Co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali share a healthy lunch with Graham Potter and Emma Hayes

Chelsea’s co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali were seen enjoying healthy lunch with their two first-team managers Graham Potter and Emma Hayes.

Since taking charge of the club, Chelsea’s owners have paid careful consideration to both their men’s and women’s team and it showed as they tucked into a lunch with the two coaches. 

Hayes, ahead of her side’s Conti Cup fixture against West Ham this evening, gave glowing reviews of the new owners and claimed that it feels ‘more of a family here than it’s ever been’.

Speaking to the club website, she said: ‘The other day I had lunch with Graham and Todd and Behdad, it’s a family here. It’s more of a family here than it’s ever been.

‘And as a football club, I think we have to be excited about the new era and I know from our owners they’re doing their best in a really short space of time to help us go to the next place. 

The managers tucked into a healthy meal of broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes and eggs

‘We had a great lunch the other day, all four of us, and it was a really warm, lovely environment, and a lovely lunch.’

Pictures showed the two managers and two co-owners sitting down for a lunch – at their Cobham training complex – that comprised of broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes and eggs. 

Hayes has been in charge of the women’s team since 2012 and has won five WSL titles during that time. She looks on course to secure a sixth title this year, with the Blues two points clear at the summit of the table.

Meanwhile, the men’s team have not enjoyed the same domestic success under Potter but, after their January spending spree, Hayes has backed the new signings to help make their squad ‘competitive’. 

On the number of additions to the men’s squad, Hayes said: ‘Coaches always want extra players so it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. 

‘It will make it competitive. There are of course challenges to managing that but Graham can do that.’

In January alone, Chelsea underwent a dramatic £323m transfer splurge, bringing in eight players, while they also confirmed that Christopher Nkunku will join in the summer for £63m from RB Leipzig.

This came after the Blues’ lucrative summer spending – which saw the likes of Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly join the club – and brought their total season spend up to £600million.

Chelsea boss Emma Hayes has praised the ‘phenomenal’ rise in interest in women’s football

Hayes also reflected on the rising interest in women’s football, with a recent report claiming that there’s been a 131 per cent increase in the time an average person spends watching women’s sport. 

The Chelsea coach said: ‘Phenomenal numbers but it’s what happens when you put it there.

‘I’ve always felt consistency and regularity of scheduling, whether that’s where we sit on Sky Sports News to scheduling games at times that people start to identify as a slot for a women’s football match, all of these things add up.

‘Regular reporting, that visibility the game now has, it’s starting to attract its audience and that audience is varied and diverse and one that we are probably still understanding – so fantastic numbers to build on.’

Chelsea women are set to travel to West Ham for a Continental Cup clash this evening