Chelsea’s mass exodus of senior personnel will continue, with long-serving medical chief Paco Biosca, who was at the club for both Champions League victories, the latest to depart.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Biosca’s departure follows another week of turmoil for Chelsea, which saw the sacking of commercial director Damian Willoughby due to evidence that he sent ‘inappropriate messages’ before joining the club and the departure of director of communications Steve Atkins.
Biosca, 69, joined Chelsea in 2011, ahead of the club’s Champions League triumph the following year, and he was still head of medical in 2021, when the club won the competition again under former head coach Thomas Tuchel.
However, Biosca is believed to be leaving Chelsea just over two weeks after Tuchel’s dismissal, which will come as a surprise to those players who have been at the club for some time and have worked with him for years.
Chelsea’s medical department will be led by first-team doctor Dimitrios Kalogiannidis until a permanent replacement for Biosca is found. At this time, the club is not expected to make any official announcements.
It was instructive that the club’s new owners chose to send summer signing Wesley Fofana to America for medical tests rather than allowing the defender to be cleared by the club’s own medical department.
The club’s ownership, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, recently completed a 100-day review, which resulted in a number of changes, including the dismissal of Tuchel and the departure of Biosca. The owners are determined to create a collaborative culture in which employees from all areas of Chelsea, including the men’s, women’s, and academy teams, collaborate.
The turnover has been massive since the Boehly-Clearlake takeover, with Bruce Buck, Marina Granovskaia, Petr Cech, Scott McLachlan, and Tuchel and his backroom staff all departing before Willoughby, who was hired under the new ownership less than a month ago, Atkins, and now Biosca.
Biosca, a Spaniard, spent six years as the head of medical at Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk before joining Chelsea. He is an orthopaedic surgeon and former president of the European Federation of Orthopaedic and Sports Trauma as well as the Spanish Society of Sports Trauma.
Toby Craig, City Football Group’s director of corporate affairs, is set to join Chelsea in a commercial communications role, while the club still has respected senior communications manager Adrian Phillips who could take on extra responsibility to help cover for Atkins’ departure to McLaren Racing in December.
Chelsea’s first-team players who were not on international duty were given the week off by new head coach Graham Potter last week. They will return to work on Monday to begin preparing for Potter’s first Premier League game as manager, which will take place at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace next Saturday.
