Jamie Carragher believes Thomas Tuchel and Chelsea’s players will have been 'embarrassed' by Roman Abramovich’s and their club's statements over the weekend.
Abramovich confirmed late on Saturday evening that he intended to hand over the running of the club to the trustees of Chelsea's charitable foundation.
Abramovich, who will remain the club's owner and reportedly has no plans to sell up, has made the move amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The initial 110-word statement from Abramovich did not mention Russia or Ukraine, a stance which was met by heavy criticism.
Then just hours after Abramovich’s statement, Chelsea released another statement on Sunday morning addressing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
LIVE: Follow all the action from the Carabao Cup final on our live blog from Wembley
NEWSLETTER: Sign up for our free email alerts for all the best cup final coverage
READ MORE: Thiago injured in Liverpool warm-up as Jurgen Klopp forced to make late change
But Carragher has now slammed Chelsea's handling of the situation, saying Tuchel and his players will be 'embarrassed' by the statements.
“Chelsea, with a Russian owner and the situation they’re in, I think that statement from Roman Abramovich that we’ve just seen, I think it almost forced Chelsea to put something out this morning because whether it was the trust people on the board, whether it was Thomas Tuchel and the players, they must’ve been embarrassed, I would feel by that Abramovich statement, the fact there was no mention at all of what was going on right now,” he told Sky Sports.
“The whole world can see what’s going on and I think it was a really poor statement to come out with. Chelsea came out this morning, maybe could’ve been a little bit stronger themselves in that statement but, as I said, I don’t think it’s been a great 24 hours for Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel and his players I’m sure will want to rectify that.”
While Carragher also told Sky earlier in the day: "They should have been a lot stronger in what they said, and regarding Roman Abramovich passing on to Chelsea trustees, that's not him relinquishing the club, stewardship is not ownership.
"It's completely different because he's still in charge, he's still running it, which is fine. But to not actually mention in his initial statement what was going on in Ukraine, I thought was really poor."
