Luis Campos and Paul Mitchell, Michael Edwards and Christoph Freund. These are just a few of the many people. ChelseaAs they search for a new sporting director, have been heavily connected to.
As it stands, all suggestions are that Freund, who has done a great job at RB Salzburg is the favourite. When asked about the idea after the ceremony, Freund did not downplay it. Champions LeagueAs pictured above, a group game between Chelsea RB Salzburg at Stamford Bridge.
“Chelsea is a huge club in transition,” he told Sky Sports Austria. “I can’t say exactly what will happen in the next few weeks and months. There is no way to predict what will happen in football. Chelsea is a great club. But I’m sports director in Salzburg and I really enjoy it.”
It is quite understandable. WhoThe role is a major draw for most people. There has not been much information. WhyThe new owners want to fill the role and will need to know what their responsibilities are. Chelsea just spent an incredible amount of money. Premier League record £250million ($286.9m)-plus in the summer transfer window without a sporting director, so it is not as if they’ve been struggling to add fresh talent to the squad.
The first thing to make clear is that this just isn’t a sudden idea that has crept into the minds of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium. Since they began to do their research about the club’s purchase, hiring a sporting director was on their mind.
Chelsea had already senior positions at that time. influential director Marina Granovskaia,Technical and Petr Cech, performance advisorScott McLachlan, the head of international scouting (although he had another job at Global Football Holdingss), has all left the club in the months since the takeover was complete in May. When you buy a club for £2.5billion, it’s reasonable for you to want to put your own people in place to run it.
Last week’s revelations were shocking.It is important to hire a sporting director prior to the competition. World CupStarts in November, so Chelsea are ready for the January transfer window. Graham Potter will be replacing Thomas Tuchel as the head coach and will have a say in who is brought in.
This is a great idea because Potter already has Kyle Macaulay, his trusted recruit analyst at Ostersunds, with him. BrightonHe will be there. Chelsea’s head coach will want to make sure that his close confidant can operate alongside the new employee.
Potter will also have a say in who comes in as Chelsea’s new sporting director (Photo: Getty Images)
Macaulay’s reputation for identifying young talent is exemplary, so it is not surprising that there is a need for a sporting manager. But Macaulay is a man who works on identifying players — he doesn’t get involved in negotiations with agents or clubs like a sporting director. However, Macaulay still plays an important part in the set-up.
This is the real key. Chelsea’s new owners want to build a big team of people who are all working together for the same goal. A sporting director isn’t going to be the only hire that will help the club improve the way it does business. Both senior and junior positions will also be created and filled. Given Boehly’s comments this week about multi-club ownership and his praise for the Red Bull group of which Freund is already a part, this is surely a significant factor in the German’s favour.
There is a recognition that the data/analytics/scouting department inherited is already at a very high level but it will increase in importance and number even more. Matt Hallam, Someone who was already in a high-ranking job.It has already received more attention.
Potter’s willingness to collaborate and communicate with everyone behind-the scenes is one of his most appealing qualities. This is exactly what the club is looking for in a sporting director.
In many ways, they want the equivalent of Potter: someone who is happy to work with people and has been an overachiever; a person who has helped to run a successful organisation even if it isn’t doesn’t match Chelsea’s budget. The priority is that they’re strong in scouting and data, not that they’re a celebrity name.
The board considered candidates from Europe and across the Premier League. There have been suggestions that the board has changed their mind on several occasions. A candidate who had been interested in being elected has since been disqualified. This is normal. Rather than a sign of indecision, it demonstrates how determined they are to make sure it’s the right person. It may also reflect the shift from Tuchel to Potter at the dugout. The indications now are it isn’t an obvious choice; someone who will create headlines.
Despite all the talk surrounding Campos, Paris Saint-Germain’s football advisor formerly of Monaco and Lille, this description of what Chelsea are looking for appears to rule him out of contention. Freund seems to be a stronger match. This profile also has a name that suits it and is being considered: Bayer Leverkusen’s Tim Steidten.
Steidten, then at Werder Bremen in 2019, with Serge Gnabry (Photo: TFW-Images/Getty Images).
It is also fair to ask how much power Chelsea’s news sporting director will have. Boehly and Behdad Eghbali (another co-owner), have developed relationships with a number high-profile agents and personnel from other clubs over the last four months. Do they really want to lose this power now that they have had a taste of it? It would also be understandable for them to go directly to the top of Chelsea, the money men from now on, rather than dealing only with a sporting director.
It is important to remember that co-owners also have businesses to manage and worry about. It was never going to be possible to keep the team running smoothly. Out of necessity, Boehly took over as interim sporting director following Cech’s departure.
Only need to see the LA Dodgers run. MLBAs an example of what Chelsea will look like, Boehly owns a share in the team along with Mark Walter, another Chelsea owner. Andrew Friedman, who is the equivalent to a sporting director, has been president of baseball operations since 2015. Dave Roberts, who has been the manager for nearly seven years, signed a three year contract extension in March. Despite the manner of Tuchel’s sudden departure, the ambition is to have similar long-term stability at Stamford Bridge.
Boehly stated the same this week in a talk A conference in the US. When asked why he thinks the consortium can run a successful football team despite their lack of experience in the sport, he explained: “I think we know people. We have a deep understanding of human capital. We are experts in game strategies and game plans. Yeah, we’re not expecting to be the football experts, to find the best talent. We’re going to put those people in place. And I think it’s no different to running any human capital business where it’s about getting the right resources, making them collaborate, getting them organised, thinking about how can have a global business at a local level.”
However, this does not mean that the consortium will suddenly be indifferent to absentee ownership. The philosophy will be that it doesn’t matter which person receives the call from an agent about a player — what happens next will be talked about and discussed among the collective before a decision is made.
In some ways, it doesn’t sound like the sporting director at Chelsea will have the most powerful of positions. There will be many voices. The new regime believes it is better than the way things were in the past.
(Top photo: Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)
