The Times - UK (2022-05-02)

crosses illustrates how well Everton
blocked a route through the middle.
They would come closest to scoring
just before the hour. Mason Mount’s
shot beat Pickford’s outstretched hand
but thudded against a post before
cannoning across the face of the goal
and striking the woodwork again.
A ricochet fell for Azpilicueta but
Pickford showed superb recovery
skills, scrambling across to repel the
shot from on his goalline. Seamus
Coleman raised his hands to his head
in awe of the save. From the resulting
corner, Antonio Rüdiger thumped a
shot which caught Pickford flush in
the face and left him laid out on the
turf. The England No 1 deserved that
moment of fortune having stepped up
in a fixture which demanded heroes.
The challenge for Everton is to
replicate this display when they travel
to Leicester City and Watford in their
next games, having yet to claim a
point away under Lampard.
Salvation is not certain, but at least
they can breathe again.

Pickford roars his

defiance to a frenzied

crowd after, right,

Mount’s shot thuds

against a post but

falls invitingly for

Azpilicueta who is

foiled brilliantly.

Rüdiger’s effort then

strikes the Everton

goalkeeper in the face

14

Jordan Pickford has

made 14 saves across

Everton’s two Premier

League matches

against Chelsea this

season, conceding

only one goal

Jim Ratcliffe’s late £4.25 billion bid for

Chelsea came in lower than the offers

tabled by the three US-led

consortiums, a senior source close to

the process has claimed.

Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s richest

men, attempted to hijack the process

on Thursday — only days after the

three selected bidders had made their

final presentations.

By Friday evening it had emerged

that the group fronted by Todd

Boehly, the American billionaire and

co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers

baseball team, had been identified by

Chelsea and their New York-based

bankers as the preferred bidders who

will be presented to the UK

government and the Premier League

for approval. The Times can reveal

that they have been granted a five-

day period of exclusivity in which to

fulfil any outstanding contractual

requirements.

Ratcliffe, however, has not given up

trying to force his way into the sale,

and is understood to be lobbying the

government on the grounds that his is

the only solely British bid. Regardless,

a source has said his efforts have

already been dismissed by Chelsea

and the Raine Group, the merchant

bank which was appointed by Roman

Abramovich to find a new owner.

They make the point that

Ratcliffe made the offer

without any due diligence, and

question the Manchester

United fan’s right to claim he

is the sole British bidder

when he resides in the tax

haven of Monaco.

It is understood

Ratcliffe, 69, was

approached two months

ago and said then that

the price on offer was

too expensive. He has

now made an offer,

meeting what he

believed was

Abramovich’s valuation of

£2.5 billion with a

commitment to provide a

further £1.75 billion for

Ratcliffe’s shock

£4.25bn bid came

in ‘below rivals’

stadium redevelopment and

investment in the playing squad at

Stamford Bridge. But the offers tabled

by the rival bid groups, in response to

a late request from Abramovich to

increase their offers by £500 million,

means they were already closer to

£3 billion for the club alone prior to

Ratcliffe’s intervention.

While the groups led by the former

British Airways chairman, Sir Martin

Broughton, and Boston Celtics co-

owner Stephen Pagliuca have not

been formally told their bids have

been unsuccessful, they too believe

the Boehly group — which is

principally funded by US investment

firm Clearlake Capital and supported

by Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss,

British property investor Jonathan

Goldstein and Tory peer and Times

columnist Daniel Finkelstein — has

preferred bidder status.

Insiders with knowledge of the

process still believe that there are

some significant hurdles to overcome,

not least whether the treatment of the

£1.54 billion loan owed to Abramovich

will be to the satisfaction of treasury

officials. Abramovich said he would

write off the loan, but government

sanctions have prevented the Russian

oligarch from doing so.

There is a view among some of the

bid groups that retaining the services

of the club’s present chairman, Bruce

Buck, and director and chief

transfer negotiator, Marina

Granovskaia, was key to

success in the bidding contest.

It will be interesting to see

what both the Treasury and

the Premier League make of

the finer details of the

Boehly bid, when Clearlake’s

involvement means that

more than 60 per cent of

their deal is being funded

by private equity.

Thomas Tuchel, the

Chelsea head coach,

was asked about the

takeover but

said: “I have no

feeling about

the bidders.”

ASHLEY ARMSTRONG, MATT

LAWTON

Tuchel can expect millions

to invest in new players

Thomas Tuchel bemoaned Chelsea’s

propensity for individual mistakes and

warned his players that they should

not take a top-four finish in the

Premier League for granted.

The Chelsea head coach warned

that Champions League football

could slip from their grasp unless they

arrest a damaging run in which they

have dropped 11 points during their

past six league matches.

César Azpilicueta’s mistake allowed

Richarlison to score at the start of the

second half, leaving Arsenal and

Tottenham Hotspur within three and

five points respectively of Chelsea.

Asked if he was worried, Tuchel

said: “Of course. It is always like this. I

said it many weeks ago. I never feel

safe and, by the way, it doesn’t matter

if we are in the race for the top one,

the top two or top four, it is not

enough to have four points from the

last four games.

“We have to take care of ourselves

and, at the moment, we don’t get the

points when we play very good and

deserve more and lose when we don’t.

It is a bad mixture.

“To give a goal away is the worst

thing that can happen to you in this

atmosphere. It happens too often; we

Tuchel: Basic errors could even cost us top-four finish

struggle to play without big mistakes

and it is why we struggle to have

results.

“What was coming from the

opponent, the crowd and the

approach to the game, we knew

that. No one was surprised.

“If you install emotion and belief

in a stadium like this, you struggle.”

Chelsea had stayed at the Hilton

Hotel in Liverpool city centre on

Saturday night, which was targeted by

people letting off fireworks in the

early hours of the morning.

Jorginho, the Chelsea midfielder,

said that he had been woken up by

the commotion, but Tuchel said it was

not a contributory factor in their

defeat at Goodison Park.

“Absolutely not,” the 48-year-old

German said. “I personally woke up

twice at one o’clock and three o’clock

for a minute.”

PAUL JOYCE

Chelsea faced

hostility both at

Goodison Park

and their hotel in

Liverpool, above

the times | Monday May 2 2022 1GG 3

thegame

PETER BYRNE/PA; PETER POWELL/EPA; SPORTIMAGE/ALAMY