’s ownership fully support ’s dressing room intervention and insist their primary concern is making sure the players repay supporters on the pitch.
After the at Stamford Bridge on Saturday – their third straight loss under interim boss – the American billionaire made a beeline for the home dressing room to speak to the players.
Boehly waited for Lampard to finish his debrief before in which he branded their current malaise – which sees the side sit in 11th place in the table – as ‘embarrassing’.
The purpose of the speech was to fire up the squad ahead of , though one player was said to be disgruntled after .
Boehly, who was joined by co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Hansjorg Wyss, has faced some degree of criticism for going into the dressing room.
However, the Chelsea ownership have backed their frontman with host Jim White revealing he received a text from an unidentified member of the ownership group who defended the decision to speak to the squad.
‘A short time ago, I won’t give the name, but I can say it is from the Chelsea ownership and I’ll paraphrase it,’ revealed presenter White on Tuesday.
‘Is it fair or unfair for the ownership to pitch up in the home dressing room afterwards and have a dialogue with the players when things aren’t going well?
‘The message tells me: “I don’t know if it’s fair or unfair, but all we ask is the players fight for the fans who invest money, time and energy into the players. We care about winning on and off the pitch”.’
Boehly’s speech has become the main talking point ahead of Chelsea’s quarter-final, second leg showdown with Real – where they need to overturn a two-goal deficit – and Lampard said he had no issues with the owners getting involved in such a hands-on way.
Quizzed on Boehly’s speech, he replied: ‘I am comfortable with that. I think, for me, there was maybe some criticism of our old owner (Roman Abramovich) of not coming to games. That wasn’t always true. When an owner is very invested in wanting the team to improve, it’s their prerogative to have the input they want.
‘The first moments I had as a player of owner coming into the dressing room happened here at Chelsea. I remember being really happy. You could touch them, you could high five them and feel them.
‘I don’t think it’s a bad thing in terms of identity of the club. I have no problem with it. If any owner comes in and wants to be positive and wants to speak to the players, it’s absolutely his part to do that. It’s regular in the modern day. It shows passion.’
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