Perhaps tonight's announcement was made because the plan to put the club under the management of the Charitable Foundation wasn't going to get through charity law. RA has done everything he can to try to protect the club and his legacy.

As TT said, football is rather unimportant given what is going on. 
 

I’m gutted though, and a sad day for Chelsea, the community, players and fans. Roman’s first game at home vs Leicester was the last game I went to with my dad prior to moving to the US (we still go when back over). Such an energy that day. 

A new era dawns. 

I guess this means Marina Granovskaia will be out, maybe most of the senior figures like Bruce Buck too. 

Just now, carrickblue said:

I guess this means Marina Granovskaia will be out, maybe most of the senior figures like Bruce Buck too. 

Maybe. Would make sense to have some continuity.

25 minutes ago, coco said:

Roman will never forgive Putin for this, well, not to his face anyway.

I think (don’t know of course) Roman has for a long time wished for nothing more than to see Putin gone.

Roman was never a Putin man, he just put up with him, yet somehow he became the avatar in this country for everything that’s evil about Russia as the media and MPs whipped each other into a frenzy.

 But Roman couldn’t fight that and pulled a classy move, not just to show everyone he has some class but also because there are more urgent tasks ahead for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to get involved in the most pressing one of all, which is getting rid of the monster Putin.

1-1

The thing is we’re constantly told that football clubs are more than just a football team, that they are pillars of our communities, people’s  livelihoods, and we need to save them at all costs.   So why is the media and government trying their best to destroy this club?  What would they have done if Roman didn’t sell?  
 

Romans ownership has brought so much to this countries football and they’re willing to destroy it because he’s Russian.  I fail to see how any of this will make  any difference to the situation in Ukraine, if anything they’ve destroyed a part of England, and impacted on millions of fans around the world for the worse.  It seems this thoughtless witch hunt will leave us worse off than the Russians.  Hopefully Romans love for the club will mean he picks the best option for our new owner(s).  

Thanks for everything mate you’re nothing like that horrible senile old man Putin.  Best owner ever.  Hope you buy us back once this is all over.  

Can he sell Lukaku while he's at it?

Sh*t situation, but Roman's hand was ultimately forced. I honestly think he is against what Putin has done to Ukraine, he just knows he can't speak out or his life, family or fortune may be at serious risk. He's the best owner we could of ever had, he is a true Chelsea fan and has enabled us to win EVERYTHING! Thanks Roman, even if we never win another trophy in my life time I'm content to know I've seen it all already. I hope when things settle he revists Stamford Bridge, he's made us a giant in European football and we now have a huge global following. For that we must thank him!

Edited March 2, 20224 yr by AlwaysRight

Unless RA is finding the war I find this absurd.. I don’t think there is any business in Russia that would have thrived without contributing to Putin’s campaign.. so if that is the logic there are 100s of other people and large corporations that need to be sensored..

but at times like these everyone want a symbol to blame so RA it is.

In some ways I hope the new owners are less frivolous. We've spent so much money on talentless hacks since Mourinho won the title second time around. I imagine the club has spent near on half a billion on average players since that 2014 season. Who knows, time will tell, but we've had a great ride. 

2 minutes ago, Jangz said:

Unless RA is finding the war I find this absurd.. I don’t think there is any business in Russia that would have thrived without contributing to Putin’s campaign.. so if that is the logic there are 100s of other people and large corporations that need to be sensored..

but at times like these everyone want a symbol to blame so RA it is.

No its because he played a pivotal. Role in putins rise   he is treated like a son and you never see him at those gatherings where Putin humiliates all the other oligarchs.  There clearly is or was a relationship

Additional thought. Came in with the goal of making Chelsea the biggest club in the world. Many ways to measure that, but leaving on the high of European and World champions isn’t a bad achievement at all. 

I am so scared on who is going to take over Chelsea now. Does the new owners have ambition like the Saudis/Roman? Or the ambition of Kroenke and Glazers? PLEASE not the latter.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

People are trying to spin it now and say he's helping Russian victims in Ukraine. Basically, he can't win, because to a lot of people, football rivalry trumps everything, even a war.

It's such a mess the whole thing, I mean I don't want to give the UK government any ideas but our owners have ties to a government who are helping the Saudis bomb Yemen, Will our owners have to face the music like this? 

I can't believe that people are still not giving him a shred of credit after this, writing off billions of pounds is not enough. They won't accept anything but him to basically commit suicide by saying f**k putin then end up with radiation poisoning or falling off a roof.

Watching the BBC coverage and they put on the times head writer to comment on Roman writing off 1.5 billion jn debt and putting huge sums to help the war in Ukraine, and the guy was more or less acting like who cares..chelsea and roman are the bad guys. Its actually sickening that Roman has been hounded out by all those Labour Mps and the media. Clearly a lot of people are big time haters and have been since he came to the club and we have won it all.

I don't care for the high and mighty bollocks. If a saudi billionaire owner for e.g, came in to replace, say, the glazers for e.g, utd fans would jump at the opportunity. The majority of our rival fanbases would. When Roman took over most people would have no idea about how he got his money. Most fans don't question where their billionaire owners get their money or who or what they fund. 

Henry Winter reckons the priority for the new owners is to build a new stadium on the site of Stamford Bridge.

What ?

4 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Henry Winter reckons the priority for the new owners is to build a new stadium on the site of Stamford Bridge.

What ?

Oh dear. That is already bad news. THIS TEAM NEEDS A REVAMP. Especially the attackers.

He's given us memories that will last the rest of our lives..

no matter what happens , we are still Chelsea whether we go back to the sh*te days of not, it's my club

Our club for ever

1 minute ago, Mana said:

Oh dear. That is already bad news. THIS TEAM NEEDS A REVAMP. Especially the attackers.

Winter is talking Bollocks . . Chief football writer my arse

3 minutes ago, enigma said:

I don't care for the high and mighty bollocks. If a saudi billionaire owner for e.g, came in to replace, say, the glazers for e.g, utd fans would jump at the opportunity. The majority of our rival fanbases would. When Roman took over most people would have no idea about how he got his money. Most fans don't question where their billionaire owners get their money or who or what they fund. 

Roman will be a big loss to Chelsea. I hope you don't end up with a consortium whose primary purpose is to monetize everything about your club and who care only for the profits they can pocket. Believe me, once a leech gets hold of you, they never go away.

Just now, The Rising Sun said:

He's given us memories that will last the rest of our lives..

no matter what happens , we are still Chelsea whether we go back to the sh*te days of not, it's my club

Our club for ever

Honestly, let's be real. We can't go back to those sh*te days.

The rival fans including Spuds and Arsenal will banter us for decades.

But, as it stands - it doesn't look like we will go back there anyway. But the ambition is the most worrying part.

5 minutes ago, Stretford Ender said:

Roman will be a big loss to Chelsea. I hope you don't end up with a consortium whose primary purpose is to monetize everything about your club and who care only for the profits they can pocket. Believe me, once a leech gets hold of you, they never go away.

Exactly. Look at the Glazers and Daniel Levy. We CANNOT have an owner like them. Otherwise say goodbye and not compete for anything and getting battered almost every week.

Edited March 2, 20224 yr by Mana