Fast bucks to success or ticking timebomb? Boehly's high stakes bid to dominate for years to come

“I NO longer recognise my club,” said Didier Drogba, perhaps the most iconic signing of the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea, as part of a scathing attack on the new owners this year.

- Dan Kilpatrick, Nizaar Kinsella

Drogba was referring to Chelsea’s novel strategy of spending eye-watering sums on young players, but today the club is almost unrecognisable from Abramovich’s tenure.

The only surviving players from the Russian’s last season in control, 2021-22, are back-up goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli and defenders Thiago Silva, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Trevoh Chalobah and poor Malang Sarr, who is so out of the picture that head coach Mauricio Pochettino initially appeared unsure who he was when asked about him this week.

Pochettino can be forgiven for losing track. Since his appointment at the start of the summer, Chelsea have signed 11 first-team players and offloaded roughly 20 — but they are not done yet, with more business expected before tonight’s transfer deadline.

Since Todd Boehly and his Clearlake Capital consortium assumed control of the club from Abramovich in May 2022, Chelsea have embarked on an unprecedented spending spree. They are close to smashing through the £1 billion barrier, with no end to the excess in sight.

£115m

Chelsea smashed the British transfer record to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton

The numbers are staggering. Boehly has already spent more than the whole of Spain’s La Liga in the same period, offering the clearest example of the growing financial chasm between the English top flight and other major European leagues, and twice broken the British transfer record.