Darren Bent does not believe Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly is to blame for the club’s struggles of late.
The Blues sit 14th in the Premier League table and if their poor form continues, the talkSPORT host thinks that Mauricio Pochettino may need to leave.
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Since Boehly completed his takeover with Clearlake Capital in the summer of 2022, Chelsea have looked a shadow of their former selves.
Despite reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, they finished 12th in the Premier League and crashed out of both domestic cups at an early stage last season.
Chelsea have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on new signings but performances haven’t reflected such spending, with the club winless and goalless in their past three games.
However, with Boehly showing his financial muscle despite the on-pitch woes, Bent does not think he should be the one to blame.
Speaking on talkSPORT Drive, he said: “You talk about Boehly, I think as a football fan, what do you want your owner to do? Put his hand in his pocket, buy players. It’s the recruitment, so whoever that person is underneath Boehly, that’s the problem.
“Because Boehly, I know he’s come in with his crazy ideas about All-Star games and this, that and the other and trying to put players on long contracts.
“But at the end of the day, if you’re a football fan and you get a new owner, after you’ve had Roman [Abramovich] by the way, who’s been fantastic for Chelsea.
“You think, ‘Right, I don’t want the money to dry up, I want my owner to put his hand in his pocket and show that he cares like the previous owner did.’
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“I think he’s done that, but it’s whoever is bringing in these players, that’s the problem there because you do need stability.”
He added: “Unless he didn’t trust these people and he thought, ‘Hmm, I’m not sure about one or two of these individuals which is why I got rid of them all’, you’d think, ‘Right, just for a year or so I’ll keep you people in place and then you do what you’ve been doing’.
“Because that model has worked for Chelsea for the last 20 years so just keep doing that, the fact he hasn’t done that is a bit odd.”
Chelsea hired Pochettino as their new permanent manager in the summer and he oversaw a positive pre-season schedule.
However, the Blues have won just once in the Premier League so far this season, a 3-0 victory at home to newly promoted Luton Town.
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Their early campaign form went from bad to worse on Sunday with a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa, and Bent thinks yet another change of manager could be on the cards if the struggles persist.
“Chelsea I almost feel are stuck in this kind of phase where, are they going to be a team that rebuilds or do they need instant success now?
“Now, [Graham] Potter was supposed to be the one that rebuilt Chelsea but yet it was getting that bad they went, ‘No, pull the plug.’
“I almost feel like with Pochettino, if this doesn’t get better, they can say all they want about, ‘Yeah we’ll give him time, he’s got to rebuild the squad.’
“If Chelsea, come Christmas time, are bottom half of the table and I’m talking like halfway between bottom and top ten, they might have to make a change.”
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Source From: Football News, Transfers, Opinion – talkSPORT
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