Chelsea to appoint Man Utd executive as part of 'American revolution'
- Chelsea set to hire Man Utd's former CEO of media Phil Lynch
- Lynch was targeted by Gary Neville on social media for his plans over how to control fan narratives
- American will serve period of gardening leave before joining Todd Boehly and BlueCo at Stamford Bridge
By Sean Walsh
Chelsea owners BlueCo are set to appoint former Manchester United CEO of media Phil Lynch in a high-ranking digital role, a new report claims.
Lynch handed in his notice at United last month but is set to make a swift return to football working with Todd Boehly.
The Mail report Lynch will join Chelsea's BlueCo owners as their new global head of digital, with his primary focus being on happenings at Stamford Bridge as part of their 'American revolution'. BlueCo are also the owners of French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg and posted losses of £653m in the 12-month period before June 30, 2023.
Before joining Chelsea and BlueCo officially, Lynch will serve a period of gardening leave. His exit from United is not thought to be related to the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS.
Lynch was responsible for all of United's media output during his time at Old Trafford but came into focus in 2021 when he revealed how the club tried to influence fans' opinions on players.
"We pull, twice a day, fan sentiment graphs for every one of our players," Lynch said. "We have certain thresholds that alert us when we see fan sentiment going one way - be that a personal issue, an on-pitch performance issue and when that happens, we then start to work with the player and his team individually to try and counter that narrative a little bit."
This was met with disgust by United legend Gary Neville, who said on social media at the time: "Creating robots on and off the pitch! Get the f**k away from them. It's a football club. He makes controlling fans sound like he's trying to win a general election!"
Lynch will head to Chelsea with the club in need of strengthening ties with supporters again. Fans chanted 'f*** off Mauricio' to head coach Mauricio Pochettino and 'Boehly, you're a c***' during last Saturday's 2-2 draw at Brentford, while they also sang in favour of former owner Roman Abramovich and ex-manager Jose Mourinho.
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