Gary Neville advises incoming Chelsea owners not to make the same mistakes as Manchester United and Arsenal.
Stability behind the scenes, according to the pundit, is crucial going forward. (Photos: / Getty)
Chelsea's next owners, according to Gary Neville, must not allow high-profile executives to leave the club or they would face the same challenges as Arsenal and Manchester United.
After being sanctioned by the UK authorities over his alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Roman Abramovich has directed US merchant bank Raine to find a buyer for the west London club.
According to reports, at least a dozen acceptable proposals have been submitted, the most of which are consortiums, and the sale might be completed by the end of the month.
After 19 years of ownership, Abramovich is selling Chelsea (Picture: Getty)
Abramovich isn't anticipated to be the only high-profile figure to quit Stamford Bridge once the purchase is completed, with director Marina Granovskaia and chairman Bruce Buck's futures both in doubt.
However, Neville believes it is critical for Chelsea's new owners to persuade that duo, as well as others behind the scenes, to stay at the club, drawing parallels with the changes at United and Arsenal.
Not only did Manchester United lose Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, but also chief executive David Gill, while Arsenal's structure was radically altered when both Arsene Wenger and David Dein left a decade apart.
Neville believes Abramovich's selling is as significant as their departures, and that Chelsea's new owners must make it a point to maintain stability in the club's upper echelons.
'They'll have to make sure that's sorted out and who is the decision-maker,' Neville told Sports news when asked how a consortium of many owners would operate at Chelsea.
'At some point down the line, there will have to be a veto; you can't have equal votes with three individuals – well, you can with three since you'd have 2-1! However, this isn't the best approach to operate a football club.
Marina Granovskaia and Bruce Buck are the captains of Chelsea.
Buck and Granovskaia are seasoned operators with a lot of expertise (Picture: Getty)
'You need someone who is essentially a smart operator,' says the narrator. What they actually need to do is keep the people in place who are now running the club under Roman Abramovich - that would be the first thing you'd do.
'You want to make sure you have two or three years of stability.' The last thing you want is for all of them to leave with Abramovich, which would result in a tremendous upheaval similar to what Manchester United had when David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson both left at the same time.
'Or what Arsenal had when Arsene Wenger departed and, obviously, David Dein left before that, which was a major issue for Arsenal.'
'Don't undervalue the importance of football executives and operators at a football team. I believe the new owners' first priority will be to calm down those operations.'
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