Former Arsenal guru Arsène Wenger unhesitatingly criticised Boehly saying he would insist on owners keeping their distance from the dressing room on matchdays.
Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are said to have made another trip to the Stamford Bridge dressing-room on Tuesday night after the side’s return leg loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League, but this time very noticeably kept a wide berth from making any speeches to the players.
Boehly, Eghbali and Hansjorg Wyss had felt it necessary to visit the dressing room after the defeat to Brighton with Boehly delivering a loaded pep talk in which he labelled Chelsea’s plight “embarrassing”, according to Telegraph Sport.
The move immediately prompted heavy criticism from a host of pundits, including former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, who on Tuesday night was adamant he would never allow owners into the dressing-room, revealing that he made it one of the conditions of his employment.
All the same, that did nothing to deter Boehly and Eghbali from making another foray into the Chelsea dressing-room their Champions League defeat to the Los Blancos that effectively sounded the death knell for Chelsea’s season. However this time the out-spoken Boehly conspicuously refrained from addressing the players or make any speeches and reportedly just greeted individuals instead.
Despite caretaker manager Frank Lampard insisting he has no qualms about the Blues owners owners entering the dressing-room, Wenger is convinced it is a worrying sign.
“No, I wouldn’t, that was always clear in my mind,” Wenger told beIN Sports when asked if he would allow an owner to come into the dressing-room.
“I always put that in my contract. The advice I give to young coaches when they make contracts, I say make what is important for you, put that clearly in your contract that you are the only one, nobody can buy a player without your agreement, nobody can interfere with the team, and you are solely responsible for managing the team.”
Wenger is convinced that Boehly’s pep talk would have done no good, even if Chelsea had managed to complete a miraculous Champions League comeback against Real.
“Well, again, the comeback… I don’t believe in these kinds of things because if I’m paid to motivate the team, to manage the team, I do not want somebody else to do my job,” said Wenger.
“It happened many times where the president goes into the dressing-room and doesn’t talk well at all, but the team wins because it’s a good team, he thinks after it’s because he spoke to them. It’s not always a consequence of their speech, most of the time it’s the quality of the team.”
Wenger shared his concern for the following season for the Blues as they would without Champions League commitments, besides being in the bottom half of the Premier League table.
“I would say I’m worried for Chelsea,” Wenger added. “I agree that the new president comes in and invests a lot of money. But if you don’t invest well, then you have a real problem for the future.
“They haven’t invested well, no. That is basically their problem today, they still have the same weaknesses they had before, they do not score enough goals, they have a lot of possession but not a lot of conversion of chances to score goals.
“I believe as well when you sign players for eight years it’s good for the Financial Fair Play because you can amortise the transfer over eight years but if the player is not right you have to pay the player for eight years, it’s a huge burden for the future, it’s a massive risk.”