Chelsea closing in on sporting director appointment as Todd Boehly outlines multi-club model to challenge Man City

Chelsea are in advanced talks to appoint RB Salzburg’s Christoph Freund as their new sporting director, according to reports.

Since taking over the club back in May, Todd Boehly has taken the reins of interim sporting director and oversaw a spend in excess of £250 million over the summer. 

However, Chelsea have been actively searching for a full-time replacement to fill the role and many names have been linked, including Michael Edwards and Paul Mitchell, as well as Luis Campos. 

Nothing has materialised from those talks, but according to several reports, Chelsea are closing to sealing their appointment as they eye filling the role before November.

RB Salzburg’s Christoph Freund is in advanced talks and looks likely to be joining the Stamford Bridge. 

Freund’s side head to west London for the Champions League clash on Wednesday, and he is set to swap Austria for England. 

Boehly has given the green light verdict on Salzburg’s operation which is part of the Red Bull multi-club model.

He spoke at the SALT conference in America, admitted: “I think we know people, human capital. We understand game plans and strategies and we’re not expecting to be the football experts, to find the best talent, we’re going to put those people in place.

"It’s no different to running any human capital business where it’s all about getting the right resources, making them collaborate, getting them organised, and thinking about how you have a global business at a local level.

“We’re going to be continuously adding resources.

"We’ve talked about having a multi-club model.

"I would love to continue to build out the footprint.

"There is different countries where there are advantages to having a club - Red Bull does a really good job with Leipzig and Salzburg, both of which are playing in the Champions League. So they’ve figured out how to make that work.

“You have Man City that also has a big network of clubs.

"The challenge that Chelsea has right now, or at least one of them, is when you have 18/19/20-year-old superstars, you can loan them out to clubs, but you put their development in someone else’s hands.

“So our goal is to make sure we can show pathways for our young superstars to get onto the Chelsea pitch, while getting them real game time.

"And for me, the way to do that is through another club in a really competitive league in Europe.”