Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel says any buyer would be ‘lucky’ to have club

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said “whoever buys the club will be lucky to have it”, and added his commitment to staying with the Blues.

He has taken the decision following his country’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Chelsea, for me, is a perfect fit. I love to be here and love everything about the club and, hopefully, it continues,” said Tuchel.

“There is now uncertainty but isn’t there always as a football manager?

“I’m used and trained to live with it. Of course, different levels and, I have to be honest, this is quite a level but I am positive and hope things will end well.”

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Tuchel became Chelsea manager when he replaced Frank Lampard in January 2021 and led them to Champions League victory last season.

“I have the opposite of a problem staying here. I said many times that I love working in the Premier League,” said the German.

“I love being in England and feeling the tradition and love for sports in general, and for football in particular. It’s an amazing place to be.”

Abramovich said he was “giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable foundation the stewardship and care” of the club before the League Cup final against Liverpool.

He then announced his plans to sell the Blues prior to the FA Cup tie at Luton Town.

“I think Chelsea is a strong club and will stay a strong club,” added Tuchel. “Our owner decided to sell the club but he sells a strong, solid and very well organised club on the highest level.

“He was, and is, a very passionate owner who cares about the team, the club and the performance personally, which is very rare and makes him very special.”

Asked if the next owner could match Abramovich’s success, Tuchel said: “We will see, we will see. Let’s speak in the next 20 years and then we’ll see.

“Whoever buys the club will be lucky to have it.”

Tuchel said former Chelsea keeper Petr Cech, who is the Blues’ technical and performance advisor, had given people at the club “a quick brief” of the situation but there was “not too much that we didn’t already know”.

Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia, who has dual Russian-Canadian citizenship, did not give the briefing as Tuchel said she “is ill at the moment, otherwise she would have been here”.

“It does not make sense to worry too much because we don’t have a lot of influence, not to say no influence at all. That was the bottom line,” added Tuchel, whose side play at Burnley on Saturday.

“We can allow ourselves to focus on what we love the most and that is football, and to perform the best way possible.

“What makes me very positive is that we did this twice in these circumstances against Liverpool and Luton Town.”

On the proposed sale of the club, investment banker and corporate takeover advisor Keith Harris said “there aren’t going to be 20 or 30 people queuing up to buy” Chelsea.

“It’s a rare beast that has the odd £3bn lying in a back pocket,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“It’s a big, big ask.”

Harris was part of the team that negotiated the sale of Chelsea to Abramovich in 2003, and added: “I think the timeline for this to happen would be by the end of this season or at the very beginning of the transfer window, which obviously starts soon afterwards – and I still think it remains a big if.”

Turkish billionaire Muhsin Bayrak says he is one of those to have launched a bid to buy the club, adding “we will fly the Turkish flag in London soon”.

‘It’s business as usual’ – Hayes

Chelsea women’s boss Emma Hayes said: “It’s a very difficult time but it’s business as usual. We will be successful going forward and nothing has changed.”

The four-time Women’s Super League winner is also on the board of trustees for the Chelsea Foundation, which Abramovich had initially said he would hand control to before announcing the club would be sold.

Hayes is preparing for Chelsea’s Continental Cup final against Manchester City on Saturday but said she has no “anxieties or worry about our position and status”.

“I know how we’re represented internally and the relationships we’ve built across the club, we are all working on the same page and that will not change. The day-to-day running of this football club will not change.

“This is a successful organisation and it will remain a successful organisation – the club is invested in its women’s team and I expect that to remain long and strong into the future.”

Sale wont be rushed – analysis

BBC Sport’s Alistair Magowan

Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea will not be rushed despite the threat of UK sanctions, which have been raised in Parliament.

The chance to buy the club has drawn interest from across the globe, with an American investment bank, instructed by the Russian billionaire, seeking over £3bn.

Among interested parties are Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, who are forming a consortium.

A spokesperson for Abramovich said he had not done anything sanctionable, while the Chelsea owner has also denied links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But the current uncertainty following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means that a takeover which might normally take months could be done within weeks.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters also said on Thursday that passing the top-flight’s owners’ and directors’ test could be done “relatively quickly”, adding that previous takeovers had been signed off “within 10 days”.

The sale of the club which Abramovich bought for £140m in 2003 is helped by the fact that there has been no previous shortage of interest in buying Chelsea.

That means that prospective buyers, of which there are believed to be more than 10, have already done the groundwork and are ready to submit a bid.

British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who owns Ineos and bought French club Nice in 2019, has previously shown interest, but will not seek to purchase Chelsea because he does not see it as good value.

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