Gary Neville has warned Chelsea’s next owners they must not allow high-profile executives to leave the club or they will risk experiencing similar problems to Arsenal and Manchester United.
Roman Abramovich has instructed US merchant bank Raine to find a buyer for the west London club after he was sanctioned by the UK government over his alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At least a dozen viable offers have reportedly been made, most of which are consortiums, and the sale could be completed as early as the end of this month.
Abramovich is not expected to be the only high-profile figure to leave Stamford Bridge once the deal goes through, with big question marks over the futures of director Marina Granovskaia and chairman Bruce Buck.
But Neville feels it is of paramount importance that Chelsea’s new owners can convince that duo, and others behind the scenes, to remain at the club and drew parallels with the changes that took place at United and Arsenal.
Not only did the Red Devils lose Sir Alex Ferguson back in 2013, but chief executive David Gill also stepped down, while there were massive changes within the structure of Arsenal when both Arsene Wenger and David Dein departed a decade apart.
Neville feels Abramovich’s sale is as seismic a change as those departures and says Chelsea’s new owners must make it a priority to ensure there is a sense of stability in the upper echelons of the club.
Asked how a consortium of multiple owners would work at Chelsea, Neville told Sky Sports: ‘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.’
MORE : Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel would welcome Manchester United approach
MORE : Thomas Tuchel criticises Chelsea’s bizarre request to play FA Cup tie behind closed doors
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
