Behdad Eghbali has risked placing more scrutiny on Chelsea’s owners by making regular post-match visits to the team dressing-room and manager’s office at Stamford Bridge this season.
Chelsea sources insist Eghbali did not address the players after the defeat to Aston Villa and has not delivered any pep talks during any of his visits, but his presence in the area normally reserved for the head coach, his staff and the players could still prompt debate.
Eghbali’s co-controlling owner Todd Boehly was widely criticised for entering the dressing-room after last season’s defeat to Brighton and labelling the team “embarrassing” in an address to the players.
That has not put off Eghbali, who was spotted leaving the dressing-room area at Stamford Bridge after Chelsea’s defeat to Villa and it is understood he has made the same trip after every game he has attended this season.
Rather than expressing his thoughts to the team during his post-game visits to either the home dressing-room or the manager’s office, Eghbali is said to have instead shaken hands with players and coaching staff, and wished individuals well.
Regardless of his motives, Eghbali’s post-match presence in the dressing-room area risks inviting further debate over the involvement of the owners, who head coach Mauricio Pochettino admitted were disappointed by his team’s start to the season.
Eghbali spent the final week of the summer transfer window camped at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground to help co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, and is understood to have bought a house in London to stay in during his regular visits from the United States.
Flanked by Winstanley and Stewart, Eghbali has visited the dressing-room or Pochettino’s office, which is next door, after every game this season - including the Premier League victory over Luton Town and the opening-day draw with Liverpool.
Sources point out that has been consistent in his approach, win, lose or draw, and that his visits will not have come as a surprise to Pochettino, his staff or the Chelsea players. The practice of owners entering the dressing-room is common practice in American sports, but has been traditionally frowned upon in England.
On his appointment as Chelsea head coach, Pochettino stressed that Eghbali and Boehly needed to make him aware if they were going to visit the dressing-room or training ground, and it is understood the owners have discussed the subject directly with him.
“Of course, for me, more than welcome if the owner comes to the dressing room, to the training ground,” said Pochettino in July. “But, like I said, always they need to communicate it to myself, I need to know and to prepare, you know, the people because here it’s really special this type of thing in England.
“For me, I am more than happy if they [the owners] are close to us, but the coach, the head coach or the manager is who decides the thing, how it’s going to work in the dressing room, on the pitch, on the training ground. Also with the sporting director, altogether, to create the line altogether.”
Pochettino retains the full support of Eghbali and Boehly, with the first-team staff and the Chelsea owners confident that results will soon start to reflect the data they are carefully studying during what has been a run that has included just one victory in the opening six Premier League games.
Having been hit by an early-season injury crisis, Chelsea are under-performing their expected goals rate and lie fifth in the Premier League table for expected points, which is the biggest disparity in the top flight.
Telegraph Sport revealed on Monday that Bruno Saltor has secretly left Chelsea less than four months after the club announced he would work within Pochettino’s coaching staff.
