Mauricio Pochettino will have heard all the jokes about Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali on the football circuit by now.
There is the ‘Todd Lasso’ moniker, referring to a hapless, naïve American bringing his homespun wisdom, or, in Boehly and Eghbali’s case, their multi-million-dollar investment-fund analytics to English football, with mixed results.
Or the one that starts: ‘How many sporting directors does it take to sign a functioning centre-forward?’
In Chelsea’s case, the answer is four. Or, to be more accurate, two sporting directors, one technical director and one co-director of recruitment and talent, that being the structure Boehly and Eghbali have put in to run the club.