It was a week that Chelsea fans will never forget — the week Roman Abramovich announced his intention to sell.
Amid the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich is looking to move on from Chelsea after almost two decades of investment, trophies and plenty of drama.
The news shook the club to its core.
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Dominic Fifield, Simon Johnson, Liam Twomey and our team of writers have spent the week talking to people behind the scenes at the club in an attempt to tell you what the mood is and what is going on.
Here is what we are hearing…
It shouldn’t be forgotten that owner Roman Abramovich’s first statement regarding the future of Chelsea came the night before the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.
The Chelsea players had already travelled to the team hotel near Wembley, where the match was held, when the club announced on their website that the owner was attempting to hand control over to six trustees.
All had seemed normal at the training ground earlier in the day. Left-back Ben Chilwell was doing some individual training work as he recovers from a cruciate ligament injury, while technical and performance adviser Petr Cech watched the Under-18s beat Aston Villa 3-1.
The news came as a surprise to everyone but the mood among the players was calm following a short team meeting that was held after dinner. It helped that there was a major final to focus on and, at that juncture, it appeared little was going to change. After all, Abramovich had rarely been seen for three years and director Marina Granovskaia and chairman Bruce Buck were running the club on a day-to-day basis.
This sentiment continued into Sunday. It is understood there was little discussion about it among those from Chelsea who attended the game. Some described it as feeling like a conscious effort to keep everything light due to it being a cup final and not wanting it to be a distraction.
And while there was a little confusion about how the trustee set-up would work, it was regarded by some within the camp as a sign Abramovich had found a way to stay as owner despite increasing pressure from outside Stamford Bridge.
Perhaps surprisingly, after losing on penalties to Liverpool, Chelsea still went ahead with plans to hold a big get-together at a restaurant near Stamford Bridge afterwards. The mood was described as “awful” by one attendee, with the majority of people stopping by briefly before moving on.
Those with families, including coach Thomas Tuchel, stayed longer. Granovskaia was one of the representatives from the hierarchy who was there, but it understandably wasn’t the function everyone had hoped for.
Now Chelsea are officially up for sale, there has inevitably been a lot of speculation about what the consequences will be following Abramovich’s departure.
One agent familiar to the club already has a rather grim forecast — the party is over as far as he’s concerned.
Abramovich was so determined to help Chelsea succeed, the club accumulated debts of £1.5 billion to him over 19 years. Fortunately the Russian doesn’t want it to be repaid, but the vast sum is an indication of how Chelsea have been living beyond their means.
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No one knows who will succeed Abramovich yet, but this influential representative believes the model of the club is about to change and it will need to become far more self-sustaining. Chelsea sell players on an annual basis anyway to help their accounts, however there is a suspicion they will have to cash in on some individuals who were previously not earmarked to go.
The timing of Abramovich’s departure isn’t ideal with key defenders Antonio Rudiger, Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen out of contract in the summer and the club still in the process of discussing extensions.
It was felt Rudiger had been getting a lot closer to agreeing a new deal after talks resumed last December, but this seismic development may have put that in doubt. Barcelona are very confident they are now going to secure Christensen’s signature. They are also upbeat about their chances of luring captain Azpilicueta to La Liga.
Just like last Saturday’s announcement, the players had no idea the news Abramovich was going to sell was going to break when it did. While Tuchel told the BBC he found out before the statement was released on Wednesday evening ahead of their FA Cup game against Luton Town, one senior player who started the game didn’t know until he checked social media on his phone after Chelsea’s 3-2 victory. Another who wasn’t involved in the fixture learned of it when Abramovich’s message was posted on the club’s official website.
In their haste to get away from Kenilworth Road, one relative of a Luton player described them as acting like divas due to their unwillingness to interact with anyone following the final whistle. A few shirts had been swapped but that was it.
Remember when Cech’s title was the cause of considerable confusion? What does a technical and performance advisor actually do? The official job description peddled by the club upon his appointment back in 2019 posed more questions than provided answers. He was there to supply “advice on all football and performance matters throughout the club as well as embed and facilitate strong links between our men’s and academy teams, ensuring that the various support departments are working together effectively”.
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And breathe.
Well, we probably understand slightly better now. Besides all that embedding and facilitating, the technical and performance adviser is also the figure who ploughs headlong into protesting Chelsea supporters and attempts to explain that, maybe, just maybe, the club realises it has made a mistake over joining the proposed European Super League and everyone should just calm down a bit and wait and see what happens. He is also the man who pushes the credentials of previously unheralded goalkeepers plying their trade in Ligue 1 who might be worth a second look. And, for what it’s worth, the man pushed forward from a notoriously taciturn hierarchy to do pre-match television interviews on the touchline ahead of the Club World Cup final in Abu Dhabi.
Similarly, when the owner announces that, after 19 years, Chelsea is up for sale, it falls upon the technical and performance adviser to rally the staff.
In fairness, Granovskaia would probably have taken on that duty had she not fallen ill in midweek. Buck, having attended the FA Cup fifth round tie at Luton Town on Wednesday night with his son — a game that kicked off just an hour after that statement had dropped — has also been under the weather since and missed Saturday’s trip to Burnley.
Instead, it was Cech who called all the staff together down at Cobham on Thursday in an attempt to offer some clarity. Everyone working down at the training complex attended. There were players, backroom and academy personnel, as well as people who work from the medical and administrative departments to the canteen. He stressed that the foundations of the club remain strong. That they are lucky to be working in world-class facilities — the owner’s legacy. It was business as usual, as much as it could be in the wake of the news. Focus on the football as much as you can.
That kind of stuff.
Could he offer any real assurances? “How could he? How could anybody? We cannot predict the future,” said Tuchel. “No, it was more about the bottom line: that we can allow ourselves to keep on going and do what we did in the last few days. To focus on sports. We are employees and we are still very privileged. That was more or less the message.”
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Cech was up at Turf Moor on Saturday, too, along with the club secretary, Dave Barnard, as Chelsea’s official delegation for the win at Burnley. His duties know no end. Cech’s future may be uncertain but, surely, retaining his services would offer some much-needed continuity if and when change is instigated at the top.
Multiple sources in and outside the club fear key personnel including Granovskaia, Buck and Cech will all follow Abramovich out of Stamford Bridge.
Inevitably, there is a lot of uncertainty and concern about these developments. For the vast majority of the staff, Abramovich is the only owner they’ve worked for and despite the criticism outside of the club, his running of Chelsea is warmly regarded and appreciated inside it.
Chelsea’s employees don’t just work from Cobham so the club have been doing their utmost to keep everyone informed, primarily by email. Still one member of staff was rather surprised to learn of both Abramovich statements courtesy of a generic email sent to everybody and starting simply with a “Dear all”.
Those who couldn’t be on site to hear what Cech had to say were contacted as well on Thursday with similar messages of reassurance to carry on as normal.
It is evident this will be easier said than done. The high turnover of managers in the Abramovich era may have been seen as causing a lot of instability, but his presence and generous backing offset that as far as the staff are concerned.
No one had imagined, let alone prepared themselves for, Chelsea without Abramovich at the helm. Fundamentally, people felt that he wanted the best for Chelsea and that if they presented a good case for doing something, he would back them.
Granovskaia and Buck are respected for the roles they play as well. It isn’t regarded as a hierarchical atmosphere within the club and the set-up is deemed as working well for all concerned. Should the next regime want their own people in place, this will add to the sense of disruption and concern over what might follow.
The prevailing sentiment among Chelsea supporters last week was sadness that Abramovich is set to leave, coupled with gratitude for the man who bankrolled the club’s golden age. There is also considerable anxiety for what lies ahead.
But there are also some who are choosing to see this as an opportunity to make their voices heard. Following the farcical rise and fall of the European Super League last year, Chelsea agreed to incorporate three supporter advisers to the board. Now supporters want to go further, ensuring permanent, meaningful fan representation at the top of whatever the new regime proves to be.
On Friday the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) issued a statement detailing five demands for any new owner, pointedly including a guarantee that there will be no repeat of the ESL shambles:
A Chelsea Supporters’ Trust statement.#TrustInOurFuture pic.twitter.com/hjb6H4TYeV
— Chelsea Supporters’ Trust⭐️⭐️ (@ChelseaSTrust) March 4, 2022
CST are working with several other Chelsea fan groups as well as Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) who, for those of you who don’t know, own the freehold to Stamford Bridge in a unique arrangement that safeguards the club’s future presence in their historic home. Previous owner Ken Bates loaned the group £10 million to buy the freehold in 1993; the outstanding balance currently stands at around £8 million, and both CPO and CST are asking that this debt be forgiven by new ownership to ensure “that Stamford Bridge is secured by and for Chelsea’s fans”.
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CPO have had a more productive relationship with the Chelsea hierarchy in recent years, with Abramovich’s deeply divisive 2011 failed bid to buy back the freehold further in the rear view. At a meeting between the two parties last Thursday, Buck provided some context for Wednesday’s statement confirming the club was for sale and offered reassurance that bidders will be judged on their ability to continue the Russian’s legacy at Stamford Bridge.
Central to that is the issue of stadium redevelopment. CPO and CST both want to see any new owner commit to transforming Stamford Bridge into a modern super-stadium — either by reviving the project that Abramovich paused in May 2018 citing an “unfavourable investment climate” or by bringing a new one to the table.
Put yourself in the shoes of Emma Hayes for a moment. Can you think of a worse week to prepare for a major domestic cup final than one that begins with four days of speculation that you will be tasked with running the entire football club, and ends with three days of speculation about what an imminent change of ownership will mean for the future of your team? Oh, and includes a lengthy press conference in which you’re required to navigate questions about all of the above.
All things considered, Hayes handled it impressively well — even if her trademark jovial charisma appeared only in flashes during a 30-minute Zoom interaction with the media on Friday.
Unsurprisingly, she seemed least comfortable with questions that referenced her position as a foundation trustee and Abramovich’s brief, half-baked plan to hand over ultimate decision-making power at Chelsea to her and five others; for someone so eloquent and usually willing to engage on a wide range of topics, it was jarring to hear her fall back on the “I’m a football manager, that’s my job” mantra several times.
It was also noticeable that she dodged every invitation to talk about Abramovich, who was named only by journalists throughout the press conference. Asked directly how important the owner’s backing has been to the success of Chelsea Women, she replied: “I’ve said it throughout this and I’ll say it again: this is about Chelsea Football Club. Chelsea have been as a whole, from the top down, involved with the success of the women’s team. It’s not one person or one thing, it’s everything.”
Having explained Abramovich’s decision to sell to Chelsea men’s first-team squad on Thursday, Cech extended the same courtesy to the women’s team — another signal to Hayes about their importance to the club’s future.
Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City in the Conti Cup final was a reminder that more of Chelsea Women’s spectacular success is less than guaranteed. At the end of such a chaotic week the loss was understandable, and the pre-match tributes to Ukraine at Plough Lane highlighted that Hayes will continue to be faced with thorny issues beyond her managerial remit: Alsu Abdullina, the Russia international Chelsea signed in December, chose not to be in a photo ahead of kick-off that was arranged to show solidarity with Ukraine. The photo was originally supposed to just be the players who were starting and Abdullina was therefore unsure what to do when faced with a last-minute decision when the substitutes were suddenly asked to join in. With family and friends back in Russia, you can imagine the difficulty of the decision she faced.
It was Buck who ended up conducting the ring-around when the notion of handing the club into the stewardship of the trustees of the Chelsea Foundation was still considered a viable option. On the eve of the Carabao Cup final, the Chelsea chairman had attempted to digest the plan hatched from on high, picked up his phone and, still in shock that it had actually come to this, called his fellow trustees.
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“This is not something I ever thought I’d say as a Chelsea chairman, but Roman wants to hand over the club…”
Those who took the call were as flabbergasted as Buck at the sudden turn of events. The plan generated scepticism from the outset. At least two of the trustees made clear they were opposed. Others instinctively sought to explore whether the transfer was even legal and whether Abramovich’s move could actually be enacted within Charity Commission guidelines. Hence the serious incident report filed to the commission early in the week.
Not that those on the foundation were not keen to help. It was just that they sensed the move would extend their remit into uncharted and potentially dangerous territory.
While they were wary, one figure did come running. Lord Seb Coe is not actually listed as one of the six official trustees, registered with the Charity Commission, but the two-time 1,500 metres Olympic gold medallist has been a Chelsea fan all his life, is close to the board and has acted as a consultant for the club over the years. He was in the royal box alongside Cech and Coe’s fellow Olympian, Sir Steve Redgrave, at Wembley for Sunday’s final. And as soon as he became aware of the issues behind the scenes, he expressed an eagerness to help.
One figure connected to the foundation remarked that it was “as if a sonar call had gone out to him” and he was doing his duty by stepping up, eager to assist in any way possible. As it was, the initial trustees scheme had fizzled out by midweek. Even Coe could not outrun the pace at which this story was developing.
Amid the madness of the week, there was still time for something more poignant. Granovskaia and Buck stood at the back at St Bride’s church on Tuesday morning as Chelsea’s former director of communications, Simon Greenberg, was given a wonderfully emotional send-off attended by football’s great and the good.
If he was not clued up before, Tuchel certainly knows better now that fronting up press conferences as head coach at the current European and world champions involves more than merely providing updates on the state of his right wing-back’s hamstring. Or, for that matter, the day’s latest transfer speculation.
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This is Chelsea. The role invariably requires the incumbent to negotiate the latest geopolitical events of the day, as well as team news and thoughts on the title race. Bear in mind that he has apparently only spoken to Abramovich on a handful of occasions since his appointment, and not at all since the Club World Cup was claimed in Abu Dhabi last month. As the public face of the club, Tuchel is having to pass comment on decisions being taken by figures much further up the food chain.
Navigating through the Super League fiasco back in April must have been daunting given he was new in the role and the furious nature of the fallout. As it transpires, it was a cakewalk compared to the current situation.
Chelsea are lucky to have Tuchel. The manner in which he has confronted politically awkward questions and answered them with such honesty and respect marks him out as exceptional. He snapped slightly ahead of the midweek FA Cup fixture, but only because the same question, slightly tweaked, was being flung repeatedly his way and he really had nothing more he could say.
His latest show of strength came post-match in the press room at Burnley on Saturday. That was the first time Tuchel had addressed the media in person in this country, away from the pixelated Zoom calls, since taking up the reins at the club and, inevitably, there was controversy on the agenda.
The pre-match minute’s applause, designed as a show of unity with Ukraine — ‘Football Stands Together’ — and instigated up and down the league over the weekend, had prompted a section of Chelsea’s away support crammed into the Barnfield Construction Stand to break out into an untimely chorus of “Roman Abramovich”. Yes, all at Chelsea have reason to be grateful for their owner of 19 years. And, yes, all net proceeds of Chelsea’s ultimate sale are apparently going to be donated via a foundation “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine”. But singing the Russian’s name at that point still felt like a taunt.
Tuchel’s feelings were obvious. He knew where it was going and began his response even before the question had been concluded. “Yes, it was not the moment to do this,” he offered. “Yes. Well, listen, if we show solidarity, we show solidarity. And we should do it together. We take the knee together. If an important person from another club or from our club unfortunately dies, we show a minute of respect.
“It’s not the moment to give other messages. It’s a moment to show respect. It is not the moment for other messages.”
Clear. Calm. Composed. Tuchel continues to negotiate a difficult situation with real dignity.
There were a few conclusions to be drawn from the victory at Burnley. One was that the hosts are uncharacteristically fragile, as demonstrated by that eight-minute capitulation after the interval. But the other was that Chelsea, as a group, remain focused on the football. Plenty may be unsettling off the pitch at present, but on it this team are bonded.
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Much of the credit lies with the management. From the moment Tuchel took his seat, “first chair on the right wall”, in the tight away dressing room at Kenilworth Road in midweek, and was informed that the owner’s statement had just been published online, he has been intent on blocking out the noise as much as he can. He always had an inkling the ownership issue would lurch this way. He had been in regular contact with Cech and Granovskaia over the week and has spoken of an impending storm. “I could feel it coming,” he said. “I could feel the possibility.”
At Burnley, his team imposed themselves after the break and — while their hosts’ vulnerability should be taken into account — arguably conjured some of their most incisive attacking football of the campaign to date. Reece James was unplayable. Kai Havertz looks everything Romelu Lukaku, too often, is not. Once ahead, they ran riot. Joyously.
Chelsea players scuttled away from the stadium as soon as they could post-match. They were filing out through the red zone between the North Stand and Barnfield Construction Stand to their waiting coach within 20 minutes of the final whistle. Away supporters spilled out of the upstairs bar on to the pavilion balcony at the neighbouring cricket club and chanted their favourites’ names as they boarded the coach. Some were clinging to drainpipes while serenading N’Golo Kante and Antonio Rudiger. Plenty were acknowledged.
As tumultuous as the last week has been, and even in the wake of a cup final defeat on penalties, the group’s focus remains intact. Nothing has changed on that front just yet.
So who next?
Despite the initial noises suggesting Abramovich was keen to do a deal very quickly and the Premier League preparing themselves for that, some sources are telling us that any sale could take several months. This is not something he suddenly decided this week — the decision has been coming and his mind was certainly already made up during the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
Finding a buyer who gets close to the £3bn Abramovich is said to want and someone who he believes has the best interests of the club at heart does not leave that many options. Those in the industry are also very wary of supposed potential buyers who are making their intentions public.
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One other interesting element is that some of the consultancy firms who would normally be quick to offer their services for such a sale have had some moral reservations about whether to get involved.
So do not be surprised if Abramovich is still in charge of the club in the summer, especially if sanctions from the UK government continue not to appear.