€1.08b spent but no clear plan? Pochettino’s departure the latest calamity in Boehly’s chaotic Chelsea reign

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4 managers in 2 seasons 

The footballing world was shocked on Tuesday night, as the news came in that Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino had parted ways after the Argentine manager had spent just 11 months at the football club. The Blues had won all of their last five games of the season, and across 2024, only Arsenal (49), Manchester City (48) and Liverpool (38) had taken more Premier League points than Chelsea (35). The decision has once again led to concerns over the board and the direction of the club’s project under owner Todd Boehly. Since the American arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2022, the word calamitous probably doesn’t give justice to how much of a mess Chelsea has been. Over €1 billion has been spent in two years, with little signs of progress or a clear plan in place.

As the season drew towards its conclusion, it looked like there may finally be signs of a thought-through long-term plan actually being somewhat in place at Chelsea. The club boasted the youngest squad in the Premier League this season, results were gradually improving, and they had a manager in place who had a reputation for developing young talent. The young players spoke very highly about Pochettino and seemed to enjoy working with him. Now, all of a sudden, it seems back to square one. But just how badly have Chelsea been performing in relation to the money they have spent since Boehly arrived in West London?

Net spend since Todd Boehly arrived at Chelsea

When trying to assess the reason behind Chelsea’s demise, the obvious place to start is the poor recruitment at the club in recent years. Since Todd Boehly became the chairman of Chelsea in 2022, the club have spent a staggering €1.08 billion on new signings in only four transfer windows. If we compare that spending to other clubs across the same period, no one gets near Chelsea’s spending. The closest team is PSG who have spent €567m in the said time-frame. In that same period, Chelsea have made just €337.26m from player sales, leaving them with a huge net spend of €742.03m. Once again far more than any other club.

Despite the astronomical amounts of money spent, the squad doesn’t appear to have improved greatly. Chelsea still don’t have a top goalscorer up front, and the departing Thiago Silva has still been arguably their most consistent centre-half this season at 39 years of age. The midfield partnership of Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo, which cost a combined €221m, has failed to dominate games the way its cost would merit. Cole Palmer has been the only real undisputed success story. Chelsea boast a squad value of €947.3m – the third highest in the Premier League behind Man City (€1.26b) and Arsenal (€1.11b), but that’s largely because of the vast number of players they have and many of their team warranting their high market values primarily through the high transfer fee paid for them. The stark reality is that this Chelsea squad is a long way off competing at the very top end of the Premier League.

Flying through managers since Todd Boehly arrived at Chelsea

Since the new ownership has been in place, Chelsea have already had five different managers in less than two seasons. It will now be six when they appoint Pochettino’s successor. The original decision to sack Thomas Tuchel, who had won the club the Champions League, just six league games into last season was widely viewed as a very harsh call. The club were only beaten on penalties in both domestic finals in the previous season under the German’s stewardship, and Tuchel was a fan favourite at Stamford Bridge. 

Brighton manager Graham Potter was appointed. Following that decision, chairman Boehly said, “We look forward to supporting Graham, his coaching team and the squad in realising their full potential in the coming months and years.” Potter was sacked seven months later. Results were poor, performances not much better, but the feeling was always that Potter would need to be given time to make mistakes to eventually bring success. It felt a long-term appointment. After a short one game interim spell for Bruno Saltor, former player and manager Frank Lampard took over until the end of the season in what appeared a bizarre decision.

As can be viewed on the link above, Chelsea are the worst off in the entire division when you compare their league position to their transfer expenditure. Despite overseeing a huge improvement in results and performances in 2024, Pochettino is now also a thing of the past. As can be seen below, following Boehly’s arrival at Chelsea, Pochettino holds by far the best ppg record of all the managers in the Blues dugout. His record of 1.78ppg beats Potter (1.42ppg), Tuchel (1.43ppg from only games since Boehly arrived) Lampard (0.45ppg) and Saltor (1ppg – only managed one game as interim boss).

It remains to be seen who Chelsea will turn to as their next manager, but the hierarchy at Chelsea still portrays a mess. A lack of cohesion between all parties seems to have been a consistent them in the last two years, and Boehly’s reputation appears to be dwindling with each seemingly crazy decision made. The squad is still full of young talent, and strong second half to the 2023/24 season may still ignite hope, but the departure of Pochettino will no doubt leave a sour taste in many supporter’s mouths.