Chelsea Gives Private-Equity Ball a Bad Name: Matthew Brooker

Chelsea FC fired its manager after losing five straight Premier League games without scoring a goal, marking its worst run of defeats in more than a century. Management changes are nothing remarkable in the results-driven business of top-level football, but the upheaval at the west London club has a wider resonance. The team’s imploding form and the rising disenchantment of supporters call into question the compatibility of private equity-style methods with English soccer. Four years after US investor Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital sealed a £4.25 billion ($5.7 billion) deal to take control, the walls look to be closing in.

Tuesday’s ...