Steve Nicol is really impressed by what Chelsea’s owners have done so far this summer.
The Blues hierarchy have been extremely busy in the opening weeks of the transfer window, largely in overseeing a mass exodus of players.
It was a thankless task for the various Chelsea managers last season trying to cope with an oversized squad, so it was obvious to everyone they would need to drastically reduce the group size before the 2023/24 campaign.
The way the club has gone about offloading players has been efficient, quick and impressive. There may be a few disagreements with some of the player exits, but it’s been a huge success on the whole to balance the books and help new head coach Mauricio Pochettino with his squad size.
ESPN pundit Nicol believes that Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly and the rest of the Blues staff deserve huge applause for their transfer dealings in this window so far.
We would like to give a special mention to the club’s co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, too.
“It’s been very easy to have a go at Chelsea’s owners because they’ve got so many things wrong. But my goodness, you’ve got to hang your hat out for them,” Nicol told ESPN.
“Getting rid of 12 players the way they have in such a short space of time and being able to bring in the amount of money they have, just under £200 million… For once, we can say Chelsea and Mr. Boehly did a fantastic job.”
According to a report from Bloomberg in May, Boehly is stepping back from as much day-to-day involvement at Chelsea.
With the correct staff in place allowed to do their jobs, it does feel like the Blues are starting to move together in the same direction to help the individual in the manager’s dugout.
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