By Adam Williams, Finance & Governance Correspondent

4th May, 2023 | 6:40am

Sources: Chelsea takeover plot revealed as Todd Boehly eyes summer deal

Todd Boehly hopes to have acquired another club to complement Chelsea in a multi-club network before the beginning of 2023-24, sources have told Football Insider.

The American billionaire, whose first season at Chelsea has been characterised by financial excess and abysmal on-pitch performance, has made it clear that he intends to take over another club.

Strasbourg president Marc Keller confirmed last month that he has been in talks with Boehly about a potential investment in the Ligue 1 club.

This site has also been told that Boehly has engaged with a second French club, and it was reported in March that he had a £35m offer for Portuguese side Portimonense rejected earlier this year.

It is now understood that the controversial owner is confident of completing a second football team takeover within the coming months, with the aim of making Chelsea the mothership in a multi-club system.

The multi-club model pioneered by Man City parent company City Football Group and the Red Bull network is in vogue, with Premier League clubs particularly keen on expanding their horizons.

That is partly due to post-Brexit rules on player recruitment which limit the number of youngsters clubs are able to sign from Europe.

But there are also commercial benefits, brand-building opportunities and the chance to share resources with other clubs.

Chelsea have previously had a relationship with Vitesse Arnhem, the Dutch club to whom 29 players were loaned between 2010 and the end of the Roman Abramovich era.

Officially, that was a feeder-club arrangement rather than a multi-club one, but it has since been reported that Abramovich secretly financed the club via a string of loans worth over £100m.

In other news, Mauricio Pochettino tells Chelsea to complete “instant” signing of Liverpool legend.