Todd Boehly has revealed how he approached the transfer window when he first became Chelsea owner, including a decision which involved him copying Manchester City.
Chelsea had to deal with a host of changes when the club’s long-serving director Roman Abramovic was disqualified by the Premier League.
An investor consortium called BlueCo took over the club which was led by Todd Boehly, who lacked experience in football, which raised questions about his decision-making.
These concerns were realised as Chelsea held nothing back during transfer windows, but seemingly overpaid on a number of players.
In fact, Gary Neville coined the term “Blue billion-pound bottle jobs” after Boehly’s club lost the League Cup final to an injury-stricken Liverpool team back in 2024.
Todd Boehly copied Manchester City’s transfer strategy
It was obvious Boehly had no idea what he was doing when he first arrived at Chelsea and the club owner has essentially admitted this while speaking at the iConnections conference.
According to the man himself, the only reason he decided to sign Marc Cucurella from Brighton is because he heard Man City wanted the Spaniard.
Boehly said: “Finding those right elements, the first time at anything is tricky.
“So you’re going to make mistakes and obviously having taken over in the circumstances that we did, basically the whole management team left.
“I was stuck being interim sporting director for the summer having no idea what made a good football player.
“But I knew that with Marc Cucurella, if Man City wants him, I want him. It was pretty simple that way.”
Man City have found a top left-back in Rayan Ait-Nouri
Despite Boehly’s odd way of bringing Cucurella to Chelsea, the 27-year-old has proved to be a good signing for the Blues.
However, Man City will not be too bothered anymore about missing out on his signature, considering they secured Rayan Ait-Nouri last summer.
The defender has recently found his way into the first-team and he was exceptional against Leeds last Saturday, causing him to be named as Fotmob’s match of the match.
Man City themselves also gave the 24-year-old the star man honours, recognising the high levels he is achieving at the club.
