Chelsea’s manager tunes out reports of ownership power struggle

LONDON (AP):

Chelsea’s new manager is trying to keep his focus on the field following reports of a power struggle among the English Premier League club’s owners.

Enzo Maresca said yesterday that he has had talks with both Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali since the start of the season amid reports that ownership factions want to buy each other out.

“I am speaking with both. There is not any problem at all, and as I said my focus is about the pitch because it’s the only thing I can control,” the Italian manager said ahead of his team’s trip to Bournemouth.

It’s been a hectic two-plus years at Stamford Bridge since a consortium fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, for $3.2 billion. Eghbali is the co-founder of Clearlake.

The American owners reportedly are at odds over the direction of the club, which has spent about $1.3 billion on more than three dozen players across five transfer windows with little to show for it.

Chelsea added yet another winger – Jadon Sancho from Manchester United – at the transfer deadline on a one-year loan with an obligation to buy the player next year.

“If I spend my energy about something different, I think it’s not worth it, so my focus is just about tomorrow’s game,” Maresca said. “The other things – they are things that I cannot control.”