Chelsea’s Ownership Group have issued an open letter celebrating an “astonishing” season of success for their Women’s Team.
Having succeeded Roman Abrahimovich as club owner in May 2022, Chelsea’s current owners – Blues Partners Limited led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have now issed an open letter to supporters reflecting upon their first season in charge of the Blues.
Whilst the men’s team endured a “disappointing” season despite a heavy spending spree in the transfer market, the owners were delighted with Chelsea Women’s “astonishing season” in which the Blues won Women’s Super League and FA Cup amidst competition from Manchester United.
Boehly and his fellow co-owners also iterated that “there are not enough positive things to say” about Chelsea Women manager, Emma Hayes who has continued to lead the Blues to success with at least one trophy in seven of the last nine seasons – including 2017 WSL Spring Series.
Summing up the success of the women’s team, Boehly and his colleagues praised the squad and coaching staff for how they dealt with “adversity” and “injury” plus a period of leave for Hayes early in the season due to an emergency hysterectomy.
They also expressed their feeling of being “delighted” to see Hayes crowned League Managers’ Association’s (LMA) Women’s Manager of the Year, whilst Sam Kerr was awarded FWA Women’s Player of the Year.
Boehly also turned his attention to the men’s team who could only finish 12th and London’s second-worst team in the Premier League this season, as he praised the fans for showing “unfailing loyalty” amidst poor results and early domestic cup exits – albeit against Manchester City in both competitions.
With Mauricio Pochettino now set to take charge of the Men’s team next month, the club’s board are “optimistic” that next season will bring better results whilst remaining “completely committed to the long term and sustainable success” of Chelsea.
Here is Chelsea’s Ownership Group’s letter in full below.
Our promise to you was to make our fans proud. We remain completely committed to the long term and sustainable success of our club and fulfilling that promise we made to you.
We know the huge potential we must grow to develop Chelsea FC and it is a role we take seriously. Everybody working here is relentlessly focused on driving us forward.
Clearly, for our men’s team, it has been a disappointing season and there is a lot we can and will do better. Throughout these difficult periods, our fans have supported our players and our team across the country, and Europe with unfailing loyalty.
We could not be more grateful for your incredible support. The atmosphere at the Bridge when we played Dortmund will live long in our memories and serves as an important reminder of where we want to be.
Our women’s team has celebrated another astonishing season, winning the Double with an unprecedented fourth successive WSL title and third successive FA Cup.
Whilst we just fell short in the Champions League, the team played in front of incredible crowds at Stamford Bridge and demonstrated their quality against the best European sides.
There are not enough positive things to say about Emma Hayes, her backroom staff, and squad who have dealt with adversity, injury and Emma’s period of absence. Their character and hunger to win is second to none.
We were also delighted to see Emma named the LMA’s WSL Manager of the Year and Sam Kerr winning the FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year award back-to-back.
For all the challenges of the past year, we are optimistic about the future. We are looking forward to welcoming Mauricio Pochettino as the head coach of our men’s team in July.
We are building a modern scouting, talent identification, and recruiting infrastructure within our sporting department, led by Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, which will help us to identify and transform the squad around elite talent, a squad capable of consistently competing to win the Premier League, raise domestic cups and compete and win at the highest level in European football.
We have also appointed Chris Jurasek as CEO to drive our business forward off the pitch, which in turn will make us more sustainable on the pitch.
The success we are aiming for is only possible with our supporters behind us. We are proud of the creation of our Fan Advisory Board, which will meet for the first time over this summer, and we are confident its new members will ensure you are at the heart of decision making at our club.
We will continue to ensure your voices are heard as we look to the future.
For now, on behalf of the board and everyone at the club, thank you for your outstanding support. We hope you all have a good summer and look forward to welcoming you back to the Bridge in August.
Chelsea Ownership Group
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