Chelsea civil war ‘won’t affect selfish players’ as Maresca fired PSR warning with Hazard analogy
Chelsea legend Pat Nevin insists the feud between Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali won’t affect the “selfish” Blues players and warned Enzo Maresca over profit and sustainability rules (PSR) using an Eden Hazard analogy.
Boehly and Eghbali, the head of the Clearlake arm of the Chelsea ownership, are currently at loggerheads over the direction of the club, and they each want to buy the other partner out.
Neither is willing to waver as things stand, which could cause problems for Chelsea going forward, but Nevin insists it won’t be an issue in the short term.
“It (Boehly and Clearlake feud) will not affect the team at all, short term. No effect at all,” Nevin told MyBettingSites.co.uk.
“Players are selfish because they have to be. You’ve got so many things going on in your mind, be it what the media says, what former players say, manager, the fans. You have to blank it all. You don’t want another noise other than the matches.
“In the short term, you can do that. In the longer term, that becomes more difficult. And certainly if you haven’t got clear leadership and understanding between upper management, middle-management and the workers, eventually problems will arise.
READ MORE: Team Boehly or Team Eghbali? A ‘civil war’ Sophie’s choice for Chelsea fans in the dark
“Short term no. There’s enough players there. The manager’s new to the scene, he’s trying to find out what level of power and control he has. When that settles down, because he won’t know until the power battle upstairs finishes. He won’t know exactly where he stands and how much power or control he has.
“As someone who’s been in that position, I’ve been a Chief Executive and I’ve been a player and done all sorts of that stuff. In the short term, it’s okay but you can’t let that keep on going because uncertainty will grow and players can make excuses if things go wrong. They may say ‘well, there’s trouble at the club, that is why we are disjointed’. Don’t give players excuses, it doesn’t help.
“At the moment don’t worry about it but you might as well get it sorted as soon as you possibly can.”
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Chelsea have thus far managed to swerve PSR sanctions through their creative accounting but through a Hazard analogy, Nevin warned new manager Maresca that “big trouble” could be around the corner.
“For Enzo (Maresca), I think he’s thinking to himself, ‘I know where I am, I’m comfortable, I’ve got good players.’ They keep on bringing in good players, they keep on spending the money so that’s good for the manager and the coach.”
“They kind of have to make sure that keeps on going and the delicacy is if the club’s being run and it’s not in focus, you can make mistakes. Look at Everton when it had dual ownership in two different directions – it can create cracks and that’s not a good thing in any business.”
“The analogy I would use and I think I quite like this one – Chelsea are running rings around FFP/PSR and the FAPL. They’re a bit like Eden Hazard taking on a big lumbering centre-half, they’re running rings around it. As long as they keep doing that and they keep on getting the money and keep on growing and getting players, it’s fine. The problem is that big centre-half, he only needs to catch Eden Hazard once. So they only need to be caught once with the PSR and it could be a big trouble.”
“So far at the moment, their creative accountancy is proving to be as important as their creative players. That has to keep on going to help the coach deliver.”
