Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly hits out at ‘English papers’ who label him ‘stupid’ | OneFootball

Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has criticised English newspapers for labelling him “stupid” and suggested it was critics who do not “know what they’re talking about.”

Boehly has been the very public face of the Chelsea ownership since BlueCo acquired the club and the high turnover of players has attracted plenty of criticism.

As the most public-facing figure, Boehly has copped plenty of that criticism but he appeared to suggest it was water off a duck’s back.

“Sometimes my wife and my family take it differently than I take it,” he told the Australian Financial Review. “I just find it’s one more person that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

“The English papers remind me every day how smart they are and how stupid I am.”

The 52-year-old American instead suggested Chelsea were on the correct path and that the team was going to evolve and grow.

“You’re going to continue to watch our team evolve and grow. We’ve got them together for a long time. I’m pretty excited about what the future looks like.”

Despite Boehly’s assessment that it is just the media who do not know “what they’re talking about”, plenty of those within the game have also raised their suspicions.

One such person is former player Joe Cole who believed the current Chelsea model had limitations.

“It’s clear the club are working within a business framework,” he exclusively told F365. “Anyone who’s worked for Brighton seems to be coming in.

“They want to do that model and are trying to apply it. But my problem with that model – the data-driven model – at the very, very top is I think the margins are in the unseen, what data can’t see.

“I think it’s in the magic and the romance and something a manager might say, how a manager might treat a player. Not just this left back is the best left back we can get because he does this many attacks in this area, you know?

“I think data has a big part to play, but at that very, very top, I think it’s always the human element that makes the difference.”

Under BlueCo, Chelsea’s best Premier League finish was the fourth earned by the team last year and they have won two trophies – the Club World Cup and Conference League.

BlueCo purchased Chelsea for £4.25bn in 2022 after Roman Abramovich was forced to sell by the UK government following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.