Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly reportedly entered the dressing room after the Blues’ 2-1 defeat to Brighton on Saturday and delivered a speech to the players. According to reports, Boehly was joined by fellow co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Hasjorg Wyss and addressed the squad after Frank Lampard had finished his post-match debrief. He branded their current situation – marooned in 11th place in the Premier League table – as ’embarrassing’, and singled out one of the underperforming players for ‘heavy criticism’.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, who was present in the dressing room, described Boehly’s visit as ‘normal’ and said that he had ‘different chats with us after different games’. However, one player was left ‘disillusioned’ after being singled out and it is reported that the player has been ‘cutting a disgruntled figure’ in training since the dressing down.
The American’s visit to the dressing room has been met with mixed reactions, with some describing it as ‘weird’. Chelsea now face a difficult task of overturning a two-goal deficit against Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday evening, and it remains to be seen if Boehly’s speech will have a positive or negative effect on the team.