Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali has said the club will start signing “ready-made” players and revealed the departure of former head coach Enzo Maresca was “not a change we wanted to make”.
Eghbali, the co-founder of Clearlake Capital, which is the majority shareholder in BlueCo, the consortium used to purchase Chelsea and that also owns Ligue 1 club Strasbourg, has given a rare interview on a range of matters at the club, including their head coach Liam Rosenior.
Chelsea are at risk of not qualifying for next season’s Champions League, sitting four points behind fifth-placed Liverpool. They have won just one of their last seven league games, losing their last three, with Rosenior unable to lift the club after Maresca’s sudden departure on New Year’s Day.
“Our policy has been no in-season [head coach] changes,” said Eghbali at the CAA’s World Congress of Sports conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. “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 [Enzo Maresca leaving]. 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.”
Eghbali has backed Rosenior to deliver success.
“On Liam [Rosenior], we had the opportunity to work with him daily for 18 plus months, so we knew what we were getting,” he added.
“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.”
Eghbali also addressed the club’s youth-oriented transfer policy, promising more experience.
“The view was to recruit and build elite players that can, frankly, be together and have that stability in the squad. We’re still in the 40th, 50th minute of that process,” he said.
“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.”
Some Chelsea supporters are planning to meet up with Strasbourg fans to demonstrate against their owners before Saturday night’s home game against Manchester United.
Eghbali insisted BlueCo are fully committed to improving their ownership strategy and are focused on delivering the biggest trophies in keeping with Chelsea’s approach under former owner Roman Abramovich.
Eghbali said: “For the fans, we care. 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.”
