Behdad Eghbali’s message to Chelsea fans: ‘We care … we’re committed’
Behdad Eghbali has told Chelsea supporters that owners BlueCo are learning from their mistakes and are committed to bringing consistent success back to Stamford Bridge.
Disaffected fans will stage a protest march ahead of Chelsea’s clash with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, organised by NotAProjectCFC and incorporating supporter representatives of BlueCo sister club Strasbourg in an attempt to mobilise opposition to the consortium led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly.
In the final stretch of the fourth season since they acquired the club from Roman Abramovich for £2.3billion in June 2022, Chelsea are sliding down the Premier League table under head coach Liam Rosenior and face the prospect of missing out on Champions League qualification with a youthful squad assembled at historically vast expense.
Speaking at CAA’s World Congress of Sports conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, Clearlake co-founder Eghbali admitted that BlueCo are still looking to improve their ownership strategy, but reiterated that they care about maintaining Chelsea’s modern standards of consistently competing for the biggest trophies.
“For the fans, we care,” he said. “We want the club to be successful. We’re focused on delivering that on-pitch performance. I think six months ago everyone was super-happy. Results have been mixed, disappointing more recently. There’s a full reflection on what we can do better, what we can improve on.
“There is a plan. We reflect on the plan. We try to improve the plan and tweak the plan if it’s not working. The message is we’re committed.
“Can this be successful without winning? The answer is no. We’ve got to win. And it doesn’t mean you’re going to win every game, it doesn’t mean you don’t make mistakes, that you don’t have downturns, but ultimately the objective, and especially the objective that a club like Chelsea is you’ve got to win, you’ve got to win trophies, and you’ve got to win consistently again.
“We were fortunate enough to do so last year. We’ve had a bit of an up and down year this year, but the objective hasn’t changed.”
A huge reason for the downturn in Chelsea’s season was the abrupt departure of head coach Enzo Maresca on New Year’s Day. “Our policy has been no in-season changes,” Eghbali added.
“You certainly review and hold not only the manager, but the management team, the sporting team, accountable, but typically in the summers, not in season.
“It’s not a change we wanted to make. It’s a change that had a bit of a negative impact in the season, when you’re changing systems and personnel, and it’s one we’ve got to fight our way out of.
“We still have six matches in the Premier League, and an FA Cup semi final coming up. So hopefully the story of this season hasn’t been written yet, and you’ve got a lot to fight for. In my perspective, when you get punched in the face, you’ve got to fight back, you’ve got to stand up and fight. And it’s going to hopefully show a lot about the character of this squad.
“I think the perspective is stability, and frankly, getting that stability on the manager side is one of the things we haven’t done right yet, and it’s something we’re striving to improve on.”
Maresca’s replacement Rosenior has won just one of his last six matches across all competitions, but Eghbali confirmed the former Strasbourg boss retains the support of the board and sporting leadership.
“On Liam, we had the opportunity to work with him daily for 18 plus months, so we knew what we were getting,” Eghbali said. “We think he has every attribute to be successful here. He got off to a great start. We’ve had a tough past five, six matches, but I think we’re behind Liam. Of course, it’s a results business, but we think he can be successful long term.”
Chelsea’s recent struggles have also drawn more criticism to their heavily youth-oriented recruitment. Eghbali signalled that the club are ready to target players equipped to make an immediate impact in this summer’s transfer market.
“The view was to recruit and build elite players that can, frankly, be together and have that stability in the squad,” Eghbali said. “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.”
By Liam Twomey