Chelsea civil war ‘will not affect selfish players’ after Maresca issues warning to PSR using Hazard analogy

Chelsea legend Pat Nevin insists the feud between Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali will not affect the “selfish” Blues players and warned Enzo Maresca about the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), drawing an analogy to Eden Hazard.

Boehly and Eghbali, the head of the Clearlake branch of Chelsea's owners, are currently at loggerheads over the direction of the club. and everyone wants to pay off the other partner.

Neither is willing to back down in the current situation, which could cause problems for Chelsea in the future, but Nevin insists that will not be a problem in the short term.

“The feud between Boehly and Clearlake will not affect the team at all in the short term. No impact at all.” Nevin told MyBettingSites.com.

“Players are selfish because they have to be. There's so much going on in your head, be it what the media says, what former players say, the coach, the fans. You have to block it all out. You don't want any noise other than the games.

“In the short term, you can do that. In the long term, it becomes more difficult. And if there is no clear leadership and understanding between senior management, middle management and the workers, problems will eventually arise.”

READ MORE: Team Boehly or Team Eghbali? A ‘civil war’ Sophie’s choice for Chelsea fans in the dark

“Not in the short term. There are enough players. The manager is new on the scene and is trying to figure out how much power and control he has. When that settles down, he won't know until the power struggle at the top is over. He won't know exactly where he stands and how much power or control he has.

“I've been in that position before, I've been a manager and I've been a player and I've done all kinds of things. In the short term it's OK, but you can't let it go on like that because uncertainty will increase and players can find excuses if something goes wrong. They might say: 'Well, there are problems in the club, that's why we're uncoordinated.' Don't give the players excuses, that doesn't help.

“Don’t worry about it right now, but you can get this sorted out as soon as possible.”

MORE CHELSEA COVERAGE ON F365
👉 Moyes to Spurs, Tuchel to Villa, Potter returns: Predicting the next manager of each Premier League club
👉 Man City: Guardiola “did the right thing” by letting Cole Palmer go to Chelsea
👉 Chelsea made best 'transfer of the transfer window' despite 'reservation' as Man Utd could regret 'foolish' mistake

Chelsea have so far avoided PSR sanctions through creative accounting, but Nevin warned new coach Maresca, using a Hazard analogy, that “big trouble” could be imminent.

“I think Enzo (Maresca) thinks: 'I know where I am, I feel good, I have good players.' They keep bringing in good players, they keep spending money and that's good for the manager and the coach.”

“You have to make sure it continues like that. And the difficulty is that if the club is not in focus, mistakes can happen. Look at Everton when it was run in two different directions by two owners – that can cause rifts and that is not a good thing in any business.”

“I would use an analogy and I think I like it quite a bit: Chelsea are far superior to FFP/PSR and FAPL. They are a bit like Eden Hazard taking on a big, lumbering centre-back. They are far superior to him. As long as they keep doing that and keep making money, developing and getting players, everything is fine. The problem is that the big centre-back only needs to catch Eden Hazard once. So they only need to be caught once with the PSR and they could be in big trouble.”

“So far, their creative bookkeeping is proving to be just as important as their creative players. That has to continue for the coach to deliver.”