00:00Todd, on Chelsea, is it fun owning a football club like Chelsea, or is it at times a bit of a headache?
00:07I think it's a combination of both, right? But it's like owning anything.
00:11You know, almost anything I own is both fun and a headache.
00:15So I think this one's a little more in my face every day.
00:19But the fact is, the good news is the bad news, right?
00:22If people didn't care, right, then it would stink.
00:25So it's a testament to, you know, how much the sport matters.
00:31You know, and if you look at the Premier League right now, you know, there's so much excitement in it,
00:35especially what's going on in the last weekend, right?
00:38There's, you know, seven teams that could be making Champions League.
00:41There's going to be, you know, the winner of Tottenham and Man United will go to Champions League.
00:46We'll have, you know, a team, we'll probably have nine teams in European competition out of the Premier League alone,
00:52which to me is just a testament to the quality of the product.
00:56And to be part of that is a privilege.
00:59Is that what surprised you the most since being one of the owners of Chelsea and how, you know, the level at which...
01:04You know, I think the level of competition is ferocious.
01:07And the margins of errors are so small.
01:10And I don't think I fully appreciated, you know, the level of the margin of error is so small.
01:17You know, I can...
01:18I think the sport's gotten more and more competitive in the Premier League.
01:21And, you know, that makes winning all that much sweeter.
01:24And, you know, I guess I really didn't know how much I would love a goal.
01:28You know, a goal feels so good.
01:29And giving up a goal is just the worst, right?
01:33It's like, you know, in basketball, you can be down 20 points in the fourth quarter and feel like you're still in it.
01:39In baseball, you hit a home run and it's fantastic.
01:42But a goal, there's nothing like a goal.
01:45Do you want to increase your role at Chelsea?
01:48My role?
01:49I think chairman's a pretty good one.
01:53I can't play.
01:55Maybe I'll go out as striker, see how the fans think about that.
01:58But there's no...
01:59I mean, there's, you know, rumors about you taking a backseat or anything like that.
02:02That's nothing that you're...
02:04No, we have a good partnership.
02:05Of course, like, you know, like every partnership, you know, you have times that you got to work through and times that are better.
02:12And, you know, I think we're...
02:14You know, we hit the ground running in such a, you know, intense timeline, you know, that it was just, you know, a complex moment.
02:21But I think, you know, we're through it and we're excited about what the future holds.
02:26We think we've got, you know, one of the best young teams.
02:30You know, we were early on doing kind of seven, eight, nine-year contracts, you know, because we really wanted to make sure that we could keep the team together for a long time.
02:39If you read a book called Captain's Class, right, it talks about the 15 best teams, you know, in the world.
02:45And I think one of the things that you see, you know, is in order to have a really good team, you ultimately need stability, you know, within the team, within the environment.
02:56You know, and the only way that comes is through time.
02:58But I think we've set it up to be able to benefit from that.
03:01I mean, I think we're going through the numbers.
03:02There are now nearly enough American-owned teams in the Premier League to get together to actually enforce, you know, rule changes like matches abroad, salary caps.
03:11Do you see the American teams voting together to bring around some changes?
03:15I think we believe very much in the culture.
03:18And obviously we've been educated, you know, from the past.
03:24So we're very focused on making sure we maintain the culture.
03:28What happens if the team doesn't make the Champs League again?
03:32Is there a risk that you could lose some big players?
03:34We don't have any clauses like that in any of our contracts.
03:39I mean, what's your, I mean, in general, what's the transfer window looking like?
03:43I know you can't give out too many secrets because there's a lot of people in the room.
03:47But are you excited?
03:48You know, I think, well, obviously we're going to the Club World Cup.
03:51So right now we're laser focused on the Club World Cup.
03:54You know, we have some players that are joining us for the Club World Cup that weren't on the team.
03:59So, you know, Andre Santos is coming from Strasburg.
04:02We're really excited about, you know, him and what we think he can add to the squad.
04:07You know, the challenge that we really have is how many matches these guys are playing.
04:12You know, the calendar is really tight.
04:15And, you know, they put in so much effort and energy.
04:18And the injuries are continuing to go up and up and up.
04:22You know, so I think, you know, we're going to have to revisit, you know, what's the calendar look like?
04:28And how much football can they actually play?
04:33Obviously, they're built to play football.
04:35They love playing football.
04:37So we're trying to find the balance as to, you know, what's the right amount of football.
04:41Yeah, what's your ideal calendar?
04:43What does that look like?
04:44You know, that's not my job.
04:47How much?
04:48We're getting laughs because everybody wants to know.
04:51That's what everybody wants to know.
04:52Will you spend big again in the transfer window?
04:55Listen, I think we've done most of our investing.
04:57And, you know, I think, again, I think we're not looking at it as a spend.
05:02We look at it as an investment.
05:04And we're trying to build, you know, the best portfolio of players that can perform, you know, at the highest level for the longest periods of time.
05:13So, you know, I don't look.
05:15I think there's going to be, you know, a lot of investment in this window.
05:19You know, just what I'm hearing and what we're feeling.
05:21And, you know, so, you know, there's going to be a lot of, you know, well-heeled clubs that are going to be looking to add to, you know, their teams.
05:32And I think that that's only good for the Premier League.
05:35So a more targeted approach.
05:37You know, you have a lot of Chelsea fans actually out there.
05:39Yes.
05:40You know, I think we know what we need to do.
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