"You want to make sure you have stability" - Gary Neville warns Chelsea's next owners to not repeat Manchester United and Arsenal mistakes

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is set to leave the club amid sanctions placed on him by the UK government over his alleged ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has urged potential owners to ensure that key operators do not leave the club as well.

He said on Sky Sports, as quoted by Metro:

"They’ll have to make sure that’s sorted out and who is the decision-maker. Ultimately, there will have to be a veto somewhere along the line, you can’t have it that it’s equal votes with three people – well, you can with three because you’d have 2-1! But it’s not the right way to run a football club really."

Neville added:

"You need someone who’s basically a smart operator. What they need to do really is keep the people who are in place and operating the club now under Roman Abramovich – that would be the first thing that you would do."

The Englishman buttressed his point by highlighting the importance of maintaining stability at the administrative level of the club. He also cited Manchester United and Arsenal as good examples for Chelsea to look at.

He continued:

"You want to make sure you have stability for two or three years. The last thing you want is all them leaving with Abramovich and then at that point you’ve basically got a massive upheaval which Manchester United have had when David Gill left with Sir Alex Ferguson at the same time.

"Or what Arsenal had when Arsene Wenger left and obviously David Dein left before that, that was a big problem for Arsenal. Don’t underestimate how important the sort of executives and football operators are at a football club. I think the first thing that the new owners will need to do is settle those operators down," he added.

Chelsea defeated Lille to progress into the Champions League quarterfinals this week

What are Chelsea up to this season?

Despite their off-field distractions, the Blues have refused to let down their guard in recent games, winning their last five outings across competitions. As it stands, they're still in the fight to retain their Champions League crown after edging past Lille to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament this week.

They've also reached the same stage in the FA Cup and are currently ranked third in the Premier League table with 59 points in 28 games. It remains to be seen if they can manage to end the campaign with a trophy.