Potential Chelsea owners The Ricketts Family have continued to push on with their bid to buy the club alongside partner Ken Griffin despite planned fan protests.
We have now entered the crucial month for takeover talks. The four bids that were shortlisted are well known now and each need to make their case in order to succeed Roman Abramovich. Controversially, the Ricketts, despite a lot of backlash with the #NoToRicketts campaign, have reportedly received help from Bruce Buck and club icon Paul Canoville to settle any issues that were present with the hateful comments that surfaced from the father of the family, Joe.
This has led to the other consortiums claiming unfair treatment in this Raine Group process and as a result of growing concern that the Chicago Cubs owners could actually win in this race, Chelsea fans are set to take action with a planned protest that will be conducted pre-Brentford on Saturday. The hope is that the club will hear these concerns in person and be forced to make a swift u-turn as they did last year amid proposals for a European Super League. Nevertheless, Tom Ricketts and company continue with their plans and this latest development comes at a time when fan favourite Todd Boehly has suffered his first blow in this tense race.
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According to Sky News, The Ricketts partnership with Griffin has now expanded to add a new team of bankers who will aim to help formalise an offer during the next stage of the process with the next 10 days crucial as each team prepare for their respective pitches to senior figures in SW6. The report goes on to clarify that Jefferies, the US-based investment bank has been the chosen one to deal with formalising an offer to secure the £3billion valued club that Roman Abramovich has created before the sanctions hit.
After meeting supporters' groups last month, the Cubs chairman Tom said the bid team had "listened to all of your feedback - including from the Chelsea Supporters' Trust - and are grateful that the door is still open for us to demonstrate our commitment to working with fans to protect the club's heritage". "It is now up to us to redouble our efforts and clearly lay out a vision for our stewardship of the club with diversity and inclusion at its heart."
Whether these new developments amplify the magnitude of the protest that has been organised remains to be seen but as already alluded to on football.london, some Chelsea supporters have already outlined the reasoning for this planned protest which they will hope doesn't affect the team in this west London derby.
