CHELSEA owner Todd Boehly has put his 10,000 square-foot Connecticut mansion up for sale – and it’s perfect for any sports fan.

The 51-year-old is currently splitting most of his time between London and Los Angeles, where he owns part of baseball giants the LA Dodgers and women’s basketball team the LA Sparks.

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Boehly has also been residing in Darien, Connecticut – where he co-founded holding company Eldridge Industries.

He first moved to the area in 2005 and bought his mansion for around £3.25million.

But now he is prepared to sell it for just under five times the price.

The 9.5 acre estate – which includes a main house, a pool and pool house, a field house and a two-bedroom guest house – has been put up for sale for £15m.

Originally built in 1937, it has six bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

It is also a sports fan’s dream, with a basketball court, an indoor batting cage and a Dodgers-themed bowling alley.

The estate has both indoor and outdoor pools and a spa.

And it is surrounded by woodland.

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As well as his Connecticut estate, Boehly also owns properties in New York and the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.

But the billionaire has been spending plenty of time recently in London.

Boehly has pumped billions of pounds into Chelsea since buying the club in 2022.

The Blues have spent over £1billion in the transfer market alone since he arrived.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes would like nothing more than to end their 12 years together on a high.
However, based on recent form, there is a very real risk that their time may finish not with a bang, but with a whimper.

If things continue like they did in Brazil last weekend, where Hamilton qualified 14th and finished 10th while team-mate George Russell started on the front row and fought for the win, then there will not be much to smile about when the curtain comes down in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton’s own verdict after the Brazilian Grand Prix was pretty damning, as he labelled the race as “crap” on Sunday night.

He added: “Yesterday [Saturday] was terrible. Today [Sunday] was terrible. Yesterday was bad. Qualifying was bad. Sprint race was bad. The car’s just been bad all weekend.”

He further fuelled intrigue about the scale of the struggles enveloping him as he delivered a cryptic message over the radio straight after the chequered flag.

“That was a disaster of a weekend, guys,” he said on the cooldown lap. “That’s the worst the car has ever been. But thank you for contributing to try, and great job to all the guys at the pitstop.

“If this is the last time I get to perform it was a shame it wasn’t great – but grateful for you.”

Some interpreted those comments as a revelation that Brazil was going to be Hamilton’s last race, although that is certainly wide of the mark.

And, although it is not clear exactly what he was referring to, his remark about the pit crew on a day when they were not actually called into action, was more likely a reference to the fact that some personnel were having their last race appearance of 2024 in Brazil due to the shuffling around of staff to cope with the intense schedule for triple headers.

The root of the problem

While the current performances on the track are not great, what is perhaps the biggest issue right now is that neither Mercedes nor Hamilton had an immediate answer after Brazil for what had gone wrong, despite there being some clear symptoms.

What is at play is a repeat of what he has been battling since the summer break, when his form took a big dip from that spell in July when he took two wins from three races.

Primarily, the problem appears to be about Hamilton having a lack of confidence in the car, especially its rear end.

As the above graph comparing the telemetry traces of Hamilton (blue) and Russell (red) in Q1 on Sunday morning shows clearly, there is a remarkable difference in the way the drivers were feeding in the throttle – mainly in the lower speed corners.

As the bottom trace shows, Russell could increase the accelerator consistently, whereas Hamilton’s lack of confidence is crystal clear. The loose rear end means he is constantly having to back off and that leaves him bleeding speed and lap time.

The current generation of ground effect machinery are pretty brutal machines – running super stiff and super close to the ground – and they are not very forgiving when driving on the edge.

Some drivers are better suited to overcome an unpredictable balance, but Hamilton is finding himself put a bit more on the back foot by it.

And typically, when a driver loses faith in the rear end, it slides more – and that then compounds tyre temperature issues.

So what starts out as a small issue can quickly manifest itself into something bigger and can make two nearly identical cars vastly different in how they develop over a race stint.

As Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin explained this week: “It is fair to say Lewis was struggling predominantly with a lack of rear grip.

“If we look at how he had set up his car, it is not obvious where that was coming from.

“But in the sprint race, as soon as you have got less grip and you are getting the snaps of oversteer on exit, you generate more temperature. That in itself will prolong the problem.

“As with any race, we spend a lot of time digging into the data, trying to understand it, and Lewis’ engineering crew will be working with him on this issue, trying to make sure we get to the bottom of it before Vegas.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Hamilton’s struggles in finding a set-up he feels comfortable with have also not been helped much by Mercedes’ latest upgrade that arrived at the United States Grand Prix.

While it appears to have ticked all the boxes when it comes to deliver extra performance on track, there are some questions about it also adding some behavioural instability as well – as was witnessed by Hamilton’s race exit in Austin a day after George Russell’s qualifying crash.

And a particular weakness the car has, in dealing with successive low-speed corners, is something that has not been improved with the latest changes.

Shovlin added: “We have not had such good performance in the dry, but the issues that we are struggling with with this update are the same as the ones we were struggling with before.

“Where we tend to be weak, it is in the slow speed corners, particularly the ones where you have got one corner following into another. There is a lot of turning of the car, and that is a weakness that we need to work on.”

With sector two of Interlagos being pretty much all about interconnected slow corners, it was obvious that the Brazil event was going to potentially be more difficult than normal for the team.

Working on a solution

The only positive for Hamilton right now is that at least Russell’s performances show what is possible with the car.

And some forthcoming high-speed venues, especially Qatar, could help better expose the strengths of the W15 package rather than its weaknesses.

Hamilton has admitted that things are not easy right now, but there was no other option than to dig deeper with his team to try to find a way out of it before Abu Dhabi.

“Obviously, it’s devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season,” he said. “But all I can say is, we’re trying. 

“But it’s definitely not acceptable. It’s definitely not good enough. And we have to take accountability. I have to take accountability. But I am driving.; I am doing the best with what I’ve got. 

“The car has been the worst this weekend, and I don’t know what it is. We’re going to have to find out what it is.”

That work began for Hamilton this week with some intense work at the factory to sit down with the engineers, and spend time in the simulator yesterday, to try to get some answers as to what is happening.

Las Vegas will tell us just how much those efforts have paid off.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Maybe because Opoku-Fordjour does not fit the old tight-head mould, he has also appeared on the opposite side of the scrum.

While he plays tight-head for Sale, he switched to loose-head for England Under-20s, where Gloucester’s Afolabi Fasogbon and Bath’s Vilikesa Sela give England mammoth depth at three.

The trio were hugely impressive in the team’s age-grade World Cup win in the summer, with set-piece dominance splintering France in the final.

They are not the only reasons to be cheerful.

Harlequins’ 22-year-old Baxter made his Test debut in the summer. Team-mate Nathan Jibulu, 21, is poised to pressure central contract-holder Theo Dan, 23, at hooker.

Northampton’s Tarek Haffar and Emmanuel Iyogun, both 23, are two more promising prop prospects.

In all, England hope they have a golden generation lined up behind Marler and Dan Cole, who are nearing the end of their careers, and Ellis Genge and Will Stuart, 29 and 28 respectively.

West believes that, once the transition is finished, Opoku-Fordjour would prefer to end up back at tight-head.

But in modern Test rugby, versatility can be the key that unlocks the next level and a place in a squad.

West and Titterrell’s day was different. Replacements were rarer. Specialists stayed put. And the set-piece was more chaotic.

Footage from their playing days provides amusement, rather than education, to their young charges.

“The lads laugh now when they see the footage of the games we played in,” says West.

“Back then the referee did not have much involvement in the engagement at scrums – you got together and got on with it.

“There was more impact, a lot more scrums ending up on the floor and there was a certain amount of brutality involved in that.

“Even so, the players now are so much bigger and probably stronger than we were in the past. It is totally different things they do nowadays.”

Differing styles, but identical destinations. Opoku-Fordjour and the rest are arriving fast on the international scene and, as in the scrum, will take some shifting once they are in place.

JAKE PAUL is taking on his toughest opponent yet in Mike Tyson – the co-main event is a cracker and there are some other great fights on the undercard too.

The event was originally meant to be held on July 20 but due to some health issues, Iron Mike had to postpone.

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In May, the former heavyweight champion was on a flight where he endured a medical emergency that saw him being pushed out in a wheel chair.

He suffered an ulcer flare up that needed medical assistance on board a flight that was taking him to LA from Miami.

But before the main event there are six blockbuster fights on the Texas bill, with two title fights on the line, with one of them being a highly anticipated rematch.

And SunSport can provide you with all the details below.

What is the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson full card?

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson will headline the huge bill in Texas.

But fans are also looking forward to seeing the highly-anticipated title rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

Bruce Carrington and Dana Coolwell will kick-start the Netflix event.

• Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson
• Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano 2 – for IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO lightweight titles
• Mario Barrios vs. Abel Ramos – for WBC welterweight title
• Neeraj Goyat vs. Whindersson Nunes
• Shadasia Green vs. Melinda Watpool
• Lucas Bahdi vs. Corey Marksman
• Bruce Carrington vs. Dana Coolwell

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How to watch Paul vs Tyson

It will exclusively be shown on Netflix in what is their first major event in the combat sports world.

Jake Paul confirmed on X that it will be free for all Netflix subscribers.

What has been said?

Mike Tyson has reiterated that anyone thinks he’s a nice person and he is out to prove a point against social media sensation Jake Paul.

Tyson said: “I’m not a nice person. I’m a decent person, I try to do the right thing.

“I don’t want to make friends with you, I don’t care if you put me on your yacht, I don’t give a f***.

“I’m not gonna be nice to nobody; I’ll be Kind, but never nice.”

Rogers joined Middlesbrough in a £1.5m deal in July 2023 and had a mixed start to the season. Eyebrows were raised when Aston Villa paid £8m plus add-ons for him just seven months later.

“It was pretty easy when I found out the team who wanted me,” says Rogers.

“It was tough leaving Middlesbrough because it was a fresh start. I felt close to the team and coaches, but when a team like Villa comes in it is impossible to say no. Being a lad from Birmingham it was the perfect reality. I couldn’t say no.”

After taking a few months to find his feet, this season Rogers has started all 12 of Villa’s games in the league and Champions League, including the Bayern match.

“I have always had that belief and wanted to get to the highest level of football,” he says.

“[Playing in the] Champions League – it is crazy. The feeling doesn’t wear off. To be a part of that is something I didn’t expect to happen so quickly.

“It is mad and surreal to feel I am playing against that level and calibre of player. It’s cool and exciting. I love football so much, so stuff like that still excites me.

“The Bayern game – stars from one to 11, all of them are superstars and it was a surreal moment to think I am on the pitch with them.”