And still nothing on Roman investigation and yet it was “reaching a conclusion”. 

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

Hearing nothing on the supposed “cival war”, it’s all gone mega quiet on that front. 

As soon as we have a hiccup I expect back page news  and all the social media sports accounts with “Their sources” tell them this and that blah blah. It’s all f**king nonsense 

On 06/12/2024 at 18:22, The Rising Sun said:

We're nearly back to where we were before the new owners wrecked the club.. great isn't it?  On top of that they've taken us from being debt free to dicing with breaking PSR rules with massive spending.

We're on a good run , I love the football. But that can never excuse the way the owners ruined us .

 

On 06/12/2024 at 20:45, The Rising Sun said:

How any Chelsea fan could be happy that our club is majority owned by an American investment company is beyond me.

The ONLY reason ClearLake exists is to extract wealth from anything  it owns and to provide "favourable returns to its investors"(their words) That shouldn't be a surprise to anybody, neither should our great recent results make us forget why they are involved with us.

 

 

 

17 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

 I'd like to know why you think ClearLake are here if it's not to extract wealth from its investment ?After the 10 year embargo on paying dividends and management fees to themselves is lifted we are absolutely in a position to be bled dry.

The £100m fee for Caciedo was paid from our club's income, not from ClearLake's billions. Our holding company, BlueCo are over £600 million in debt. Success didn't generate profits for Chelsea during our most successful period ever.  But whatever happens, ClearLake's investors WILL profit from our club, they are here for no other reason. 

 

 

 

Weird posts that I do not really agree with.

You might have a case if all these guys were unknown entities. But they are not. Especially Boehly and Walter.

The current Chelsea owners are Clearlake Capital (Eghbali & Feliciano) + Todd Boehly & Mark Walter (Guggenheim Capital) and Hansjorg Wyss.

Boehly and Walter are part of Guggenheim Capital, a relatively unknown entity that in 2012 bought the LA Dodgers. The legendary Magic Johnson is part of Guggenheim Capital as well and was closely involved in that deal.

Mark Walter is the supreme boss at the Dodgers. There is an interesting story told by Magic Johnson from when they bought the Dodgers in 2012. At first, Magic Johnson had a short term vision, wanted immediate success and to follow the Yankees pattern by spending big. But Walter, the big boss, and Stan Kasten, the baseball guy, did not agree with that and told Johnson that this is a long term project.

Since Guggenheim Capital took over the franchise in 2012, the Dodgers have won the World Series twice and the NL West title in 12 out of 13 seasons. They also played another two World Series Finals in 2017 and 2018, which they lost.

They took a similar path to what Chelsea are going through now as Boehly, Walter and others opted to first take care of other areas such as the minor league system and the development of youth. It's only in 2020 when they started to go big in the market for superstars such as Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow. They are the current World Series winners.

Now if these guys were to milk every penny out of that franchise, then you would have a valid point. But they will soon enter into their 13th year as the LA Dodgers owners and they are now investing more and more money, establishing the franchise as the no. 1 in that league. Whereas the Yankees, who were Magic Johnson's franchise to look to as success, have not won a single World Series since Guggenheim Capital took over. And they did not even make it to a Final up until this season when the Dodgers beat them 4-1.

IMHO if we are to follow the same path as Boehly, Walter and the others took at the Dodgers, I think we are in safe hands. It will require patience and years of development in several other areas, too and currently things start to be looking good.

All of a sudden this so called "project" does not look like a circus anymore and the haters of past seasons have now become fans. 

Maybe we should have had Jim Radcliffe like many wanted, he's doing an amazing job at Utd ......

 

😂

2 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

 

 

 

Weird posts that I do not really agree with.

You might have a case if all these guys were unknown entities. But they are not. Especially Boehly and Walter.

The current Chelsea owners are Clearlake Capital (Eghbali & Feliciano) + Todd Boehly & Mark Walter (Guggenheim Capital) and Hansjorg Wyss.

Boehly and Walter are part of Guggenheim Capital, a relatively unknown entity that in 2012 bought the LA Dodgers. The legendary Magic Johnson is part of Guggenheim Capital as well and was closely involved in that deal.

Mark Walter is the supreme boss at the Dodgers. There is an interesting story told by Magic Johnson from when they bought the Dodgers in 2012. At first, Magic Johnson had a short term vision, wanted immediate success and to follow the Yankees pattern by spending big. But Walter, the big boss, and Stan Kasten, the baseball guy, did not agree with that and told Johnson that this is a long term project.

Since Guggenheim Capital took over the franchise in 2012, the Dodgers have won the World Series twice and the NL West title in 12 out of 13 seasons. They also played another two World Series Finals in 2017 and 2018, which they lost.

They took a similar path to what Chelsea are going through now as Boehly, Walter and others opted to first take care of other areas such as the minor league system and the development of youth. It's only in 2020 when they started to go big in the market for superstars such as Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow. They are the current World Series winners.

Now if these guys were to milk every penny out of that franchise, then you would have a valid point. But they will soon enter into their 13th year as the LA Dodgers owners and they are now investing more and more money, establishing the franchise as the no. 1 in that league. Whereas the Yankees, who were Magic Johnson's franchise to look to as success, have not won a single World Series since Guggenheim Capital took over. And they did not even make it to a Final up until this season when the Dodgers beat them 4-1.

IMHO if we are to follow the same path as Boehly, Walter and the others took at the Dodgers, I think we are in safe hands. It will require patience and years of development in several other areas, too and currently things start to be looking good.

All of a sudden this so called "project" does not look like a circus anymore and the haters of past seasons have now become fans. 

Didn't Boehly come out and say several times he's looking at a 30yr plan...

All I read about now is how more Americans are investing in footy, not trying to make a quick buck and get out but trying to start laying roots for long term projects and "enterprises".

I've recently been looking into the stadium stuff too...and unfortunately the more I look into it the more I lean towards a new site before closing my eyes and dismissing it all just thinking about the bridge. The earls Court site would take us to a brand new level of football club/fanzone, Chelsea's own little "village" but on a much bigger and better scale than some around the world not just the UK.

Anyway I mention that because change is fkn hard, any type of change. From what the new owners have done in the last few years to their "ideal vision". Its not easy to accept and get used to. And no matter how much I don't want things to change sometimes, I can't help think this opportunity would be too amazing not to do. Its a massive vision from them, and it's not one that comes across as just a 10yr build, bleed and sell project.

30 minutes ago, dkw said:

Maybe we should have had Jim Radcliffe like many wanted, he's doing an amazing job at Utd ......

 

😂

Looks like we dodged a bullet on that one.

Football gods 🙏  mwah. Lol

2 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

 

 

 

Weird posts that I do not really agree with.

You might have a case if all these guys were unknown entities. But they are not. Especially Boehly and Walter.

The current Chelsea owners are Clearlake Capital (Eghbali & Feliciano) + Todd Boehly & Mark Walter (Guggenheim Capital) and Hansjorg Wyss.

Boehly and Walter are part of Guggenheim Capital, a relatively unknown entity that in 2012 bought the LA Dodgers. The legendary Magic Johnson is part of Guggenheim Capital as well and was closely involved in that deal.

Mark Walter is the supreme boss at the Dodgers. There is an interesting story told by Magic Johnson from when they bought the Dodgers in 2012. At first, Magic Johnson had a short term vision, wanted immediate success and to follow the Yankees pattern by spending big. But Walter, the big boss, and Stan Kasten, the baseball guy, did not agree with that and told Johnson that this is a long term project.

Since Guggenheim Capital took over the franchise in 2012, the Dodgers have won the World Series twice and the NL West title in 12 out of 13 seasons. They also played another two World Series Finals in 2017 and 2018, which they lost.

They took a similar path to what Chelsea are going through now as Boehly, Walter and others opted to first take care of other areas such as the minor league system and the development of youth. It's only in 2020 when they started to go big in the market for superstars such as Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow. They are the current World Series winners.

Now if these guys were to milk every penny out of that franchise, then you would have a valid point. But they will soon enter into their 13th year as the LA Dodgers owners and they are now investing more and more money, establishing the franchise as the no. 1 in that league. Whereas the Yankees, who were Magic Johnson's franchise to look to as success, have not won a single World Series since Guggenheim Capital took over. And they did not even make it to a Final up until this season when the Dodgers beat them 4-1.

IMHO if we are to follow the same path as Boehly, Walter and the others took at the Dodgers, I think we are in safe hands. It will require patience and years of development in several other areas, too and currently things start to be looking good.

All of a sudden this so called "project" does not look like a circus anymore and the haters of past seasons have now become fans. 

Hi, thanks for your informative reply. I get what you are saying, but forgive me if I'm wrong, but don't capital investment groups exist to primarily make money from its investments and to provide returns to its investors?

And as PL clubs rarely make a profit, and we've gone from debt free to millions in debt , I'm struggling to see where the investment makes a profit, unless it comes from an eventual sale ?

I read recently that we are valued above the original sale price , and that's must be regardless of team performance.

Anyway, I'm more concerned about our game today, thanks again.

Come on you BLUES !

59 minutes ago, dkw said:

Maybe we should have had Jim Radcliffe like many wanted, he's doing an amazing job at Utd ......

 

😂

Nothing like what our owners did to us in the first season is it ,?

1 minute ago, The Rising Sun said:

Nothing like what our owners did to us in the first season is it ,?

No.

30 minutes ago, Simplymo said:

Didn't Boehly come out and say several times he's looking at a 30yr plan...

All I read about now is how more Americans are investing in footy, not trying to make a quick buck and get out but trying to start laying roots for long term projects and "enterprises".

I've recently been looking into the stadium stuff too...and unfortunately the more I look into it the more I lean towards a new site before closing my eyes and dismissing it all just thinking about the bridge. The earls Court site would take us to a brand new level of football club/fanzone, Chelsea's own little "village" but on a much bigger and better scale than some around the world not just the UK.

Anyway I mention that because change is fkn hard, any type of change. From what the new owners have done in the last few years to their "ideal vision". Its not easy to accept and get used to. And no matter how much I don't want things to change sometimes, I can't help think this opportunity would be too amazing not to do. Its a massive vision from them, and it's not one that comes across as just a 10yr build, bleed and sell project.

Maybe I've got it wrong and an American capital investment group are using their investors money to improve Chelsea FC , and are not bothered about making money, and investors are happy to get nothing in return.🤣

6 minutes ago, dkw said:

No.

You're correct. It was much worse for us .

On 05/12/2024 at 09:58, Scott Harris said:

Silverware was never the issue with me, I was more concerned about the safety of the club as a whole. Even with the improvements on the pitch, I still don't like the way the owners have gone about things. The way they have done things has been needlessly risky, and they've gambled our clubs future on it working out, and we still have a long way to go before we're safe.

They are investors..investors take calculated risks, so I don't think they were 'needlessly' risky in their assessment when they purchased the club and put their plan place.  It's taken a bucket full of money and some bad decisions along the way, generally listening to bad advice in many cases from those that they were supposedly well versed in transfers etc.  I think they have learned from their early mistakes.  A boat load of players have to be sold or gone in January and the summer, and hopefully a period of calm, profitability and success will return by the time the 2025/26 season comes around.

I thought Ratcliffe would make a brilliant owner…but I got that massively wrong. 
 

£10m buy out for Ashworth only to sack him in 5 months. Bonkers. 

11 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

 

 

 

Weird posts that I do not really agree with.

You might have a case if all these guys were unknown entities. But they are not. Especially Boehly and Walter.

The current Chelsea owners are Clearlake Capital (Eghbali & Feliciano) + Todd Boehly & Mark Walter (Guggenheim Capital) and Hansjorg Wyss.

Boehly and Walter are part of Guggenheim Capital, a relatively unknown entity that in 2012 bought the LA Dodgers. The legendary Magic Johnson is part of Guggenheim Capital as well and was closely involved in that deal.

Mark Walter is the supreme boss at the Dodgers. There is an interesting story told by Magic Johnson from when they bought the Dodgers in 2012. At first, Magic Johnson had a short term vision, wanted immediate success and to follow the Yankees pattern by spending big. But Walter, the big boss, and Stan Kasten, the baseball guy, did not agree with that and told Johnson that this is a long term project.

Since Guggenheim Capital took over the franchise in 2012, the Dodgers have won the World Series twice and the NL West title in 12 out of 13 seasons. They also played another two World Series Finals in 2017 and 2018, which they lost.

They took a similar path to what Chelsea are going through now as Boehly, Walter and others opted to first take care of other areas such as the minor league system and the development of youth. It's only in 2020 when they started to go big in the market for superstars such as Betts, Freeman, Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow. They are the current World Series winners.

Now if these guys were to milk every penny out of that franchise, then you would have a valid point. But they will soon enter into their 13th year as the LA Dodgers owners and they are now investing more and more money, establishing the franchise as the no. 1 in that league. Whereas the Yankees, who were Magic Johnson's franchise to look to as success, have not won a single World Series since Guggenheim Capital took over. And they did not even make it to a Final up until this season when the Dodgers beat them 4-1.

IMHO if we are to follow the same path as Boehly, Walter and the others took at the Dodgers, I think we are in safe hands. It will require patience and years of development in several other areas, too and currently things start to be looking good.

All of a sudden this so called "project" does not look like a circus anymore and the haters of past seasons have now become fans. 

Baseball is not football, Europe is not America and in any case Clearlake are the majority shareholders and funders who call the shots, not Boehly etc. Clearlake have no previous experience in sports investment and most of their portfolio was in consumer goods and tech startups.

Yes, it would be great if the current consortium follows the Dodgers' model, mostly because it would be a continuation of what we had under Abramovich and Granovskaia; a high-functioning academy, investment in club structures, the ability to occasionally compete for top talent. That's basic, sensible ownership. But, just like we complained about under the previous owners, regulations meant that ultimately we were selling young players to just to keep the first-team competitive, and we want to see that plan consistently adhered too. No change there, really.

What we have actually seen from Clearlake is trying to identify and exploit loopholes to move quickly in an increasingly more regulated market. There is more coming too, with the Belgian courts soon to finalise a ruling that will likely change the European transfer system for good. It means that the club risks being increasingly distanced from its history, its fanbase and probably soon, the very competitions it used to compete in. The core problem is that we are owned by a wealth-seeking enterprise (wealth, not profit- they do not care if we make money or are 'sustainable', so long as the club's capital value grows) and we risk having them artificially inflate the the value of the club only to sell it to an even greedier mob next.

51 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Baseball is not football, Europe is not America and in any case Clearlake are the majority shareholders and funders who call the shots, not Boehly etc. Clearlake have no previous experience in sports investment and most of their portfolio was in consumer goods and tech startups.

Yes, it would be great if the current consortium follows the Dodgers' model, mostly because it would be a continuation of what we had under Abramovich and Granovskaia; a high-functioning academy, investment in club structures, the ability to occasionally compete for top talent. That's basic, sensible ownership. But, just like we complained about under the previous owners, regulations meant that ultimately we were selling young players to just to keep the first-team competitive, and we want to see that plan consistently adhered too. No change there, really.

What we have actually seen from Clearlake is trying to identify and exploit loopholes to move quickly in an increasingly more regulated market. There is more coming too, with the Belgian courts soon to finalise a ruling that will likely change the European transfer system for good. It means that the club risks being increasingly distanced from its history, its fanbase and probably soon, the very competitions it used to compete in. The core problem is that we are owned by a wealth-seeking enterprise (wealth, not profit- they do not care if we make money or are 'sustainable', so long as the club's capital value grows) and we risk having them artificially inflate the the value of the club only to sell it to an even greedier mob next.

For sure there is going to be outgoings, too. Every season. But they will probably create a pattern of letting go those that they buy for 10M, 12M, 15M and then sell them for 25-30M. Like they did with Angelo Gabriel. And will probably do with the likes of Casadei, Lesley U., Carney C., Deivid W. and others that are not going to ever be starters, but are still young and have a relative high ceiling and can be sold for profit.

Otherwise if they hit the jackpot with certain players and they develop as they are projected to when they are signed, I can't see a lot of outgoings in that "area" of the squad. I mean those that are signed with the view of becoming top players. Like Palmer, Caicedo, Enzo, Lavia for example. These guys currently have a very high ceiling and if they continue to develop as they naturally should, then I can't imagine a lot of clubs affording them. Surely when you buy Caicedo or Enzo for over 100M, you are not going to sell under that amount when they are in their prime, or even for 10-15M over that amount. It will take record breaking transfer amounts that only a handful of clubs could afford to pay and even those will probably have second thoughts if they should start the negociations knowing the club is financially very stable and has those players tied to solid contracts. And I am not even talking about Cole Palmer, I genuinely think that if there is any club in this world that wants him, they must think that a world record offer is the only way to have the Chelsea owners pick up the phone. And, of course, reject it.

Lots will be bought and then sold for profit during the Clearlake + Boehly era, but my sincere belief is that the very best will spend their best years at the club. And maybe replaced once they exit their prime years and start to slowly underperform.

We sold Mount for 60M, bought Palmer & Sancho for 40M+ combined.

So far the new owners are better sellers and they are doing what Bayern, Real, Barca, Utd and City have been doing but in arguably smarter contracts

Risky? Absolutely but it wasn't that different having an owner that had relations with Putin. 

I'd just enjoy the football, we could have been Jim Ratcliffe's plaything. If Boehly can work magic with the Dodgers, he may have the final laugh just yet

2 hours ago, Deino said:

We sold Mount for 60M, bought Palmer & Sancho for 40M+ combined.

So far the new owners are better sellers and they are doing what Bayern, Real, Barca, Utd and City have been doing but in arguably smarter contracts

Risky? Absolutely but it wasn't that different having an owner that had relations with Putin. 

I'd just enjoy the football, we could have been Jim Ratcliffe's plaything. If Boehly can work magic with the Dodgers, he may have the final laugh just yet

Its probably more correct to say we sold Mount and Havertz for £120m and brought in Palmer and Sancho, great business.

2 hours ago, Deino said:

We sold Mount for 60M, bought Palmer & Sancho for 40M+ combined.

In hindsight we had some massive stroke of luck in that those bids/approaches for the likes of Brennan Johnson, Smith Rowe, Barcola, Olise were rejected last summer. Because I doubt we could have acted on Palmer on deadline day had we succeeded with our original targets .

Just goes to show you sometimes need a good portion of luck in addition to some good planning to make things work.

Disasi + Badiashille cost approximately £75m; we received £15m for Chalobah's loan.

4 hours ago, RMH said:

Disasi + Badiashille cost approximately £75m; we received £15m for Chalobah's loan.

In terms of wasted money, if you really wanted to argue, you should bring up Fofana and Mudryk for £150m+

That's where we really lost money and lost prospects like Ian Maatsen, Lewis Hall

And the numerous Brazillians we vacuumed up.

Are these owners perfect? Nope. But at least they're not scared of a major rebuild instantly and gutting the squad. Summer '23, we overhauled our entire midfield and attack. This summer we overhauled our wingers and bench.

Bad as these owners have been in some areas, I'm glad we don't have to wait 5 years for something similar. In contrast, Utd still have Bruno Fernandes as a focal point of attack. 

5 hours ago, OriginalS said:

In hindsight we had some massive stroke of luck in that those bids/approaches for the likes of Brennan Johnson, Smith Rowe, Barcola, Olise were rejected last summer. Because I doubt we could have acted on Palmer on deadline day had we succeeded with our original targets .

Just goes to show you sometimes need a good portion of luck in addition to some good planning to make things work.

Yep, but at least the direction is clear. We also don't have to rely on Piet de Vissier or buying the flavor of the month player and then scared of paying/screwing over the selling club

 

16 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

 

Lots will be bought and then sold for profit during the Clearlake + Boehly era, but my sincere belief is that the very best will spend their best years at the club. And maybe replaced once they exit their prime years and start to slowly underperform.

+1

This for me too. In the Summer transfer window i posted mostly about trying to identify who was a commodity and who was a potential buy for the squad from all the names and rumours that were flying about.

Quote

Reports are suggesting the closing arguments were made on Friday in the hearings for the 115 charges against Manchester City. The verdict will be delivered in the coming months. 

@MikeKeegan_DM

And now we wait. Said it a while back but if City are found guilty, the only appropriate punishment is to have the owners sell. 

Edited December 9, 20241 yr by Sconnie Blue

On 08/12/2024 at 12:57, dkw said:

Maybe we should have had Jim Radcliffe like many wanted, he's doing an amazing job at Utd ......

 

😂

It's frightening what's happening there. 

United will bounce back. Eventually. 

I don't think we would have. 

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

And now we wait. Said it a while back but if City are found guilty, the only appropriate punishment is to have the owners sell. 

The most hilarious thing will be if they get deducted 40-50 points and that sees them relegated because they've had a stinker of a season and only got to about 70.