Boehly's colourful legacy will raise a laugh - but not from Chelsea supporters

Todd Boehly, it seems, will enjoy a ‘small profit’ from the sale of his stake in Chelsea Football Club. It is hard not to laugh.

To be fair, Boehly has provided amusement during his four years at Stamford Bridge. His answer to the complex issue of financial arrangements with the English Football League and the tiers below?

“You could have a North versus South all-star game for the Premier League. That would fund whatever the pyramid needed very easily.”

Brilliant. And then there was the time Ruud Gullit introduced himself to the Chelsea chairman.

“What do you do?” asked Boehly. With such an in-depth knowledge of the game, it was no wonder Boehly liked to visit the dressing-room in the immediate aftermath of a fixture.

“Todd comes to the changing room every game,” former Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga said. “He had different chats with us after different games.”

Goodness knows what those chats were about. He might have tried to explain Chelsea’s transfer policy but that would have taken more than a few minutes after a match.

Where do you start with Chelsea’s recruitment under Boehly? When Boehly installed himself as interim sporting director in 2022, one of the first things he did was sign Raheem Sterling for a fee of £50million on a five-year deal which paid the player £325,000 a week.

And in the context of Boehly’s contractual dealings, that five-year deal was a short-term agreement. In January 2023, Chelsea paid £70million for Mykhailo Mudryk. They gave the Ukrainian an eight-and-a-half year deal.

And we know how it has gone for those two players. In just over four years of Boehly’s involvement, the club has signed 65 players with an outlay of around £2billion.

Billionaire bottle-jobs, as Gary Neville once said. At least Boehly was refreshingly honest about his shortcomings.

At a conference earlier this year, he reflected: “I was stuck being interim sporting director for the summer having no idea what made a good football player. But knowing that Marc Cucurella, if Manchester City want him, I want him. It was really simple that way.”

Really simple. After finishing tenth last season, Chelsea do not have European football on their current agenda. They have won two of their four Premier League games this season.

“I am confident that Chelsea is well positioned for continued success,” said Boehly in a statement about his departure. Well positioned? If you include interim managers Frank Lampard and Calum McFarlane, Chelsea are playing under their EIGHTH manager in four years.

Goodness knows what the compensation payments come to. Enough to pay up Mudryk’s contract, possibly.

After eight months in his post, Graham Potter received a pay-off of £13million. And what was the Liam Rosenior appointment all about?

To be fair, after his initial six months as a sort of sporting director, Boehly’s influence in Chelsea’s strategy might not have been as strong as some people imagined. But he was still a key figure in a period of time when Chelsea lost any sense of identity.

They were pilloried by Neville, but he was far from alone. Boehly has always seemed to be quite an affable character.

He clearly loved being involved in Chelsea. And he brought new owners to the club when the future was uncertain.