A beautiful piece of skill from Karim Benzema would have unnerved the American who may now regret his trash-talkingIf there was a moment to make Todd Boehly think twice about making such a bold prediction ever again, it came when Karim Benzema took a pass with his back to goal just before half-time and used the outside of his right foot to produce a flick so deceptive it completely flummoxed N’Golo Kanté, the ground giving way as the ball span away from the Chelsea midfielder and Real Madrid set off on yet another counterattack.Welcome to the Bernabéu. And Todd, thanks for your take on where European football has been going wrong all these years. A word to the wise, though:...
Defeat at Wolves suggested that coach’s second coming will not provide an edge in the Champions League against Real MadridThe narrative seemed to write itself: Frank Lampard, having been offed by a famous Roman, resurrecting his managerial career at Easter. But the narrative was wrong. There has been no new manager bounce for Chelsea, quite the reverse. They have had a different manager for each of their last three games and they haven’t won any of them. This has been a new manager splat.Sacking Graham Potter with quarter of the season remaining was presumably supposed to jolt Chelsea into life, to at least give them a puncher’s chance in the Champions League. That has not happened. Maybe at Stamford Bridge...
The last time club legend was sacked there was talk of dressing room complaints, but everyone will feel good for 10 minutesIt’s the circle, the circle of life. It moves us all through despair and through hope. Although to be fair, in some cases with a little bit more in the way of the former.But not today! For he is returned, Chelsea’s own royal blue lion king. As expected, and equally, as massively unexpected, Frank Lampard was unveiled just after lunchtime on Thursday as Chelsea’s new, slightly more permanent caretaker manager. Continue reading...
The board makes a good decision by undoing its self-evidently appalling decision to appoint him in the first placeA few years ago Todd Boehly did a TV interview where he defined his approach to business as “creating value where there are value gaps”, or in other words seeing the picture more clearly, doing it better, being, at every moment, the smartest guy in the room. Although, watching Boehly and his co-controlling owner Behdad Eghbali’s activities at Chelsea over the last year, it is tempting to wonder exactly which room we’re talking about here, exactly how un-smart that room would have to be to make this dynamic work.Certainly that room isn’t, to date, European club football, which is proving, once again,...
There were moments against Dortmund when manager seemed doomed but VAR and Kai Havertz came to the rescueFour minutes before half-time, with Borussia Dortmund still 1-0 up from the first leg, with Chelsea still playing in a way that was both careful and frantic, a team that is always trying to leave the house and constantly forgetting its keys, there was a sense of something being settled, some elemental question filtering across the Stamford Bridge pitch.That question was not simply: can Chelsea actually score a goal? Although it was also, and to a very large degree, can Chelsea actually score a goal. But on a more basic level, it was: which way is this thing going to fall? What does...