Furious ex-Chelsea star slams Todd Boehly for treating club ‘like its Football Manager’

Former Chelsea star Emmanuel Petit has slammed club owner Todd Boehly for running the side like a game of Football Manager.

Frank Lampard fell to his fourth consecutive defeat since taking the managerial role on a temporary basis earlier this month, becoming the first-ever Blues boss to manage that dismal record.

Despite splurging hundreds of millions of pounds into signings since last summer, Chelsea now face the prospect of a bottom-half Premier League finish and no European football next year.

Petit, who made 76 appearances for Chelsea between 2001 and 2004, criticised Boehly for treating his ownership of the club as a computer game.

Speaking to Legal Sportsbooks, the former midfielder and full-back said: “How many players are in their squad? 35? Can you imagine going on a training camp and you have 35 players in front of you? All internationals. You’d be a genius to know exactly what would be your first XI.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but you can’t manage your club like it’s Football Manager you need to do something else.

“You need to have a good vision of what you want to do because football is different from American sports.

“Look at the money they’ve spent on new players coming in. Some players are not even registered to play in the Champions League for them. I have no idea how you can manage that.

“They definitely need to clean up the dressing room at the end of the season.”

During his time at Chelsea, Petit struck up a famous partnership with Frank Lampard in midfield but didn’t hold much hope of his former colleague keeping the job past the summer.

The Frenchman explained who he hoped would take the Chelsea job, but accepted it was almost impossible for the club to land his choice.

Petit said: “There are so many managers linked with Chelsea. Every day you open the newspapers, then you hear it on the radio and the television that there are five or six different managers in the frame.

“I would love to see Carlo Ancelotti apply for the Chelsea job, but he said last week that he won’t come back to England, he won’t come back to Chelsea.

“Maybe he’s a bit tired. He has won everything. Maybe he’s very close to retirement, I have no idea.”