Latest news with #BehdadEghbali
BBC News
30-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
How Chelsea moved to brink of signing £30m Delap
Champions League football, Cole Palmer and having the youngest squad in the Premier League were three of the reasons that helped Chelsea move to the brink of signing Liam United, Everton, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle all showed strong interest in the England Under-21 striker after a £30m release clause was activated following Ipswich's relegation from the Premier City had a buy-back option after selling Delap for £20m last summer, but opted not to use this month, Delap was given permission by Ipswich to speak to several interested clubs.A decision was expected before the first summer transfer window - which will run from 1-10 June - with the European Under-21 Championship and Club World Cup on the the past week it became evident the choice was between Manchester United and Chelsea, but it seems the Blues' final-day victory over Nottingham Forest - which confirmed Champions League qualification - was one of the deciding parties were told on Thursday that the 22-year-old had made his decision, and he was spotted at Stansted Airport that evening before a medical on next big decision may be whether to follow England manager Thomas Tuchel's advice and play for England Under-21s this summer - or join up with his new club for the inaugural summer Club World has been a key target for Chelsea all season and it is understood co-owner Behdad Eghbali met the player's key agent David Mannasseh in Dubai. Eghbali even expressed his fondness for the player to Chelsea fans in Wroclaw before the Conference League coach Enzo Maresca also pitched directly to Delap - as did at least one other manager - in face-to-face talks once Ipswich granted permission. Delap has been impressed with Chelsea's style of play and feels the club will be a good fit. He will also have been urged to make the move by several former City academy graduates he will join at Stamford Bridge - such as Jadon Sancho, Romeo Lavia, Tosin Adarabioyo and worked with Delap in City's elite development squad, Chelsea's key recruiter Joe Shields is also known to have a good relationship with the player and his family, and academy director Glenn van der Kraan is one of several other connections between the two Premier League boss Kieran McKenna also retains good relations with the Chelsea hierarchy after being interviewed for their manager's job last he will hope that helps in a potential move for striker Marc Guiu, who interests Ipswich as a loan replacement for 19-year-old Spaniard scored six goals in 14 appearances for Chelsea this season but has missed most of 2025 with a muscular injury. He returned as a late substitute during the Conference League final in Wroclaw. What next for Man Utd? As ever with these situations, Manchester United can draw a positive out of a felt earlier this week it was coming towards the end game in their pursuit of Delap, and it was between them and Chelsea. Now they know they have lost positive is, with the decision made, they can move on. That is in stark contrast to 2022, when then manager Erik ten Hag delayed for months in an ultimately fruitless attempt to sign Frenkie de Jong and United ended up panicking at the end of the transfer window and spent £150m on Casemiro and that does not answer the pertinent question: who do they try for now?Delap fitted their template of an improving, hungry young player, with scope to reach a high standard – at a set Hojlund - who is four days younger than Delap - fitted the same criteria, apart from the last one. And it has not worked I have seen on their post-season trip to Asia makes me feel United have the answer to their goalscoring issues within the club. In fact, it is quite the 'safe' but expensive options are Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo and Crystal Palace's Jean-Phillipe Mateta. But Mateta is 27 and Mbeumo will be at the Africa Cup of Nations for a month with that, it is a risk. Former United striker Danny Welbeck scored 10 goals in the Premier League at the age of 34. Is there any merit in bringing him back and taking some of the pressure off Hojlund - or has Ruben Amorim concluded the 22-year-old Denmark international will never be good enough?If so, it is back to Europe to sign another promising forward with no guarantee it will work. Moyes and Everton impressed Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Everton also showed interest in is understood the pitch by Everton and Moyes made a positive impression on Delap, but the club always understood they were the penultimate fixture of the season against Ipswich at Goodison Park, Moyes said: "We would certainly be interested if he was interested in us."After the game, Everton fans did their best to persuade Delap to join them at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium - despite a hostile reception following run-ins with Jake O'Brien and Jarrad urged him to move to Merseyside as he visited 37 Goodison Road - a house across from the stadium which has a wall featuring footballers' though, the lure of Champions League football means his next signature looks likely to be on a Chelsea contract.
The Sun
27-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
Banned Mykhailo Mudryk turns up in Chelsea kit unannounced on eve of Conference League final to leave club shocked
MYKHAILO MUDRYK is back in a Chelsea kit again after turning up unannounced at the Conference League Final. Head coach Enzo Maresca was taken by surprise when informed the troubled Ukrainian winger had popped up in Poland after months in the wilderness. 1 Mudryk is currently suspended from playing after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium while on international duty in November. But it did not stop him making his own way to Wroclaw where he was spotted by fans wearing a club tracksuit in a steakhouse. It's believed he told them he is here to collect a medal. Maresca appeared caught off guard when it was put to him that the £62million wideman was in town. He said: 'To be honest, I just... Is he here or is he coming? He's here. I'm happy for Misha to be here. "I don't know, I just said that. I'm happy for Misha to be here.' Mudryk, 24, has played in six Conference League games this season and scored three goals - the most recent being in a league phase match at Germans Heidenheim. The player was a marquee signing for new Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali in January 2023 - less than a year after the Americans spent £4.25 billion buying the club. It has not been made official whether Mudryk's B-sample was also contaminated but he has not played for them in 2025.
Irish Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Ken Early: Maresca hails return of Champions League football after Chelsea burn through €1.4bn to finish fourth
People have lately taken to calling it the season of the underdog, but in the end the top five of the 2024-25 Premier League had a reassuringly familiar composition: two American-owned sports-groups, two clubs owned by Gulf states, and whatever the hell Chelsea are. Coming up behind them a couple of maverick oligarchs, followed by the streamlined professional gamblers' outfits of Brighton and Brentford, then a rabble of mostly American-owned 'sports groups' making up the numbers. [ Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle seal Champions League places on final day ] Chelsea's victory at Nottingham Forest meant the long-awaited consummation of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali's billion-dollar dream: Chelsea, after a three-season absence, back among Europe's elite. Enzo Maresca signed off the league campaign with a typically gracious flourish. 'All the ones that have the answer, all the ones that have the truth, they were saying that we are too young, we are not good enough. They were saying we were not able to win in this pitch because too young, because not experience. Unfortunately for them they have been all wrong. All the ones that have the truth and have the answer for everything. So in English I would say, 'eff off' – eh? – to all of them.' READ MORE Such was Maresca's triumphalism about finishing fourth you would almost forget this Chelsea squad has had €1.44 billion spent on it since the BlueCo takeover in 2022. Chelsea's spending in those three years is €600 million more than second-placed PSG and more than twice as much as the next club, Manchester United , in this period. Christian Eriksen scores Manchester United's second goal from the penalty spot in their game against Aston Villa on Sunday. Photograph: Darren Staples/Getty Spending isn't everything, as that ailing Anglo-American joint venture could tell you. United's 2-0 final-day victory against Aston Villa , who could have qualified for the Champions League with a win or perhaps even a draw, was the most surprising result of the final day. First Emiliano Martinez – a rumoured transfer target for United – got himself sent off for bodyslamming Rasmus Højlund 30 yards from goal. Martinez has twice won the Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year award during his five seasons at Villa, but what is expected to be his final act in Villa colours was one of the most expensive mistakes in the history of the club. Villa, though, would rather blame referee Thomas Bramall, who decided Morgan Rogers had fouled United's goalkeeper Altay Bayindir in the process of dispossessing him and blew his whistle before Rogers' shot had crossed the goal line. Replays showed Rogers hadn't fouled Bayindir, but because Bramall had blown the whistle, VAR could not intervene to award the goal. It seems Villa will lodge a complaint with the Premier League to the effect that Bramall was too inexperienced to referee a game of this magnitude. But even very experienced referees are liable to make this mistake: the 2022 World Cup final referee, Szymon Marciniak, made a similar one in the closing minutes of last year's Champions League semi-final between Bayern and Real Madrid, in effect knocking out Bayern. Aston Villa manager Unai Emery speaks to referee Thomas Bramall after Sunday's match at Old Trafford. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA It's hard to criticise referees for simply doing what they have been trained to do all their lives: delivering instant decisions. The logic of VAR is that referees should hold off on the whistle and reserve judgment, just as assistant referees are now supposed to allow possibly-offside plays to proceed rather than immediately raising their flags. But those who can remember as far back as two weeks ago, when Taiwo Awoniyi was injured after colliding with the post during an offside play that was allowed to develop as per the new protocol, will know that the assistants are just as often criticised for delaying their decisions. Ruben Amorim addressed the Old Trafford crowd afterwards and promised the good times are about to roll. If they don't come soon. he won't be around in any case. On Friday, he told Alejandro Garnacho to find himself a new club: the third winger in five months he has sacrificed to the revolution. Amorim will spend his holiday working out the most important preseason training programme of his career. United finished this season an all-time record 42 points behind Liverpool , who enjoyed a respect-off with FA Cup winners Crystal Palace at Anfield, the teams lining up to give each other guards of honour. There was an apparent truce between the Anfield crowd and Trent Alexander-Arnold. Coming on at half-time in what would be his last game for the club, the full-back supplied one phenomenal pass for Darwin Nuñez that reminded the crowd what they would be missing. Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz, left, fights for the ball with Garabagh midfielder Marko Jankovic during a Europa League group game in November 2023. Photograph: Giorgi Arjevanidze/Getty Liverpool have moved quickly to dispel that gloom by moving for Bayer Leverkusen's 22-year old Germany international Florian Wirtz. Should they complete the move it would be a statement signing unmatched in the club's history. The top German talent snubbing Bayern for Liverpool is unheard of. For Liverpool to invest as much as €150 million in a single player tells you they think Wirtz is special. That move also suggests the champions will be evolving towards a new shape next season. It hardly makes sense to sign Wirtz as an €80 million upgrade on Dominik Szoboszlai. The plan is surely for both to play together – but how? Could Arne Slot be planning to use the German as the central link player in the front three, in a withdrawn role similar to how Roberto Firmino used to play and Luis Diaz has often played this season? Or might Wirtz and Szoboszlai play as double 10s – a system Slot used in the 2-0 February win at Manchester City? Liverpool have, after all, had much better luck with unconventional, flexible forwards of this type than with orthodox number nines: Andy Carroll, Christian Benteke and Nuñez all rank among their worst signings.
Telegraph
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Enzo Maresca tells Chelsea critics to ‘eff off'
At the end we, again, had an owner on the pitch at the City Ground. Except this time it was two. And it was not in anger and it was not Nottingham Forest's Evangelos Marinakis. Instead Chelsea's co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly joined in the celebrations as Champions League football was secured. It was the first time they have qualified for Europe's premier competition under their stewardship and they, clearly, saw it as vindication. And tangible proof that Chelsea are heading in the right direction. Their reaction, and, tellingly, the jubilant reaction of the away supporters, will have been a relief to head coach Enzo Maresca. Seconds before the final whistle, he had happily raised his fists towards the directors' box knowing that the result was secure. Later, the Italian came out swinging at his critics. 'I didn't have any doubt from the players. The doubt was from the outside,' Maresca said before unbottling some of his own frustration towards those who have questioned him. 'They were saying we were too young, we were not good enough. Unfortunately for them they are wrong. In English I would say 'eff off' to all of them. 'We brought this club where it has to be, in the most important European competition.' Fair enough. Except what did he expect? Chelsea have, this season, fielded the youngest-ever average starting XI – at 24 years and 36 days – which is a statistic Maresca has understandably used for justification. But it is also the most expensive squad ever assembled in the Premier League, in terms of transfer fees, and while the majority of those signings were not under Maresca's watch he is in charge and they are, therefore, his players. 'Unfortunately, we are in a business where people, you, judge us on results and if we had not won today you would have said it was a disaster. Today we achieved an important target for this club,' Maresca said. It is not 'unfortunate' that he is judged on results – what else does he expect to be judged by? – but, undoubtedly, he has achieved the target he was set by the club and the one he has said was always the goal, even when it looked like Chelsea might mount an unexpected title challenge earlier in the season. So he deserves congratulation. But what was almost as an important as the result, and the reaction of those owners, was the response from the Chelsea fans in the away end. As the players and staff danced in front of them, they joined in. After months of being unsure as to the direction in which Maresca was taking the team – and appearing to grow tired of his football and being asked to trust the process – they were satisfied. Happy days! 🙌 #CFC | #NFOCHE — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 25, 2025 There is also the relief that, with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur having already qualified, they have not missed out. How Chelsea would have been baited otherwise. The question now is what does it mean to Chelsea and whether they can capitalise on Champions League qualification? In fact the big question is how close the goal here scored by Levi Colwill, ironically an academy product despite all the spending, can be compared with Jesper Gronkjaer's strike in 2003 that also secured Champions League qualification and helped convince Roman Abramovich to buy (and save) the club? The rest is history. Levi Colwill taps into an empty net for Chelsea! 😨 — Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 25, 2025 Although Maresca would have remained next season whatever happened – with the owners planning to give him at least two full campaigns to prove himself – we may end up looking back at what happened here as a sliding doors moment. Chelsea will hope so because, in truth, finishing in the top five had to be a minimum requirement and not just the target this season although they can understandably talk about success. Of course, they may go further with a trophy to win on Wednesday, when they contest the final of the Europa Conference League against Real Betis, and even further still with the lucrative Club World Cup in the United States starting next month. Finishing fourth, behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City is respectable enough. For now. But it depends on what happens from here on with the Champions League unlocking more finance to help reshape an unbalanced team. There is also Europe, for the first time since 1995, for Forest, although having spent so long in third place and in the top five it is a seventh-place finish and therefore the Europa Conference League. Given they spent the last game of last season trying to avoid relegation, the campaign has still been a resounding success – even if the ending of it, with just two victories in the last eight games as their squad was stretched and they evidently ran out of steam, will hurt. What will also hurt was that it was in their hands, given the events elsewhere. And yet, apart from two chances that Chris Wood failed to take, they never get close. How has Chris Wood missed that?! 🤯 — Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 25, 2025 And, finally, it will hurt that the only goal came from a mistake, with Neco Williams misjudging a header and sending the ball into Pedro Neto's path, with the forward squaring for Colwill to side-foot into the unguarded net. Apart from their blip away to Newcastle United, Chelsea have finished strongly, with five wins in their last six league games. They professionally dealt with the pressure and the occasion and what was needed. For the Chelsea project this is a significant bridgehead they had to reach, as the reaction showed. But they have to push on from here.
BBC News
25-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'The doubt was from outside' - what Champions League means for Chelsea
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca left Nottingham Forest's City Ground aiming a swear word at his critics. In fairness, the Italian did self-censor it, but was keen to stress he "didn't have any doubt about the players. The doubt was from outside".His comments followed a vital 1-0 win in which homegrown defender Levi Colwill tapped in the winner at the far post, and he then celebrated with the away supporters. They all knew the significance of that goal in the 1-0 win at the City Ground to qualify for the Champions League, with co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali among the backroom staff celebrating on the now means, regardless of what happens in the Conference League final against Real Betis on Wednesday, Chelsea can finally point to a season being a tangible success since both Roman Abramovich and Thomas Tuchel departed west London. Multiple senior figures played down the importance of qualifying for Europe's elite competition, which is worth an estimated £80m-£100m, for Premier League profit and sustainability rule (PSR) reasons. They also said that qualification was not crucial for Maresca to stay in the job as they always planned to review his management after two full seasons. However, this is important for the optics of this project which has invested £1.7bn in what was the youngest average age for starting XIs across a Premier League season - just 24 years and 36 days. When asked about Chelsea's critics, in a season where there has been fringe fan protests, Maresca said: "I didn't have any doubt about the players. The doubt was from outside. All the ones that have the answers or the ones that have the truth, they were saying that we are too young, we are not good enough, they were waiting for Aston Villa to drop points for us to achieve the Champions League. "They were saying that we were not able to win on this pitch because we are too young, because we are not experienced. "Unfortunately for them, they have all been wrong. All the ones that have the truth and have the answer to everything. "So in English, how you say? [expletive deleted] to all of them, because the players deserve that. The effort they have been doing is fantastic." Why was Maresca not under pressure? Maresca was already safe before Chelsea kicked a ball on Sunday. The Stamford Bridge hierarchy, who appointed Maresca on a five-year deal last summer, remain impressed with the Italian. They believe his style of play will ultimately pay feel injuries are a clear reason behind a dip in form over the winter period. They also highlight underlying data, like Chelsea being second in the league for missed chances, fifth in expected goals (xG) and only Liverpool have had more shots in the league, to illustrate that they are creating scoring opportunities, even if they are not always finishing figures have privately expressed admiration in recent years at how Arsenal rebuilt around Mikel Arteta, and similarly Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, from a low base to regularly achieve high points totals in the league. This is despite misgivings about Maresca's style of play and, at times, results among the fanbase, but the decision-makers want to prove they can provide stability after two seasons of hiring and firing managers. Why Champions League could keep squad together Maresca was asked last week whether Cole Palmer deserves to play in the Champions League. He answered: "Absolutely yes, I don't think Cole is the only player who deserves, I think Moi [Moises Caicedo] also, Enzo Fernandez and Levi Colwill deserves Champions League. We have many players in terms of status deserve to play in the Champions League."That sense of deserving to be there was a double-edged sword for Chelsea in a bid to keep players at the top end of their squad happy. But, similarly, fringe players grew frustrated only playing Conference League matches at the beginning of the season. There ended up being one team for Europe's third-tier competition, featuring players like Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix, Axel Disasi and Renato Veiga - all of whom either left or explored leaving in January, and another featuring star names like Palmer, Caicedo, Fernandez and Colwill for the Premier League. It could help those on the fringes to now offer Champions League football instead of the Conference League, but those players will also have to get used to playing much higher-level opposition. Did the owners need qualification? Within two months of chants of "we've got our Chelsea back" in the win over Brentford in December, many supporters started chanting "we want our Chelsea back" two months later. There was also a fringe protest movement against the ownership at a game at home to Southampton in February. Anger has since simmered down but other bones of contention, including matchday prices, Boehly's ongoing investment in a ticket reseller, and the emergence of a rift between two factions in the consortium, could flare it up again. The ownership, which had never been involved in football before, is getting more used to the noise of owning a Premier League club. As Boehly explained at the Qatar Economic Forum this week: "It's like owning anything [there are highs and lows]. This one is a little more in my face, but the good thing is the bad news is good news. It means people care. "The level of competition is ferocious but it means the margin for error is so small." Would Champions League impact PSR? Of course, there is no doubt that reaching the Champions League is important from a financial perspective. Qualification is worth between £80m-£100m depending on performance, with additional ticket sales and commercial revenue to be made. One of the factors behind Chelsea going without a shirt sponsor for the majority of this season was they struggled to attract their estimated £60m-per-season partner without participation in the competition. They are in talks with other partners for next season, with just two games left on their short-term deal with Dubai property company Damac. It is worth noting PSR is calculated over a three-year period, so Chelsea's next set of accounts would have had no such revenue from Uefa's top-tier competition if they had fallen short. That is especially pertinent as Chelsea now have the lowest revenues of the traditional big six, with £468.5m outlined in the latest set of accounts, below the £528.2m of Tottenham at the lower end and Manchester City's £715m at the top end. The sale of two hotels for £76.5m in a related party transaction to parent company BlueCo in 2023, followed by a similar move to shift the women's team to the same parent company for £198.7m in 2024, is all that has kept them compliant with PSR in the past two it is worth noting that the club's financial position is also strengthened by the chance to earn between £40m and £97m at the Club World Cup this were always going to look to sign a striker, right-footed left winger and potentially a centre-back this summer, but expect them to be even more aggressive now. Supporters will soon be demanding they use that extra revenue to bridge the gap to champions Liverpool, who finished 15 points above Chelsea.
