There is no doubt that the whole of March was the "darkest hour" for Chelsea's century-old club, even more than in 1982 when the club was acquired by Ken Bates for a symbolic price of £1. The Blues, who now earn as much as £400 million a year, have only £16 million on their books to use because of the ban, and can't even pay their salaries for April. At the same time, Chelsea lost more than half of its fans at home, and even the Champions League was only available on empty feet; the team's travel expenses were strictly restricted, making it possible to fly.
But Chelsea didn't mess around, on the contrary, from manager Tuchel to the players, they were trying to ensure that the team was not disturbed by factors on the sidelines. After eliminating Lille to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, Tuchel stressed that "everyone in the team is working hard to achieve their goals and has done it." Chelsea have done what Tuchel claims to be "adapting to any accident that happens", and the Blues are also trying to persuade UEFA to take back their lives at Tuesday's joint meeting, so that Chelsea fans can enter the Champions League. Even if they can't succeed, Chelsea is not worried. After all, in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals last May, Tuchel's side had already beaten Real Madrid 2-0 at the empty Stamford Bridge to advance to the final and win the title.
Previously, Chelsea's income and expenditure for the remainder of the season were severely limited due to the freezing of Abu's funds. The Blues can't sell home-and-away tickets (except for season tickets) and travel expenses for away games are limited to £20,000, which isn't even enough to cover the cost of the team's away flights to Fort Mi (at least £30,000). In mid-week, there was a lot of media talk in the UK that Chelsea might have to take a bus to Fort Mâteau in the north-east of England, a journey that would take up to 10 hours. The FA Cup is just 48 hours away from Chelsea's second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals last week, so it will greatly affect the team's away performance.
Although after urgent communication between Chelsea club and the British government, Chelsea's away spending ceiling was finally relaxed, allowing the Blues to fly to Fort Mi for the game, a flight that only took 1 hour and 15 minutes. But this does not mean that the team's playing environment can therefore return to the normal state before being sanctioned.
The biggest impact is the Champions League event, Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinals to Real Madrid, on April 12 Chelsea to Madrid's Champions League quarterfinals second leg, the flight distance is three times the Blues to Mi fort (3 hours and 30 minutes), whether the travel cost of the plane to the road is too high or questionable.
The British media even proposed chelsea's plan to take the high-speed rail to Madrid, the Blues must first take the "Eurostar" train from London to Paris, then change to Barcelona in Lyon, and then transfer to Madrid, the whole journey of 15 hours and 30 minutes. Of course, the Blues' well-paid players can fly directly to Madrid at their own expense to help the team solve the problem of the itinerary, but no one knows how long the team will persist in such an abnormal environment.
Tuchel can only hope that the Chelsea acquisition can be completed as soon as possible, but given the inevitable lengthy approval and financial process of the acquisition, it will take at least two months for the acquisition to be fully completed. At present, Chelsea's available book funds are not enough to pay the Blues' salary for April. Several bidders for Chelsea have offered to give Priority to Providing 50 million to £60 million to alleviate short-term cash flow problems, but after all, everything has not been signed, and Chelsea can only prepare for the worst.
Before the FA Cup away to Miburg last weekend, because the Blues only had more than 600 away season ticket holders to go to the away stadium to cheer, the Blues had made an empty match request, which was flatly rejected by Mibao, who had already sold out the home tickets. Subsequently, UEFA demanded that Chelsea's first leg against Real Madrid on April 6 be empty on the grounds that Chelsea's funds were frozen. Because there are no season tickets for Champions League matches, the Blues are banned from selling tickets and can only empty their stadiums. That wiped out Chelsea's home-court advantage. The Champions League home can only be empty, the away trip is undecided, and the pressure on the Blues can be imagined.
As FA Cup rivals Fort Mi boss Wilder said last weekend, giants like Chelsea can't collapse overnight in this era, because even the British government that "sanctioned" Chelsea wants the Blue Bridge to continue to stand. Chelsea's acquisition is expected to have a clear outcome in April, and even if the acquisition does not go through the entire process, the Blues will most likely get enough liquidity from the new owner to play the season normally.
After Abu entrusted the club to the Chelsea Foundation on 26 February, the Blues were in a de facto "state of no ownership". Although the team lost to Liverpool on penalties in the League Cup final, it then won six consecutive games. Even if the club environment took a sharp turn for the worse during the period, it did not affect the team's trend. Chelsea are still firmly in the third place in the Premier League, and there is little suspense about qualifying for next season's Champions League. The FA Cup also reached the semi-finals after eliminating Miburg, and although the Champions League opponents Real Madrid are in excellent form, the Blues can go all out to deal with the Champions League in April, the FA Cup semi-final in the middle of the month is at Wembley, and the London derby at the end of the month against Arsenal and West Ham are both home. By then, Chelsea's new owner should have been out of the water, and the team will naturally have no worries.
Tuchel is confident that Chelsea will come out of the woods, and he does not have chelsea fans' worries about the new owners: "The £2.5 billion acquisition of Chelsea, any investor who buys the club with this amount of magnitude, will not be cautious, must strive for victory at the highest level, which is in line with the expectations of investors." It's not about developing a research project, and it's not just about making money. But that amount is what I'm hoping for because it represents the ambition of investors. Tuchel also talked about the US bidders who have been constantly exposed by the media, and the US capital has blossomed everywhere in the Premier League, and Tuchel even compared it with Germany's "50+1" with Chelsea's upcoming new financier: "The capital structure of any club has advantages and disadvantages, we can't decide the new owner of the club, but we can calm down and continue to determine our fate on the pitch." ”
Tuchel stressed that everyone at Chelsea is working hard to ensure that the Blues can continue to play professionally, which is what the whole team does every day. Fortunately, at least for now, the normalcy of the club has been maintained as much as possible. Tuchel has always believed that the Blues' difficulties are only temporary, and the players are bound to let fans enjoy the pleasures on the pitch from the crisis they have heard and witnessed.