International breaks are always a little dry as we’re starved of football – but Chelsea always keep us interested.
They sparked this one into life with a full on civil war between the ownership. As it stands it’s a stalemate. Both parties say they want to stay, but both are keen to buy the other out. Neither has the power to force through a deal.
But top Telegraph Chelsea man Matt Law made a very good point on the London is Blue podcast this week. This story has hit the headlines because one of the two sides leaked it to Bloomberg. That has “pulled the pin from the grenade,” as he put it.
They would only do that if they think that sparking a confrontation will lead to a resolution, and as Law says, the leaking side clearly thinks that a stalemate will lead to the other side blinking first and thinking “our only option is to get out.”
You can see their discussion in the clip embedded here, with this answer coming after 21 minutes:
Finally, some intelligent, incisive reporting on this story. The decision to begin leaking is indeed a fascinating plot point. Wouldn’t it be telling if we knew which side it was?
My money says it was Boehly. On the whole, I feel like he seized the initiative and his been more successful in getting his side out and, in the process, of portraying himself in ways that endear him to the fan base (at least in a relative sense compared to Eghbali). It seems to me he’s angling to (a) build up anti-Clearlake sentiment among the fan base while he (b) raises enough capital to buy them out, hoping to use both carrot and stick to get them out.