Earlier today, The Guardian’s Matt Law reported that Todd Boehly had ‘relinquished his title as Chelsea’s interim sporting director’ and that the co-owner ‘remains steadfastly supportive of head coach Graham Potter’.
Boehly appointed himself interim sporting director following the club’s acquisition from Roman Abramovich and after the decision was made to remove Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech last summer.
The situation at the club has now changed again, with the hiring of a new recruitment team who have started work in the current transfer window – leading to Boehly dropping the sporting director title. He will now simply be known as Chelsea’s chairman.
Whilst this by no means signals the end of the owner’s involvement in Chelsea’s spending, the American and his co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali have handed the bulk of the responsibility of Chelsea’s transfers to new technical director Christopher Vivell and Paul Winstanley, the latter of whom was appointed as director of global talent and transfers.
The pair have been charged with combining Chelsea’s strategy of trying to buy some of the best young talents in the world along with attempting to strengthen Potter’s current squad in the present moment.
Potter’s squad is set to be boosted by the arrival of Joao Felix on loan for the rest of the season, with the Portuguese forward holding talks over a loan move until the end of the season that will cost Chelsea around £10 million.
It is also been made clear that the hierarchy at the club wants to sign a backup right-back to Reece James, a new midfielder and a forward, but it is yet unknown whether or not they will be able to fill all of those positions this month.
With James considered one of the best right-backs in the world and due back from injury next month, Chelsea face a tough task in trying to sell the position as his stand-in to players of the desired quality.
Law also reports how Boehly and Co are also understanding of the impact made by the injury crisis that has hit Potter, while there is also an acknowledgement that the likes of Guardiola, Klopp and Arteta were all given time at their respective clubs.
There is a belief that results and performances will improve as players start to return from injury. Chelsea are waiting on the result of a second scan on Sterling, who pulled his hamstring in the first minute of last Thursday night’s League defeat to City.
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