Todd Boehly takeover was ‘horrific’ as full scale of £1.7billion Chelsea chaos laid bare

Todd Boehly's reign as Chelsea chairman has been branded a catastrophe after his exit was announced on Wednesday.

After taking over from Roman Abramovich in 2022, the American tycoon and director Mark Walter have sold their 25 per cent stake to majority owners Clearlake Capital, fronted up by co-founder Behdad Eghbali.

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It comes after a chaotic four years at Stamford Bridge, characterised by wild transfer business, managerial upheaval, and not a lot of success on the pitch.

talkSPORT host Andy Goldstein said: "From my understanding, every single Chelsea fan says good riddance.

"Every single one. There won't be one tear shed from any Chelsea fan.

"It's been pretty horrific, hasn't it, since he's come in?"

Ex-England striker Darren Bent responded: "The majority of their signings have been atrocious. Even the way they've run the club, the football operation, where it was buying these young players rather than buying ready-made superstars, because that was what Chelsea were.

"They still had deep pockets, but they opted to try and make money out of Chelsea and the club's ambition got put on hold. Simple as that. It was all about turnover and profit, as opposed to what Chelsea were."

Bent added: "When you look back at his [Boehly's] tenure, it just looks like someone who didn't have a clue."

So what sort of legacy does Boehly leave behind? talkSPORT.com takes a look at his most significant contributions to the club and assesses whether they were a hit or a miss.

Interim sporting director - miss

Despite knowing very little about the inner workings of top-level football, Boehly stepped in as the club's transfer chief immediately after arriving at Stamford Bridge.

Any trace of the Abramovich era was quickly eradicated, as director Marina Granovskaia, chairman Bruce Buck, and technical advisor Petr Cech all left.

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Boehly's first move as interim sporting director was to spend £250million in one summer.

Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella, Kalidou Koulibaly, and Wesley Fofana all arrived in big-money deals during the 2022 summer window.

Then in September, manager Thomas Tuchel was sacked and replaced with Graham Potter.

Boehly admitted himself that he was in too deep. Reflecting on that period, he said: "Having taken over in the circumstances that we did, basically the whole management team left, I was stuck being interim sporting director for a summer, having no idea what made a good football player."

Record signings - hit

Before handing over to Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, Boehly spent £300m in the January winter window of 2023.

This included the record £107m signing of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica, which most would consider to be a success.

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Not only was Fernandez a key player for Chelsea across three-and-a-half seasons, they still sold him to Manchester City for profit earlier this month.

It was also around January 2023 when Boehly popularised amortisation - the art of signing players on super long contracts to spread costs and balance the books.

This was coupled with the selling of homegrown talent (and hotels) for 'pure profit' - with Boehly constantly searching for loopholes to avoid breaching financial regulations.

With the professionals now helping Boehly in the technical department, the Blues sacked Graham Potter, got Frank Lampard back for an interim spell, and finished 12th in the 2022/23 season - their worst league position since 1996.

The summer of 2023 saw more record spending as Moises Caicedo arrived for £117m - which, again - proved to be money well spent.

After two years of upheaval, Chelsea appeared to be making progress under Mauricio Pochettino by 2024, as their young team rallied to a sixth-place finish.

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Managerial chaos - miss

As reports emerged of a power shift in the boardroom around 2024, it appeared Boehly became less involved in the decision-making at Stamford Bridge during the final two years of his chairmanship, with Egbahli growing more influential.

Pochettino left due to a difference of opinion with the Chelsea board - and many questioned why this bridge was only crossed one year into his Blues tenure.

Enzo Maresca was appointed and delivered two trophies: the Conference League and the Club World Cup, while guiding Chelsea to a fourth-place finish and a Champions League return.

Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro became perhaps the two strongest examples of shrewd business under Boehly.

Both were signed for a combined £100m, less than Liverpool spent on forwards Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak individually.

Suddenly, there appeared to be method to Boehly's apparent madness, as his expensively-assembled young squad started to gel.

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But while the American had built a strong team, Chelsea continued to come unstuck by a lack of stability in the dugout.

Maresca's messy exit led to the disastrous appointment of Liam Rosenior - and the man taken from sister club Strasbourg was sacked within four months as the Blues crawled to a tenth place finish.

Xabi Alonso arrived as a 'manager' rather than a 'head coach' - suggesting Chelsea had completely backtracked on the philosophy that forced Pochettino to leave.

This was backed up by the immediate arrival of experienced, veteran players including Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson.

Selling - hit

Chelsea fans took a while to accept the shift from Abramovich's 'Galactico' approach - buying proven talent to win trophies - to the player-trading philosophy of their new owners.

Suddenly, players arrived at Chelsea as long-term investments, rather than ready-made winners.

Still, Boehly did his best to turn the Blues into a sustainable winning machine.

He self-reported misdemeanors under the Abramovich regime, which the FA admitted would have likely gone unnoticed otherwise.

And in a PSR world, Chelsea under Boehly were quite remarkable sellers.

They generated around £1billion in transfer sales during his regime, including more than £375m in the 2026 summer window alone.

So despite some rather questionable signings at the start, the Blues always usually found a way to recoup and ensure no lasting damage.

New stadium - miss

This was arguably Boehly's biggest miss.

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Abramovich specifically chose him from a long list of prospective buyers because of his commitment to redeveloping Stamford Bridge or building a new stadium, something that was close to the Russian's heart.

With little more than 40,000 seats and a infamously nightmarish logistical situation in west London, Boehly was expected to at least make some progress.

He did not.

Overall PR - miss

Boehly never did himself any favours when it came to overcoming the 'goofy American billionaire in English football' label.

In his early days, he was ridiculed for calling for a Premier League 'All-Star Game' and claiming Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne were Chelsea academy graduates.

His attitude towards the club's actual academy graduates - like Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah - left a lot to be desired among the club's fan base.

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And his role on the board of Vivid Seats - a secondary ticketing platform that often listed Chelsea home matches at extortionate prices - did little to improve that reputation.

BlueCo has not been particularly popular at Strasbourg either - with the club's fans protesting what they consider to be a feeder club system.

Verdict - miss

Considering the billions involved, all Boehly has to show for four years at Chelsea is one fourth-place finish and two trophies, neither of which were the big four domestic prizes.

Off the pitch, his lack of progress over a new stadium and various unpopular schemes made him difficult for Chelsea fans to like, as shown by widespread protests against BlueCo.

The club's transfer business might not end up being quite as disastrous as it once appeared, with a strong squad and a clear knack for selling unwanted talent.

But at best, Boehly left with the transition from Abramovich still unfinished.

At worst, it was a failure.