"Nothing short of a disgrace" - Gary Neville rips into Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly for 'misreading' the Premier League
Manchester United legend Gary Neville has lambasted Chelsea owner Todd Boehly amid the club's struggles in his first year as co-owner.
Boehly arrived with Behdad Egbhali at Stamford Bridge in May 2022, taking over the club from former owner Roman Abramovich. The American businessman has backed the Premier League club, spending over £600 million since.
However, Boehly has been through four separate managers (Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Bruno Saltor and Frank Lampard) in just 12 months. Neville thinks the American businessman misread the Premier League in a damning assessment of his ownership. He said on his podcast:
"What we've seen since is nothing short of a disgrace...It all comes from the top. It's been chaotic, a mess since day one. Boehly has had a nightmare and misread this league. I'm sure he'll learn quickly."
Chelsea's poor season has seen them slip to 12th place and still able to be relegated with just five games remaining. Neville has firmly placed the blame on Boehly and the changes made to the recruitment team at Stamford Bridge:
"What has happened this season is purely down to him. He needed to keep the footballing department together. He's the non-footballing department."
Neville continued by alluding to the departures of former director Marina Granovskaia and advisor Petr Cech:
"You're the owner. You're not a player or a coach. You've got no experience in this league so stay where you are and allow the people to run the football club [who have done so] successfully over the last 10 years."
The Blues won the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League under Tuchel before Boehly sacked him in September last year. Neville added:
"Petr Cech left, Marina Granovskaia left, Thomas Tuchel was gone after a few games and all of a sudden you're in complete turmoil... He created this mess. Like playing football manager, it's been terrible."
Neville's comments came after Chelsea had suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on May 2. They were second-best throughout the loss at the Emirates and have lost all six games under caretaker boss Lampard.
Chelsea owner Boehly promises long-term vision when making fifth managerial appointment
All signs point towards former PSG and Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino being named as Chelsea's next permanent manager. Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims that talks between the club and the Argentine are in their final stages.
Boehly spoke this week at Milken Institute Global Conference, where he vowed to implement a long-term project. He also acknowledged that the fans are demanding:
“The fans are demanding and they want to win and we get that. We want to win... I think our view, though, is that this is a long-term project and we're committed to the long term and we very much believe that we're going to figure it out.”
Blues fans will be hesitant about those remarks given this was the same concept the club's owners gave when sacking Tuchel and replacing him with Potter. The latter arrived from Brighton & Hove Albion but struggled, with his six-year contract ending within six months.