By Kieran Maguire

30th Sep, 2023 | 6:30am

Kieran Maguire shreds Chelsea board over £80m reveal - 'complete lack of understanding'

The Chelsea board have shown a ‘complete lack of understanding’ by claiming that they will reduce the wage bill by £80million.

That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about his concerns regarding the Chelsea hierarchy.

Clearlake’s co-founder Jose Feliciano recently revealed in a private equity conference in Paris that the Blues are in the process of cutting costs at Stamford Bridge.

“I think what we are trying to do is reduce the salary and essentially the operating expenses of the business by over $100m (£80.6m) per year,” Feliciano said.

The London side struck a deal with Ares Management this month to invest a further £400million into the club, which will be used to help fund the expansion of Stamford Bridge.

Maguire believes comments from Clearlake show their ‘lack of understanding’ in football compared to franchise sport in America.

“One of the Chelsea executives recently said that they are looking to reduce the wage bill by $100million,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“That, to me, shows a complete lack of understanding of football.

“Football is a talent industry, and talent follows the money.

“So either they are playing four-dimensional chess as far as their strategy is concerned, and we’re going to turn around in two or three years time and say that Todd Boehly is a genius.

“Or, they show a fundamental lack of understanding surrounding competitive sport as opposed to a franchise sport that they have in the USA.“

In other news, Chelsea board change stance after Pochettino sack update