Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali has said the club will start signing “ready-made” players and revealed the departure of former head coach Enzo Maresca was “not a change we wanted to make”.Eghbali, the co-founder of Clearlake Capital, which is the majority shareholder in BlueCo, the consortium used to purchase Chelsea and that also owns Ligue 1 club Strasbourg, has given a rare interview on a range of matters at the club, including their head coach Liam Rosenior.
Chelsea are at risk of not qualifying for next season’s Champions League, sitting four points behind fifth-placed Liverpool. They have won just one of their last seven league games, losing their last three, with Rosenior unable to lift the club after Maresca’s sudden departure on New Year’s Day.
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Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali
“Our policy has been no in-season [head coach] changes,” said Eghbali at the CAA’s World Congress of Sports conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. “You certainly review and hold not only the manager, but the management team, the sporting team, accountable, but typically in the summers, not in season.”It’s not a change we wanted to make [Enzo Maresca leaving]. It’s a change that had a bit of a negative impact in the season, when you’re changing systems and personnel, and it’s one we’ve got to fight our way out of.
“We still have six matches in the Premier League, and an FA Cup semi-final coming up. So, hopefully the story of this season hasn’t been written yet, and you’ve got a lot to fight for. In my perspective, when you get punched in the face, you’ve got to fight back, you’ve got to stand up and fight. And it’s going to hopefully show a lot about the character of this squad.
“I think the perspective is stability, and frankly, getting that stability on the manager side is one of the things we haven’t done right yet, and it’s something we’re striving to improve on.”
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Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior (left) and Behdad Eghbali
Eghbali has backed Rosenior to deliver success.”On Liam [Rosenior], we had the opportunity to work with him daily for 18 plus months, so we knew what we were getting,” he added.”We think he has every attribute to be successful here. He got off to a great start. We’ve had a tough past five, six matches, but I think we’re behind Liam. Of course, it’s a results business,…
2026-04-17 07:30:00
