When Petr Cech joined the Chelsea board as a Technical Director, we were told that it was to be the middle man as such, between the head coaches and the board room.
This was something that was much needed, with seemingly too much of a gap between the two.
Chelsea are considering a move for long-term club target Boubacar Kamara, read the full story HERE!
With that in mind, you expected that Frank Lampard coming in as manager, would be getting a big say in the players that arrive at the club, and perhaps he does – but it certainly isn’t a significant say.
Transfer insider Dean Jones has revealed to The Si Phillips Talks Chelsea Podcast (my podcast!) today that Kai Havertz was a board-driven signing, and not one that Lampard asked for.
“Lampard didn’t necessarily want Kai Havertz,” Jones told me.
“I’m not saying he would have turned him down but it wasn’t like ‘please go and get me Kai Havertz,’”
I think many people assumed that Havertz WAS a Lampard signing, due to the fact he seemed to be so involved in the transfer and making it happen. But this makes you wonder how many more of the summer signings were actually asked for by Lampard.
I’m not too sure now that Timo Werner was. Ben Chilwell you get the sense was, and Declan Rice has clearly been asked for by Lampard. But it looks like the majority of recruitment was board-driven. Hakim Ziyech? Who knows.
Lampard clearly does have a say, and clearly does get involved, but perhaps not as much as some believe. And as things are looking less than rosy across the board right now, I wonder how significant some of these boardroom decisions have become, especially with some of the new players really not performing yet.