Chelsea: Keith Wyness claims ‘big fight’ between owners is fuelling ‘instability’
Chelsea’s ownership are not aligned on their vision for the club as unrest continues at Stamford Bridge.
That is according to Keith Wyness, as the former Everton chief executive, speaking to Football Insider, can not see how BlueCo can sell Chelsea in the current circumstances.
Chelsea fans have protested against BlueCo’s ownership of the club, which was plunged into further disarray following the sacking of Liam Rosenior.
The club have made no progress on the pitch since BlueCo took control in 2022, and have mounting financial problems in the background, which could see the sale of star players this summer.
Chelsea recorded the biggest pre-tax loss of any Premier League club ever in their latest financial accounts, with BlueCo needing to get a tighter grip on spending.
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VISIT THE CHELSEA FINANCE HUB‘Blame games’ going at Chelsea amid increasing unrest
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – states that stability is urgently needed at Chelsea.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness doesn’t believe there would be any buyers looking to takeover the club.
| Revenue | £490.9m |
| Pre-Tax Loss | £262m |
| Operating Expenses | £749m |
| Matchday Revenue | £86.8m |
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “As I understand it, there is a big fight between the two owners.
“They’re split between the camps there, which is not good. I don’t know how many times we’ve mentioned about how important it is to have clarity from the top of the club. There’s still two camps within Chelsea, and it seems to be filtering down instability throughout the club.
“Certainly there’ll be blame games about the present situation. They haven’t got an option to sell the club. I don’t think there are any buyers in the marketplace. Don’t forget they haven’t got a stadium upgrade over the line either.
“Roman Abramovich couldn’t do it, they haven’t been able to do it. So why would any new owner expect that? All they’ve got right now is problems and I don’t see the valuation that they would expect for Chelsea to be met by anybody.
“I would be looking at it as basically a turnaround situation and I would expect them to take a pretty hot, big bath, financially in terms of their investment. There’s still all the issues around the Ukraine funding as well. There are a lot of hangovers of debt and all these quick accounting transactions, for instance.”
Chelsea losing huge sum after Liam Rosenior sack
Rosenior’s departure from Stamford Bridge, just 107 days after he was appointed, meant Chelsea’s owners were forced to pay out more money in compensation to another sacked manager.
The Blues’ ownership had already dismissed Enzo Maresca in January, and will now wait until the summer before making another permanent managerial appointment.
It was revealed to Football Insider that BlueCo have paid £45million in compensation to managers at Chelsea, with Rosenior owed up to £5m.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, who will leave the Cherries at the end of the season, is already an early contender to succeed Rosenior in the dugout.
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