March 27, (THEWILL) – Mason Mount has stated that players at Chelsea are only hearing about the club’s takeover process in piecemeal, on a day-by-day basis.
THEWILL recalls that club owner Roman Abramovich put his greatest asset up for sale, before the UK government slapped sanctions on him as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions were largely due to the oligarch’s claimed strong ties to Moscow and President, Vladimir Putin. Since then, a slew of suitors made bids to buy Chelsea.
The Raine Group, the merchant bank in charge of the sale, has narrowed the enormous list of potential purchasers down to just four. Todd Boehly’s consortium, the Ricketts family, Sir Martin Broughton, and Stephen Pagliuca are all on the shortlist.
While the transaction is proceeding slowly, Mount, who is now on international duty with England, has admitted that the players have been mostly kept in the dark.
“I’ve been at the club since I was six-years-old and something like this has not happened before, so it can be a concern”, he said after the Three Lions’ victory over Switzerland on Saturday. “At the beginning, and even now, we don’t really know where it’s going and what’s happening the next day.
“So it’s difficult. But we focus on our football and what we can do is try and win as many games as we can. Obviously I’m away with England, so that stuff is kind of parked and I’m focusing on England duty and what I can do while I’m away.
“And then, when I go back to Chelsea next week, I’m sure we will be informed about what’s going on because I haven’t heard anything recently.”
Despite the off-field turmoil, the academy product said that the fact that the fixtures are coming thick and fast at the business end of the season means there is plenty to keep them focused on the pitch.
“It can sometimes be hard to focus on football when a lot of things is going on around you,” he continued. “But I feel like it has made it a bit easier, that there are so many games to play that we have to focus ourselves on what’s happening on the pitch.
“Hopefully that can continue. You don’t know what’s going on from day to day, so to focus on football is all we can do.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
