Minutes after Abramovich’s shock announcement that Chelsea was for sale, Petr Čech walked into the boardroom at Luton Town’s ageing Kenilworth Road stadium. Oblivious to the throwback surroundings and cramped facilities, Chelsea’s technical director was struck instead by the reception from his executive counterparts in the Luton hierarchy. Čech led the Chelsea delegation into Luton’s directors’ facilities on the evening of Wednesday 2 March 2022, in the final build-up to the Blues’ fifth-round FA Cup encounter, against a Championship club battling to match their lengthy past with a buoyant future.
As Čech entered the room, all eyes locked immediately onto his giant frame, all gazes fixed intently on the Stamford Bridge board member and his colleagues. The former Chelsea and Czech Republic goalkeeper had grown accustomed to being stared at, his 6ft 5in frame and footballing renown making him instantly recognisable to fans and the wider public alike. This was a man who had won the Champions League and four Premier League titles in a glittering eleven-year playing stint at Chelsea that also included winning the Europa League and three League Cups. He was a mainstay of the Chelsea side that set a Premier League record low of fifteen goals conceded in the 2004–05 campaign. He was entirely used to receiving attention, and just as adept at dealing with it. But in the immediate aftermath of Abramovich’s revelation that he would sell the Blues, Chelsea were suddenly the world’s biggest sporting story, bar absolutely none.
So for anyone in that room of a Luton persuasion, it was impossible not to let their gaze linger a beat too long as a minimum – and in some cases to downright gawk. At least, that is how that boardroom entrance felt to Čech and company, who were stepping into the unknown in so many more ways than simply embarking on Chelsea’s first competitive trip to Luton since 1991. The game’s global foundations were still shaking as Čech and the rest of the Chelsea cohort met their Luton counterparts, whereupon they had no choice but to field a slew of questions about the future.
‘So what happens now? What is the process? How long will a sale take? What’s next for you all personally?’ All these enquiries and more had to be batted away, deftly and gently, for at that point, there were precious few answers.
Abramovich’s statement that Chelsea was for sale had been posted to the club’s website and social media channels at the very point that the Blues’ players were warming up for their last-sixteen FA Cup clash at Luton. Supporters filing into the ground stopped in their tracks
