On the latest episode of Champions League coverage courtesy of CBS Sports, pundits Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards locked horns over the affairs at Stamford Bridge since the Todd Boehly-led consortium completed the £4.25 billion takeover of Chelsea, which brought Roman Abramovich’s 19-year ownership to an abrupt end in May 2022.
Abramovich, a Russian oligarch, was forced – by the UK government – to sell up following his country’s invasion of Ukraine and his alleged ties to President Vladimir Putin. Boehly, months after his arrival, parted ways with Thomas Tuchel and has since overseen stints by Graham Potter, Frank Lampard, Mauricio Pochettino and now Enzo Maresca.
GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: Chelsea are the first team in football history to win every major European trophy – the Champions League, Europa League, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup and Europa Conference League.
One thing is for certain: they’ve not been afraid to put their hands in their pockets to sign new players – and defender-turned-pundit Carragher believes that Chelsea fans should be expecting more bang for their buck, insisting that Boehly’s three-and-a-half year stint in charge, the club’s collection of trophies aside, cannot be deemed a success at the time of writing.
Richards and Carragher Engage in Heated Debate Over Chelsea Under Boehly
Ahead of Chelsea’s return to the Champions League, the CBS crew – made up of Thierry Henry, Kate Scott, Carragher and Richards – were talking about the Blues progress under Boehly. “There’s no right or wrong way going about running a football club and trying to be successful; it doesn’t matter about the system,” former Liverpool man Carragher said.
“The point I’m trying to make is we can’t pretend this has been a success so far after three-and-a-half years. They came into a club and the manager was Thomas Tuchel, he’d won the Champions League at that club, at that stage under Thomas Tuchel, Manchester City and Liverpool were possibly the best two teams in world football, alongside Real Madrid, so it was very difficult for anybody to win the Premier League, but Chelsea were the third-best team.”
Carragher then insisted they are further away from competing from the English top flight after spending around the £2 billion mark. “They are no closer, they are further away than what the manager was doing three-and-a-half years ago in terms of competing with the top teams in the Premier League, they are further away having spent two billion pounds.”
“But there has been progress, hasn’t there?” Richards intervened before Carragher, who has become renowned for his rants regarding Chelsea’s spending, asked: “In what way?”
“If you finish in the league in his first season, 12th, and then you finish sixth, and then you finish fourth, and then you win the Club World Cup. We are talking about where they are now, yes, he has spent a lot of money, but there has been progress. They beat the best team in Europe in PSG. They did ever so well, I’m not saying Chelsea are going to win the Premier League, but you can see progress.”
“Let’s not forget where Chelsea have come from, Chelsea are a winning machine,” Carragher responded before Manchester United caught a stray from Richards. “Man United have been a winning machine, Man United in this period of the last six or seven years have spent an awful lot of money.”
Richards continued to back the Blues: “I think it’s very clever the way that Chelsea have done their business. I don’t think their squad is as good as I’m talking about in the Premier League, I think they could buy more quality rather than quantity. But Joao Pedro has been a good signing, Gittens did well at Dortmund.”
“And if you’re looking at what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to buy young players. Man City have waited too long before they can sell anyone. Chelsea are very good at selling on an asset, because they buy them young, and they’ve still got value and look at the fees, Madueke, £48.8 million. I just think Chelsea are going about it in a different way, whether we agree with it or not.”
The two continued to clash and a back-and-forth ensued. You can watch the full interaction between Carragher and Richards below:
Chelsea fans, in response to Richards, are praising the ex-Fiorentina and Manchester City man. “Carragher getting schooled. Love to see it,” one said on X (formerly Twitter) before another added: “Carragher got owned big time.” Noting that Carragher often slates the west Londoners, a final fan concluded: “Praise to Micah. Carragher, as usual, with his garbage rants on Chelsea.”