1Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali flanked by sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart [Getty Images]
Chelsea co‑owner Behdad Eghbali changed his tone at CAA's World Congress of Sports event in Los Angeles, addressing mistakes made, acknowledging fan anger and admitting changes needed to be made to their recruitment model.
Regret and humility were features of the conference appearance, which sources say had been in place since the autumn and was not a response to Chelsea Supporters' Trust's open letter or the Not A Project FC group.
However, despite Chelsea's form declining and renewed criticism of the BlueCo project, Eghbali made a rare public appearance to address mistakes and the need for change by reiterating that their desire is to "win" as point one, two and three.
"There is a plan. We reflect on the plan. We try to improve the plan and tweak the plan if it's not working. The message is we're committed. Can this be successful without winning? The answer is no. We've got to win," Eghbali said.
Winning the Conference League was described as a "nice stepping stone", the Club World Cup win was acknowledged as success in a month-long competition and a "nice milestone and great for the fans and squad" but added we hope to repeat that "more consistently".
The co-founder of majority owners Clearlake Capital added Enzo Maresca's mid-season departure was unplanned, explaining: "Getting that stability on the manager side is one of the things we haven't done right yet."
He noted the decision to sack Thomas Tuchel in 2022 "didn't work out so well".
On current head coach Liam Rosenior's future, he continued: "I think we're behind Liam. Of course, it's a results business, but we think he can be successful long term."
On their recruitment, which has been questioned by fans and pundits, he admitted: "I think we've done a few things right, a lot of things right. We've got to be better on a few things, to add more ready-made players at this part of the project, to take (it ) to the next level, to be consistent over time. We recognise we need balance. You tweak a model, you improve, you learn from mistakes."
Adding: "We do have a core (of) good players, global players. Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Levi Colwill, Estevao Willian, Reece James. The view is now that we're here with a great core base, to add some of that experience, to take the team to the next level and have consistency. That fact is not lost on us."
