Dramatic timescale given to end Chelsea civil war in latest exclusive

Are you sick of the Chelsea civil war yet? Us too. But there’s no game until Saturday night, so this is the focus for the week.

To be fair the Athletic are producing some really good stuff on this subject, and every long read they pump out is full of juicy detail.

That’s what’s beautiful about this whole situation. Both sides of the divide are trying to convince everyone they’re in the right, so they’re both pretty freely releasing information to improve their standing and discredit the other. That means all sorts of juicy gossip is flying around.

The challenge is working out what to believe, and what to ignore.

The latest information is all about who owns what. It’s delicately poised – Clearlake Capital have 61.5% of the club, making them more powerful than Todd Boehly’s group. But Boehly himself has the biggest individual share of the club. That is what’s causing this deadlock.

The Athletic’s explainer today goes into detail on all the figure involved – we all know a bit about Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, but the other figures like Mark Walter and Hansjorg Wyss are a little less well known.

Two months to sort the future of Chelsea

The most important part of the whole piece is the timescale given:

“Either outcome [one of the two sides buying each other out]is possible, as is a continuation of the status quo — though the growing toxicity in the public discourse between the two sides makes the situation feel increasingly untenable. People familiar with Boehly’s thinking on the matter, granted anonymity to protect relationships, believe there will be a clear indication of the direction of travel within the next two months.”

Two months of this could get pretty painful, and pretty toxic. Let’s hope that things on the pitch go exceptionally well in that time, just to distract everyone.