It was the eighth or ninth century BC that the debate supposedly began. According to legend, Theseus had returned to Athens by boat having slain the Minotaur. To memorialise his achievement, the people of the city preserved his ship, gradually replacing the planks and oars as they fell into disrepair. The paradox that arose was whether it could be still said to be Theseus’s ship if all its constituent parts had been changed over the years?
It is unconfirmed whether Todd Boehly takes an interest in philosophy but under his ownership, Chelsea have resembled the footballing version of this thought experiment. Since Clearlake took over in 2022, players are switched, managers displaced, and hotels turned into balance-sheet gold.
As the fourth season of this often perplexing, reliably entertaining iteration of Chelsea approaches, those haphazard pieces will once again turn themselves into a football team.
Familiar faces from the previous year are gone. Kieran Dewsbury-Hall and João Félix lasted only one season, although some would say that was one season too many. Noni Madueke looks finally ready to be an established Premier League winger but has headed to the red side of London. Remarkably enough, Kepa Arrizabalaga is also going in the same direction having turned out still to be a Chelsea player. There is an expectation that Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson will no longer be at Stamford Bridge by the time the transfer window closes.
For every action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction and at Chelsea that means new toys. Six to be precise as João Pedro, Liam Delap, Jorrel Hato, Jamie Gittens, Estêvão and Dário Essugo have all arrived. Although that might actually count as five given Estêvão was signed in 2024 or seven given that Mamadou Sarr arrived and then left immediately for feeder club Strasbourg.
They look like a football club for the social media era – real life transfer dopamine addicts. But Chelsea’s ownership have always been bullish about their strategy, and this is actually a club for the private equity era, where every loophole will be squeezed in the pursuit of financial success. Critics tend to merge two distinctive issues: whether the strategy will work or whether it is distasteful. Even the question of what it means for it to work goes in two different directions. Does it make the club money and does it bring them footballing success?
They look like a football club for the social media era – real life transfer dopamine addicts
Football fans care far more about the latter and as Chelsea begin their season at home to Crystal Palace today, there is the smell of optimism in the West London air. That is because the ownership finally have trophies to their name. The Conference League might have been more trip hazard than achievement but the Club World Cup, in particular the 3-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the final, revealed a team who appear genuinely to be evolving into one to take notice of.
It was hard to imagine writing that six months ago as Djordje Petrovic (sold to Bournemouth for £25m) let a shot from Marco Asensio squirm under him to give Aston Villa a 2-1 win. After a bright start to the season, Chelsea had slumped to seventh. The much desired and possibly financially required Champions League qualification was slipping out of reach. With the youngest squad in the league and a manager still looking to prove himself, naivety was going to cost them. To rally and win five of their last six Premier League games, finishing fourth in the process, was the opposite of what this Chelsea team are supposed to do.
There is momentum behind them but whether they can turn that into a genuine step and once again be contenders at the top of the league is what matters. The Club World Cup win, the sale of their women’s team, and the player sales this summer have improved the financial situation significantly.
It is even feasible that they end up in the black when it comes to the transfer balance sheet, thanks to the ability to sell players like Armando Broja and Lesley Ugochukwu for upwards of £20m. Sell-on fees from Omari Hutchinson, who is moving from Ipswich Town to Nottingham Forest, and potentially Marc Guéhi if he were to move from Crystal Palace to Liverpool will be a further boost.
That does not mean they have managed to sell everyone and ghost players still haunt the corridors of Cobham. Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling are technically Chelsea players, but you won’t find their pictures on the club website. That is also true for Axel Disasi, Carney Chukwuemeka and Renato Veiga.
A shirt sponsor remains elusive. Negotiations with Riyadh Air are reportedly ongoing, with Chelsea looking for £60m, which would be one of the best deals in the league. But they will begin the season as the only team without one.
Then there is the question of what this summer might have cost them. Chelsea ended up with a truncated pre-season after a month spent in America at the Club World Cup and will have to contend with the far tougher schedule that Champions League football brings. Enzo Maresca will not have the luxury of playing a B team in the way he did in the Conference League last year. Meanwhile, the ACL injury sustained by Levi Colwill in training ahead of the start of the year could be an ominous sign for a club who have had significant injury crises in the past.
Ask Chelsea fans what the essence of their club is and many would say winning trophies. That is a hangover from the luxuries of the Roman Abramovich era, and opposition fans will no doubt scoff at what last season’s trophy cabinet ended up containing, but there is no doubt they look closer to contending than they have ever done under Clearlake. If they start drifting away from that though, the naysayers be back again.
A new season begins and a group of men walk on to the pitch. They are ostensibly a Chelsea team.
_Photography by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images_