๐ฃ๐จ | MAJOR BREAKING:
Middlesbrough have been approached by fellow Championship clubs who harbour suspicions that their pre-match training sessions may also have been spied on by Southampton.
[@guardian]
#Boro | #UTB | #SaintsFC
A six-minute VAR delay with 25 replays to decide which of the multiple set-piece wrestling manoeuvres was clearly and obviously worthy of punishment. A fittingly decisive moment for the 2025-26 Premier League season.
๐ต At what point do the five stooges carry the can for Chelseaโs mess?
โ๏ธ Read Martin Samuel's take on the sacking of Liam Rosenior
https://t.co/Ksod5LzEWu
โพ๏ธ The companies who own Chelsea
โพ๏ธ Where the money comes from
โพ๏ธ The huge interest costs not shown on club's books
โพ๏ธ The ยฃ500m loan due in 2033
โพ๏ธ Operating and wage costs cut by just ยฃ6m
โพ๏ธ What it means for UEFA rules
โพ๏ธ What it means for transfers and player sales
BlueCo has committed more than ยฃ4billion on its Chelsea project in almost four years. It is the biggest deployment of private equity strategy football has ever seen.
So will it work?
@CWeatherspoon_ investigates the staggering finances and estimates what it will all need to be worth to break even.
https://t.co/icsvBeGoWR
thereโs also a conversation to be had about influencer/escort culture and how social media and the desire for clout/money are distorting values completely. Itโs dark.
When Chelsea fans protested against the European Super League outside the Bridge on April 20, 2021, at least club legend and performance advisor Petr Cech had the minerals and conscience to step into the throng to talk/plead with them. Different cause to now. And also to who now at Chelsea will communicate with protesting fans? Who do fans actually respect in the building?ย Disconnect between fans and owners is deeply damaging - and growing.
Supporters are understandably angered by BlueCoโs naive stewardship of their club, the lack of experience in the dressing-room, dug-out, recruitment department and boardroom. They rail against wretched results seeing them fall from the Champions League spots. They are concerned about the prospect of ticket price rises and, they fear, the focus on tourist and corporate fan over so-called legacy fans, the ones who were there in the bad times. Home and away. They fear the heart and soul being ripped out of their club - their club - and replaced by a US-made cash register.ย
BlueCo has to respond. No more spin. Be real, be genuine, be more open to fans before the marches escalate into people voting with their feet, leading to rows upon rows of empty seats. Itโs not too late. Communicate properly, directly. Boehly and Eghbali are intelligent individuals, successful in business but they are new to the tricky currents of English football. They have to listen, they have to learn otherwise theyโre going to lose all remaining credibility and lose a limo full of cash. #CFC