Chairman Todd Boehly “is believed to be considering selling his shares,” having spent around four times more than Liverpool in the transfer market since arriving in 2022.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Liverpool rivals Chelsea were plunged into instability when previous owner Roman Abramovich was forced to let go of the club, due to his assets being frozen, as a result of his links to President Vladimir Putin.
A consortium that was publicly fronted by Boehly then led a £4.25 billion takeover subsequently put the club into an uncertain financial situation.
Since the new owners arrived at Chelsea in 2022, they have spent over £1.2 billion in the transfer market and put multiple players on lucrative long-term contracts.
In comparison, Liverpool have spent around a quarter of that sum in the same period.
Kaveh Solhekol of Sky Sports now reports that Boehly “is believed to be considering selling his shares.”
Though Boehly is the public face of Chelsea‘s ownership, he isn’t the majority shareholder. That title belongs to Clearlake Capital who own 61.5 percent of the club, while Boehly owns just under 13 percent.
Bloomberg report that his relationship with Clearlake co-founder Behdad Eghbali “has deteriorated in recent months.”
While the same outlet reports Boehly and Clearlake “are assessing whether they can potentially buy each other out,” Sky Sports insisted the latter “are not in talks about selling shares and they are not under any pressure to sell.”
Sky added that they understand relations between Eghbali and Boehly to still be “professional” and “Clearlake believe that, after a period of upheaval, they now have the right structure and squad in place to take the club back to the top.”
At the end of last season, Mauricio Pochettino left the Londoners ‘by mutual consent’ after just one year in charge – this despite the team showing signs of progression in the latter part of the campaign.
Leicester boss Enzo Maresca was brought in as were another 10 players on permanent deals, including injury-prone Pedro Neto on a seven-year contract and Joao Felix for the same length of time.
Having taken four points from their first nine on offer, Maresca will have to pick up points quickly if he is to stay longer than a few months under these owners, as bizarre as that sounds to say!
Liverpool face Chelsea at Anfield on October 20, with the Premier League match kicking off at 4.30pm (BST).
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