Thierry Henry suggests Chelsea’s potential new owner could do something the fans won’t be happy with

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Thierry Henry claims that Chelsea fans would not be happy if the potential new owners decided to move the club to a new stadium.

The issues around Stamford Bridge, mostly its holding significantly lower fans than rivals’ larger stadiums, take centre stage after Roman Abramovich decided to sell the club.

As it stands, Chelsea will continue to be at a disadvantage in terms of revenues, and for most investors who are not Abramovich, that is a big deal.

To put it into perspective, according to Deloitte, Manchester United and Liverpool made £86.7million and £72.5m in matchday revenues in 2021, respectively.

Chelsea, on the other hand, reportedly only made £54.5 during in matchday revenues the same period.

To see how much an impact that a larger stadium could have on Chelsea, Tottenham made £94.5m from matchday revenues, according to the report, or about 24 per cent of their total revenues.

Interestingly, Henry believes the new owners could risk upsetting Chelsea fans by moving to a new stadium rather than expanding Stamford Bridge.

“It looks attractive, the postcode looks attractive — it’s Chelsea at the end of the day,” the former France international told CBS Sports on how enticing the proposition of buying the club is to investors.

“I don’t know what the price is going to be, but it’s going to be expensive.

“Now, are you willing to take all those losses?

“Will it be a new stadium? Will it be a talk of moving the team from there [Stamford Bridge] — I don’t think the fans will be happy with that.

“There is one thing about Abramovich that I want to say. Without him, it wouldn’t have been the Chelsea that we know, the Premier League that we know.”

Well, Henry, who was part of the Arsenal squad who moved from the Highbury to the Emirates Stadium back in 2006, should understand how big a deal moving to a new stadium is for the fans.

Abramovich’s plan to redevelop Stamford Bridge to a 60,000-seat stadium, which eventually did not materialise, was estimated to cost over £1bn in 2018 and likely more now.

However, considering how Tottenham have managed to more than double their matchday revenues (£40.8m in 2017 per Deloitte), a stadium project seems to be financially sensible.

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