Todd Boehly has been slammed for showing Chelsea fans ‘disrespect’ by not knowing who a club legend was.
The Blues owner was involved in an embarrassing interaction with former player and manager Ruud Gullit.
Stick to FootballGullit recently recalled an awkward interaction with the Chelsea chairman[/caption]
It comes after the Dutchman revealed he had recently met Boehly and introduced himself.
Gullit told the Stick to Football podcast: “I met the Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly, introduced myself, ‘hi I am Ruud Gullit’
“Todd said, ‘What do you do?’, ‘Well I played football, also played and coached for Chelsea.’
“Todd said, ‘Oh yeah, when did you play for Chelsea, what did you do for Chelsea?’, He didn’t know. Can I blame him? No, I don’t think so.”
Gullit spent the final three years of his playing career at Stamford Bridge after signing from Sampdoria in 1995.
He would later become player-coach the following year before an FA Cup triumph in 1997.
Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent criticised Boehly’s lack of awareness of the history of both the club he owns and football in general.
Discussing Gullit’s comments on Drive, Goldstein said: “What it is, it’s not just the fact you should know great players from your club, you should know Ruud Gullit.
“If you’re at a football club and Ruud Gullit walks in, you should know who it is.”
Bent added: “I think you win a lot of favours if you do your due diligence.
talkSPORTBent criticised Boehly for not knowing the club’s history[/caption]
talkSPORTGoldstein labelled the Blues owner’s mishap ‘disgusting’ in a scathing rant[/caption]
“Listen, everyone’s different but if they just go ‘I don’t really care about the supporters and their opinion, but just to endear myself to the supporters, I’m going to go out there, I’m going to meet them, I’m going to know the DNA of the football club.’
“And the supporters will go, ‘OK, at least he knows what we’re about.’”
In response, Goldstein replied: “It’s terrible. What owners of football clubs don’t realise, although you’re buying the club, it’s not your club.
“It’ll never be your club. It’s the fans’ club and you just own the keys to the front door, that’s it.”
Pointing to Boehly’s predecessor, Roman Abramovich, Bent explained: “I think a lot of the great owners that we’ve seen understand that.
“A prime example at that football club, Roman Abramovich. You listen to Chelsea fans speak about him.”
The former England striker continued: “In terms of somebody understanding the football club, always in the background, gave the club every possible opportunity to win. That’s how an owner is supposed to be.
“But if one of your club legends walks in and you go, ‘Oh, sorry, what do you…’, It’s not so much about ago, that’s just a big level of disrespect.”
Goldstein agreed as he said, ‘That’s disgusting,’ before Bent finished by stating: “If you’re stepping into a football environment, or a soccer environment in Todd Boehly’s world, you have to know who this person is.
“Especially at the club that you now own. You have to know who that is. There’s no excuse for that.”
Boehly bought Chelsea from Abramovich in 2022 through his BlueCo consortium and has since served as the club’s chairman.
However, he has faced criticism from supporters, who launched protests against him earlier in the current campaign.
The American businessman is also reportedly a director for a company which allows for the resale of tickets to fans.
His alleged involvement with Vivid Seats has even seen the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust call for an investigation into their chairman.
