Incoming Chelsea owner Boehly will have plenty to sort out when he arrives at Stamford Bridge with Blues in turmoil

TODD BOEHLY was a wrestler as a schoolboy.

And he is now set to grapple with a way to keep Chelsea at the dizzy heights they gained in the Roman Abramovich era.

Despite an 11th-hour bid by one of Britain’s richest men, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, it seems that Boehly’s second offer to take over Chelsea has been selected as the winning offer.

While Abramovich’s chosen deal broker, the US-based Raine Group, has offered a public silence almost throughout the two-month process, the Wall Street Journal revealed Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Boehly was the “preferred bidder”.

It means Boehly and his backers, which include Switzerland’s richest man Hansjorg Wyss, have now entered into “exclusive talks” about completing a takeover.

Quite what the ultimate outcome will be for the Blues is less clear, although Boehly has already enlisted the support of former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

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It appears that the Boehly bid was able to prove it had accessible funds to meet Abramovich’s own last-ditch demand for a further £500million investment in the planned Ukraine war victim charity.

He was also able to give the guarantees of a ten-year commitment to the club, funds for investing in the playing squad and rebuilding Stamford Bridge.

Yet the London School of Economics graduate will now have to prove the numbers really do add up for the Blues.

Whoever takes over Chelsea will inherit a squad that has already lost two key out-of-contract defenders, with Antonio Rudiger heading to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen set for Barcelona, while skipper Cesar Azpilicueta might return to Spain.

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There are also serious doubts over the futures of Jorginho, eyeing a journey back to Italy, and record £97m signing Romelu Lukaku among others.

Abramovich’s trophy-laden era has come at a huge personal cost, although the Russian  confirmed even before he was placed on the UK Government sanctions list that he was not looking for any of his £1.5billion club loan to be repaid.

Boehly, who is believed to be in his late 40s, is described as “a businessman, investor and philanthropist” with a latest estimated net worth of £3.76bn. 

His stake in the Dodgers was purchased through his investment vehicle Guggenheim in 2012 and he also owns 27 per cent of the LA Lakers NBA franchise.

Boehly was knocked back by Abramovich when he made his first bid to buy Chelsea for £3bn in 2019.

And he emerged as an early contender this time round, especially when consortium partner Wyss went public in claiming he had been approached by Abramovich’s representatives before  the Russian announced his decision to sell.

In the US he has made donations to candidates from each of the main political parties — riding both horses — although Wyss was a significant contributor to the Democrat coffers in the successful 2020  campaign to unseat Donald Trump.

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But the politics of the Premier League boardroom table will be a new ball game all together, even if he is surrounded by a few familiar faces.

Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke, John Henry of Liverpool, Wes Edens at Villa, Josh Harris and David Blitzer at Crystal Palace — part of one of the losing Chelsea bids — and Shahid Khan of newly-promoted Fulham all run US sport  franchises.

Chelsea, however, are a club that seems permanently in the eye of a storm.

Never more so than in the past few months.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk