17 April 2023 , 17:14
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Gary Lineker has sarcastically responded to news that a furious Todd Boehly visited the Chelsea dressing room in the wake of their dismal 2-1 loss at home to Brighton on Saturday.
Blues co-owner Boehly, who fronted a successful £4.25billion takeover nearly a year ago, spent an hour inside the players' inner sanctum at Stamford Bridge following their third successive defeat under caretaker boss Frank Lampard. The result leaves Chelsea 11th in the Premier League table with seven games to go this season, a campaign which Boehly told the squad was 'embarrassing'.
Former England striker Lineker, who's previously been critical of the American tycoon's business strategy - such as spending more than £400million on transfers within the space of 11 months - took to Twitter on Monday to ruthlessly mock Boehly. Referencing the Guardian's story, Lineker tweeted: "I bet that helped," alongside a woozy emoji.
One insider described Boehly's visit to the dressing room as 'weird', with the Chelsea chief making his displeasure known straight to the players' faces. Boehly, who faced a tirade of shouts from angry supporters close to where he sits at Stamford Bridge after full-time on Saturday, was joined by fellow board members Behdad Eghbali and Hansjorg Wyss.
Boehly, Eghbali and Wyss - all part of the consortium who succeeded Roman Abramovich last May - addressed the squad while interim manager Lampard carried out his media duties. The trio's aim was to ignite a fire before Tuesday's do-or-die Champions League quarter-final second leg at home to last year's winners, Real Madrid.
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The Spanish giants hold a 2-0 advantage from the first leg last Wednesday, meaning that Chelsea would need to produce arguably their greatest ever European night at Stamford Bridge in order to advance. Speaking ahead of the match, goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was quizzed on Boehly's post-match visit to the dressing room and he revealed that it isn't a rare occurrence.
Todd Boehly spent an hour inside Chelsea's dressing room following their 2-1 defeat to Brighton (Visionhaus/Getty Images)Have your say! Will Chelsea somehow get past Real Madrid? Give us your score prediction in the comments section.
"Todd comes to the changing room in every game," Kepa told a press conference. "He had different chats with us after different games. I am not going to say what he said. It is normal when he came."
Lampard was also asked about the situation, and the ex-Blues midfielder and club legend affirmed that he felt "comfortable" with Boehly paying regular visits. "I have no problems with it. I have my things I want to say after the game," Lampard explained.
"If an owner wants to be positive and wants to speak to the players, then it's his part to do that. As Kepa said, it can be very regular in the modern day. In fact, it shows passion. That's what I like."