talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan has revealed his ‘maudlin interest’ in talks with the Chelsea ownership.
A consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital bought the Blues for £4.25billion in 2022.
Club chairman Boehly shares an equal split of 38.5 per cent ownership with Hansjorg Wyss and Mark Walter, whilst Clearlake owns the rest.
Behdad Eghbali, a co-founder of the United States-based firm, is said to have been running the day-to-day operations at Chelsea.
talkSPORT reported in September that tensions between him and Boehly have become increasingly strained over how the club is run.
Both parties have considered buying each other out, though former Crystal Palace owner Jordan believes Clearlake would win the battle.
However, during his evaluation of the situation at Stamford Bridge, he also mentioned the ‘opportunities’ he has been offered with the club’s hierarchy.
“If they fall out to such a point, he’ll lose, because Clearlake and Eghbali have got more money than him, and that will find its way to the surface,” he said on White and Jordan.
“But whether they have diverging agendas or converging agendas, there’s always going to be differences of opinion. It’s not about having differences of opinion.
“It’s about how you react to them, it’s if you become entranced in ideologies or the principle of who is at the front of the queue. I don’t know the personalities.
“I spent a bit of time with Todd, I don’t know Eghbali, various people I know that are representing Chelsea are working with them and there’s opportunities for me to perhaps go and watch Chelsea games and get myself involved in that sort of framework if I wanted to, in terms of having discussions with these sort of guys.
“But I’ve always believed that the Chelsea project is a very interesting one, it’s a very different one.
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“All the criticism that’s been laid at the door of Boehly about the decisions that he’s made, have been made by people that don’t have the understanding of what great wealth does.
“It has a time to build things, and we live in a micromanaged world where the next game counts, if you lose the next game, you’re a disaster. He’s not worried about that.”
Host Jim White said: “With all due respect Simon, you had wealth, and still have. This lot, a different stratosphere.”
But Jordan replied: “I’m a waiter by comparison economically, even at my pomp, even at my height.
“These guys have huge amounts of capital available, not just private wealth of their own, but access to capital which is as important as having capital of your own wealth.”
White then asked: “Would you get involved with them?”
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“Not involved with them commercially, involved with them to have discussions,” Jordan replied.
“Because they like some of the things that have been written, they pay attention to some of the things that I’ve said about them. That doesn’t give me any cachet or kudos, it’s just an observation.”
“Would you be motivated to have a chat with these guys?” White questioned his talkSPORT colleague.
After a slight hesitation, Jordan responded: “Yes and no, just out of maudlin interest.
“In the same way that I was motivated to sit talking to Boehly in Qatar, because these guys are influential people.
“Chelsea’s a… Whilst I consider it to be a manufactured football club, much to the irritation of Chelsea fans, is a big football club now, in terms of the scale that Roman Abramovich gave it, so it’s interesting.”
Since the takeover three years ago, Chelsea’s fluctuant results have been a long-term talking point amid huge transfer expenditure.
They are yet to win a major trophy under the ownership, but an off-pitch development could begin to dominated the Blues’ headlines.
Stamford Bridge has been the club’s home since they were founded in 1905 but currently has a capacity of around 41,000.
This falls way below all of their ‘Big Six’ rivals, so it’s no surprise there has been long-term talks over further redevelopment or relocation.
A site at Earl’s Court just a stone’s throw away from Stamford Bridge has been eyed as a potential new location should Chelsea leave.
And Boehly has hinted that moving to a new stadium might be more likely as he told Bloomberg: “Inside of London it’s really complex.
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“It’s not like we are building something in a rural environment. We have a lot of constituents to make sure we care about.
“Certainly the Chelsea fan base is one of them. Long term, I think we’re going to build something new, and I think we’ll figure it out.”
