Prospective Chelsea owner Sir Martin Broughton has vowed to address boss Thomas Tuchel’s future as a top priority if his consortium is successful in purchasing the Premier League club from Roman Abramovich.
The former Liverpool chairman’s group, which also features fellow Blues fan Lord Sebastian Coe, submitted their bid to The Raine Group, who are handling the sale for Chelsea, before the 9pm deadline on Friday.
They were one of up to 15 bidders to do so, with various consortia headed by, among others, British property mogul Nick Candy and LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly, who are also well in the running.
Despite such big interest, Broughton is confident his group’s proposal will be one of the two or three shortlisted by Raine and put forward to Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and director Marina Granovskaia for a final decision. And, if successful, they will move to stave off interest in Tuchel from Manchester United, who are on the lookout for a new manager in the summer.
Broughton said: “Do the fans want Thomas 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.”
Abramovich wants as close to £3billion as possible for the club, although there is a view that it will go for somewhere closer to the £2bn or £2.5bn mark. And if Broughton’s group do get their hands on Chelsea, they have promised to do all they can to keep the silverware coming.
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Broughton added: “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. That’s not the name of the game. We want to stay right at the top.”
During an interview with talkSPORT, Broughton also allayed any fears that they would look to become part of a breakaway European Super League.
He added: “Once we become the legal owners, we have to remember that 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. You are the emotional owners of this club.”
The Government, who would ideally like for one bidder to be put forward from those who have submitted offers in the wake of Abramovich’s departure, want the situation resolved by May 31.
