That Chelsea has already come so close to achieving that clause leads me towards the idea that the gentleman in charge will either try to negotiate another sale, loophole a merger (which feels most likely), or a public offering of the club as a company that they would be taking public and which Boehly, in particular, has a history of doing to great profit.
These seem like the most logical options and aren’t necessarily bad for the club. As in all things how they’re done is the big deal. For instance, by fulfilling at least one term of the deal and suggesting they made the promised investments in the club I believe Clearlake-Boehly could argue that they should be excused from the 10-year period as well given the good faith of their investment.
They could then sell at a profit to someone like Sheik Jassim, who has grown frustrated trying to buy Manchester United, for £5-6 billion and would essentially have turned a £2 billion profit in 36 months while only needing to bandy about Europe eating and negotiating in glamorous settings.
They could even make more of a profit in the sale of “Blue Co” not Chelsea FC given that they’ve now added Strasbourg and are looking into a partial equity share in Sporting Lisbon as well. If you look at each member of the brain-trusts business dealings then notice that their keen ability to manipulate debt and the financial side of dealings is one of their obvious strengths.
Maybe other people don’t see these lines drawing themselves out or the possibilities popping up but I would suggest that a keen eye to a group of intelligent business people might suggest that the plan is bigger than simply “did they add a defensive midfielder in the transfer window”.
That though is neither here nor there. Patience. Both a virtue and a too-cool-to-be-cool name for an only organic-food-eating nepotistic Brooklyn-born influencer is also what both Chelsea and Chelsea supporters must exercise as the club moves forward.