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Chelsea’s expensive mistake
Former England striker Michael Owen blasted Chelsea’s £600million “expensive mistake” after crashing out of the Champions League.
The Blues were dumped out at the quarter-final stage by Real Madrid last night after a 2-0 second-leg defeat at Stamford Bridge consigned them to a 4-0 aggregate loss in the tie.
They are also languishing down in 11th in the Premier League despite eye-watering investment in the side since American businessman Todd Boehly acquired the club.
BT Sport pundit Owen said: “It’s incredible how much of a mistake they made buying so many players and it’s going to hit them where it hurts — in the pocket — because now they’re going to have to get rid of players.
“Some players won’t want to leave, so they’re going to have to pay them off. It’s been a real expensive mistake.”
Interim boss Frank Lampard will now be tasked with motivating the West Londoners for the final seven games of the season as the search for their next permanent manager continues.
Fellow pundit Joe Cole said: “It’s a real tough job for Frank now because 30 players in a squad is absurd.
“A lot of them think they should be starting, let alone just be in and around it. How are you going to motivate those players?”
Yems ban extended
Former Crawley manager John Yems has seen his suspension from football extended until 2026 following a successful appeal by the FA.
The 63-year-old was initially hit with a 17-month ban in January after an independent regulatory commission found him guilty on 11 of 15 charges for using discriminatory language, with a further charge admitted.
However, the FA felt the sanction was insufficient and the ban has now been increased until up to and including January 5, 2026.
The original regulatory panel controversially concluded back in January that Yems was “not a conscious racist”, which the FA fundamentally disagreed with as it filed its appeal.
An FA spokesperson said on Wednesday: “This is the longest-ever ban issued to a participant in English football for discrimination and follows our decision to appeal and challenge the verdict of the independent regulatory commission after the first hearing in January.
“We strongly disagreed with their original sanction, as well as some of the elements of their judgement, which we fundamentally believed were not appropriate for the severity of the offences committed by John Yems.
“We are pleased that the independent appeal board ruled that specific findings from the independent regulatory commission were unreasonable, as there were numerous examples of inherent and obvious racist language.”
