JAMIE CARRAGHER believes Chelsea ’embarrassed themselves’ by issuing a statement from Roman Abramovich that made no mention of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Blues’ Russian owner revealed on Saturday that he’d be passing control of the west Londoners to the club’s trustees in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Roman Abramovich has passed control of Chelsea to the club’s trustees
Blues owner Abramovich was a former associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has been left disappointed with Chelsea’s statements
But the statement made no mention of the illegal invasion initiated by Abramovich‘s former associate Vladimir Putin.
And Carragher, like many others, believes the club’s initial statement on the ongoing crisis was incredibly ‘poor’.
He said: “I don’t think they’ve handled it really well. I think that the couple of statements they’ve put out – I think it’s been really poor.
“I think they’ve let themselves down badly.
“I think the club came out today and put out a statement as well, but I think that was trying to rectify what Roman Abramovich put out the night before.
“And I don’t think they did that well either, really. So it’s not worked out well for them at all. I think they’ve embarrassed themselves.
“They should be a lot stronger in what they said.”
Despite Abramovich publicly distancing himself from Chelsea, Carragher is adamant the Russian will still be in charge of the club.
He added: “The thing of Roman Abramovich passing on [the club] to Chelsea trustees, that’s not him relinquishing the club.
“Stewardship is not ownership, it’s completely different. He’s still in charge, he’s still running it – which is fine.
“But his actual statement – to not mention actually what was really going on in Ukraine – I thought was really poor.”
Chelsea issued a subsequent statement on the war in Ukraine just hours before their Carabao Cup Final clash with Liverpool at Wembley.
Although they appeared to make light of the grave situation by referring to the war as a ‘conflict’.
The statement read: “The situation in Ukraine is horrific and devastating.
“Chelsea FC’s thoughts are with everyone in Ukraine. Everyone at the club is praying for peace.”
Abramovich was once a close associate of Putin
