Doubts emerge over Middle east bid for Chelsea as ownership saga chugs on

The rumoured bid to buy Chelsea from the Saudi Media Group never materialised

According to the Athletic (subscription required) (h/t Metro), Chelsea are set to have British or American owners as a rumoured bid from the Saudi Media group never materialised before the deadline.

The potential middle-east suitors for Chelsea were expected to submit their first bids to buy the club by yesterday. The consortium led by Todd Boehly and Hansjorg Wyss are supposed to be the frontrunners to buy Chelsea with bids also incoming from New York Jets owners Woody Johnson and the Rickets family.

Nick Candy, Sir Martin Broughton and Lord Sebastian Coe have also placed bids to buy the London based club. There was also a rumoured bid from Saudi Media Group which was said to have the spending capacity to outbid even previous owner Roman Abramovich.

However, according to the Athletic, such a bid never materialised before the deadline yesterday. They go on to say that attempts to find a bidder from the Middle East proved futile and the process of ownership is expected to take a longer time than that for British or American owners.

Also, the condition to avoid offers from politically sensitive groups would have automatically ruled out any bids received from Saudi Arabia. Whether this means that we can proceed to the next phase of selections remains to be seen.

The new era?

Even though the Saudi takeover is not expected to happen, Chelsea will hope that their new owners would be similar to Abramovich and loosen their purse strings to give them the spending power in the transfer markets.

The Blues are about to embark on a new era under new ownership and if it has to be similar to their trophy-laden stint under the Russian, then their new owners will have to prioritize titles over money.

The last few weeks have been an absolute mess at Stamford Bridge and finally, there seems to be a clear direction on where the club is heading. While there is still no clarity on who the new owners will be, the Blues could be relieved that they will have a future.

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Whether this future will be as successful as the past 19 years under Abramovich is something that remains to be seen. The Russian leaves the club as not only European Champions but also amongst the finest in world football.