Chelsea soap opera continues as Abramovich potentially deals new twist to club sale

BY PAUL LAGAN
paul@slpmedia.co.uk

The rumour mill surrounding the final days in the Chelsea sell-off saga range from a smooth transaction with the selected prefered bidder to utter decimation of the club and relegation from the Premier League, due in part to the allegation that Roman Abramovich actually does want his £1.5billion investment in the club back after all.

The soap opera surrounding the late, late bid from Sir Jim Ratcliffe – apparently a £4.5bn bid, makes for a great sense of jeopardy for the selected bidder – the Todd Boehly consortium, but won’t alter the outcome.

It’s expected that once Boehly has finished his exclusive access to the deep and innermost secrets of Chelsea’s accounts, he will confirm that he wants to buy the club. A decision is expected by Tuesday.

While Ratcliffe had the inclination to buy the club a couple of years ago, he changed his mind when told a minimum of £2.5bn would be needed before Abramovich would even consider meeting with him. He chose instead to buy French outfit Nice.

The only thing standing in the way of the smooth transaction scenario is if the Boehly group changes their mind.

The other two official bidders – Stephen Pagliuca’s group and Sir Martin Broughton’s team were told last Friday they had missed out. Both will be asked to up their bids should Boehly pull out at the last minute. It’s at that point it could get really messy. The Government has given the club a licence to trade under certain conditions until May 31.

Should there be a delay, then the Government could pull the license and plunge the club into administration with possible liquidation to follow.

That’s when expulsion from the Premier League becomes a possibility. This will also be the case should Government-sanctioned Abramovich attempt to circumnavigate those sanctions by attempting to get back £1.5bn of the sale price by funnelling the cash into a different account.

But all indicators are that is not the case, and that Boehly will not find significant issues with the club’s accounts and accept the sale price and become the new owners of the club. By the time he plants his feet under his new desk, he will know if Chelsea’s men’s side are in freefall and out of the Champions League positions.

They have lost three of their past six league games, winning only two.

That leaves them five points ahead of fifth-placed Spurs and just three points ahead of Arsenal in fourth place.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel is under extreme pressure of navigating a side where almost the whole defence is keen to exit SW6 – Toni Rudiger is off to Real Madrid, Andreas Christensen to Barcelona, while skipper Cesar Azpiliceuta still wants to leave along with Marcos Alonso, both are courted by Barcelona.

Add that to the anaemic strike force of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, and the inconsistent midfield performances of N’Golo Kante and Mason Mount, and Chelsea could easily find Saturday’s league encounter with Wolves follows the path of recent poor results at the Bridge.

Chelsea will become Women’s Super League champions if they beat Manchester United on Sunday – the final game of the season.

Three players will exit Kingsmeadow for pastures new – Jonna Andersson, Ji and long-serving midfielder Drew Spence.