted headache moving forward.
Plans have been put in place, it’s now a case of doing everything they can to trim Tuchel’s squad to exactly what he wants. The hope is sooner rather than later.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Todd Boehly, Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel, Football