Neville urges Chelsea not to make same mistake as Man Utd, Arsenal
Gary Neville has urged potential new Chelsea owners to avoid making immediate big changes to the club’s structure once they have bought the club.
New York merchant bank the Raine Group will whittle down a shortlist of preferred bidders following Friday’s deadline to make an offer, it is understood.
The fast pace of the Stamford Bridge club sale means a shortlist as tight even as three bids could be in place by early next week.
Big Weekend: Boro v Chelsea, Leeds, Spence, El Clasico
Roman Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale on March 2, amid Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian-Israeli billionaire was then sanctioned by the Government last week, with all his UK assets frozen barring Chelsea, with the Blues operating under strict Downing Street licence.
The Government sanctioned Abramovich after claiming to have proven his links to Vladimir Putin, but the 55-year-old has always denied those assertions.
Chelsea’s form has been little short of exceptional since Abramovich announced his intentions to step back from frontline ownership at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues’ Russian owner tried to place Chelsea in the “stewardship and care” of the club’s Chelsea Foundation trustees just as Thomas Tuchel’s side geared up for the Carabao Cup final.
A strong nucleus of bidders are ready to submit their proposals now – most of which are consortiums – and former Man Utd right-back Neville has a warning for any potential new owners.
When asked how a consortium of multiple owners would work at Chelsea, Neville told Sky Sports (via The Metro): “They’ll have to make sure that’s sorted out and who is the decision-maker.
“Ultimately there will have to be a veto somewhere along the line, you can’t have it that it’s equal votes with three people – well, you can with three because you’d have 2-1! But it’s not the right way to run a football club really.
“You need someone who’s basically a smart operator. What they need to do really is keep the people who are in place and operating the club now under Roman Abramovich – that would be the first thing that you would do.
“You want to make sure you have stability for two or three years. The last thing you want is all them leaving with Abramovich and then at that point you’ve basically got a massive upheaval which Manchester United have had when David Gill left with Sir Alex Ferguson at the same time.
“Or what Arsenal had when Arsene Wenger left and obviously David Dein left before that, that was a big problem for Arsenal.
“Don’t underestimate how important the sort of executives and football operators are at a football club. I think the first thing that the new owners will need to do is settle those operators down.”
