Chelsea co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly are able to ask key questions of sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley in a crunch weekly meeting. Eghbali, Boehly and fellow BlueCo investor Jose E. Feliciano are given regular briefings on the club’s sporting operation.
The Blues have enjoyed an excellent start to the season under new head coach Enzo Maresca. The Italian’s side are unbeaten in six Premier League matches and sit fourth in the table.
But there remains turbulence at board level where friction is reported to have developed between Eghbali and Boehly. Back in September, it was claimed that the key figureheads of the Chelsea hierarchy were willing to buy each other out following differences in their preferred approaches.
Both men remain well versed in the improvement in the sporting operation, though. Co-sporting director Stewart has revealed that they are part of a weekly call where the owners can ask questions about Chelsea's on-field development.
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“We have regular weekly contact, where we’ll be updating them across all the topics,” he told the Telegraph of the sporting director’s relationship with Chelsea’s owners.
“And they might have specific questions, specific things and that can be game-related, result-related or general. We have regular communication with them.”
Eghbali and Boehly appointed Maresca as Chelsea’s new head coach after parting ways with Mauricio Pochettino during the summer. The Argentine’s departure came despite him guiding the Blues back on track following a difficult start to last term, ultimately finishing fifth.
Chelsea are set to compete for European qualification this season. However, Maresca thinks it will be a while before the west Londoners can compete with Manchester City and Arsenal - despite BlueCo spending over £1billion on transfers since their takeover in 2022.
“I really don’t think we can compete with City or Arsenal," the 44-year-old said ahead of the October international break.
"I really don’t think that because we are not ready. The reason is that City has worked with the same manager for nine years and Arsenal for five years. If you want to compete for big things you need that time.
“After Arsenal beat PSG they asked Luis Enrique and he said the same thing that Arsenal have had the same manager for five years and them only a year and a half. Imagine us, only three months… so it’s a huge difference. So I am really convinced we cannot compete with those clubs."
