Thomas top priority for Broughton
FA CUP QUARTER-FINAL
Tuchel to stay? Absolutely they want him to stay. There isn’t a Chelsea fan around that I know who would suggest any other solution.
“That will finish up being down to Tuchel, but there’s only one position we’ll be taking.”
And Broughton, who submitted his group’s Friday bid along with 15 others – including British property mogul Nick Candy and LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly – also allayed fears his consortium would look to join a breakaway European Super League.
He added: “Once we become the legal owners we have to remember the emotional ownership is actually with the fans. So you’ve got to involve them in one way or another.
“We don’t want to sit and tell fans which ownership models we’re going to introduce. I have actually met the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust.
“We said to them, which ones do you want? How do you want this to work in the future? Because we need to carry you with us.”
Current owner Roman Abramovich’s £3billion valuation looks high and there is a view the club will go for somewhere closer to the £2bn or £2.5bn mark.
And if Broughton’s group get their hands on Chelsea, they have vowed to do all they can to keep the silverware coming.
He told TALKSPORT: “Philosophically, we support the Financial Fair Play approach to football.
“Once those rules are determined again, we will commit to keeping within the rules. But we have the money. We have the commitment and we are determined to keep the club where it is.
“I don’t want to be, and none of the guys in the team want to be, the guy who took the club from where it is today to mediocrity.
“We’re not interested in doing that and making a bit of money. We want to stay right at the top.”
AS is consistently the case of late, Chelsea headed into their latest fixture knowing they had more than just the opposition to contend with.
The cloud of uncertainty that looms over Stamford Bridge is at least starting to dissipate thanks to the deadline for bids for the club having passed, but it continues to dominate the narrative around each game.
And never was that clearer than here, where just over 500 fans (below) were able to occupy the away end after ticket sales were suspended early as a result of the sanctions placed on current owner Roman Abramovich.
That provided the context for a pre-match row that saw Chelsea lodge and then quickly withdraw a request for the game be played behind closed doors.
The London club’s misguided plea for “sporting integrity” to be preserved was justifiably, scorned by Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson. But by full-time, even Boro’s muchloved custodian would have no doubt acknowledged the class of at least one element of this current Chelsea set-up cannot be questioned.
That is, of course, Blues manager Thomas Tuchel, who continues to show his quality on a weekly basis in difficult, unprecedented circumstances.
It would have been so easy for the German to allow the announcement of sanctions on Abramovich to distract his squad and subsequently affect results.
But he has now overseen four straight wins since that news broke to keep Chelsea on track in three different competitions.
A run on Premier League glory looks unlikely given the form of Manchester City and Liverpool, but the Blues remain in contention for the Champions League and, thanks to victory here, the FA Cup.
And that is largely down to a manager whose fingerprints were all over a win that saw the visitors quickly silence a raucous home crowd with controlled and clinical football.
That identity has persevered despite a recent shift to a back four, that was once again on
display here, and has brought about no discernible drop-off in solidity.
It certainly hasn’t harmed the attack, either, as Romelu Lukaku (left, celebrating with Mount) and Hakim Ziyech proved in putting the cap on fluid moves to clinch progression to the semifinals. With so much to admire about this team, it is little wonder the manager is adored by a group of supporters that unfurled a ‘Tuchel for PM’ banner in a reduced away end at the Riverside Stadium.
That sentiment may simply be a nod to the fact the German would likely be more sympathetic to Chelsea’s aims in their ongoing sale process than the Government who are leading it.
But it also underlined a fondness that, in these uncertain times, is also the basis of genuine fears the conditions for his exit may be about to materialise.
We do not yet know which of the many consortiums taking part in the battle to control them is likely to be successful.
Yet what seems obvious is any new owners are unlikely to run Chelsea in the manner that has allowed £1.5billion of debt to Abramovich to accumulate over nearly 20 years as trophies have been hoovered up.
That is likely to force a reconsideration of the wages and transfer fees Chelsea are able to pay, as well as an adjustment of supporters’ expectations of what each season might hold. And in such circumstances, it would be easy to see why the ubercompetitive Tuchel might believe his best chances of silverware lay elsewhere going forward.
For now, however, the 48-yearold remains committed to navigating Chelsea through the choppy waters of their transition to a post-abramovich world.
And that means a season the fans will never forget has a chance of being punctuated by yet more trophies being added to the Stamford Bridge cabinet.