Sound the chaos klaxon, it's kicking off at Chelsea again

IT’S ONE thing looking silly when your players are rowing over who takes a penalty while you’re beating Everton 4-0 at home. But when it’s the two most powerful decision-makers at the top of the club — Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital — trying to yank the proverbial football from one another’s arms? Well, that’s when alarm bells ought to ring.

- Malik Ouzia

At Chelsea, of course, you’d be forgiven for not noticing, since they have been sounding about one thing or another for most of the past two-anda-half years, since former owner Roman Abramovich first put the club up for sale.

The impression throughout last term was of a club almost duty-bound to exude chaos, encapsulated on the night the Toffees were thrashed, eventually by six, at Stamford Bridge. Cole Palmer scored four, a push for Europe was back on, and yet rather than spend the evening celebrating, the then-manager Mauricio Pochettino was forced to explain why some of his senior players had been forced to break up an embarrassing hoo-ha over the rights to a spot-kick.