Let's get the obvious point out of the way: Todd Boehly made a couple of high-profile mistakes during his time on stage at the SALT conference in New York last week. Yet these had nothing to do with a suggested Premier League all-star game, nor the concept of multi-club ownership.
No, the errors Boehly made were indisputable. Cold, hard facts. “If you look at what our academy has developed, it’s Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne," the American started one of his answers. And given the audience was filled with successful entrepreneurs rather than football supporters, there was nobody to stop and correct Boehly.
The new Chelsea co-owner chairman has since been ridiculed and mocked for claiming De Bruyne and Salah began their journies at Cobham; the Belgian star was schooled at Gent and then Genk in his homeland, while Salah's football education was overseen by Al Mokawloon in Egypt.
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Yet what has been overlooked – and perhaps even deliberately ignored – amid the sneering comments and joyous criticism of Boehly is the rest of his answer.
The 49-year-old continued: "More recently [through the academy], Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Mason Mount, Trevoh Chalobah. We have ten or eleven players right now who are either on loan, controlled by us – we have the right to buy them back – or are playing for our team that came from our academy."
Importantly, these were not mere supporter-pleasing comments uttered by Boehly. They were an indication of how he and Chelsea's new co-owners plan to build the club around the academy overseen by Neil Bath and Jim Fraser, which they regard as one of the very best in world football.
That was highlighted during the summer transfer window. Whereas 12 months prior highly-rated academy graduates Marc Guehi, Tino Livramento, Fikayo Tomori, and Tammy Abraham all left Chelsea permanently, Boehly and Behdad Eghbali worked hard to ensure there wasn't another exodus of homegrown talent.
For example, there was no option to buy included in the loan deal that took Levi Colwill to Brighton. And the prospect of the 19-year-old leaving Chelsea permanently was taken firmly off the table. Trevoh Chalobah, meanwhile, was convinced to remain at Stamford Bridge despite mounting interest in his services during the final weeks of the window.
Callum Hudson-Odoi did leave for Bayer Leverkusen on loan but has explained the role Boehly played in his switch. Speaking to The Daily Mail, the winger said: “When a club is trying to get a player [on loan], they always want that option to buy at the end of the season. Todd was saying: ‘Listen, we want you back here’.
“You’re still on the radar of being wanted by the club. The way he’s trying to set it up, there are a lot of young players he’s trying to buy for the next few years. It shows he wants to integrate the players into the team and help them develop.”
Perhaps the best example of the new ownership's trust in Cobham graduates is Armando Broja. The 21-year-old was strongly pursued by West Ham United throughout the summer but Chelsea stood firm on their desire to keep the Albania international at Stamford Bridge. And after the transfer window had closed, it was announced that Broja had signed a new six-year contract.
Through their actions, Boehly and Eghbali have demonstrated a commitment to the club's own. They no longer want other clubs to reap the immediate benefits of the years of careful coaching and development undertaken in the academy building at Cobham – and do not view it as smart business to sell standout youngsters in order to complete big-money signings.
So while a couple of the names highlighted by Boehly at the SALT conference were wrong, the wider point he was making was right. And once the noise quietens and the season progresses, those who instantly ridiculed the American businessman may realise he is not the wide-eyed, ill-informed owner many have portrayed.
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