Chelsea: What are the pressing issues for the Premier League club’s new owners?

Saving money on transfers and managers will only go so far, but during the process Boehly’s group have had to demonstrate how they will take Chelsea to the next level.

In the short term, negotiating new sponsorships could offer room for growth. Chelsea’s shirt sponsorship with telecoms company Three is worth £40m a year and has one more season to run. Three and Hyundai both suspended their deals as a result of sanctions.

Maximising matchday incomes will also be high on the agenda, especially as the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham can be £40-50m better off than Chelsea over the course of a year based on the size of their stadiums, according to Maguire.

Stamford Bridge’s 42,000-capacity stadium pulled in £67m in matchday income for its last full pre-Covid-19 season, but Arsenal and Liverpool, once they increase their capacity, will be able to draw in revenues in excess of £100m over a season.

Rebuilding the stadium would come at a huge cost, but Boehly’s group has committed £1.75bn to “investments in Stamford Bridge, the academy, the women’s team and Kingsmeadow and continued funding for the Chelsea Foundation”.

Boehly has spoken about fan tokenisation as a way of engaging, and perhaps profiting from, supporters at different levels.

He has also hinted at attempting to turn Chelsea into a worldwide brand and boost its popularity in the United States, building on foundations of some American children growing up watching the Premier League on Saturday mornings.

The division already has eight teams which are owned or part-owned by Americans, so there is plenty of competition in that field.

How Chelsea differentiate themselves from the existing crowd, and make the gains they need to, will be as fascinating in the long term as it will be this summer.