look to have missed out on the signing of Gabriel Slonina as a consequence of the sanctions placed upon Roman Abramovich by the UK Government.
The club’s long-time owner has been forced to sell the Premier League giants having had his assets seized due to his ties with Vladimir Putin, who continues to wage war on .
Under the terms of the special license Chelsea are currently operating under, they are unable to negotiate new contracts for their current staff, or conduct any transfer business with potential new signings.
Chelsea, according to , had been closing in on the purchase of teenage goalkeeper Slonina from Chicago fire and were hopeful of sealing a deal in the region of £6million.
The deal has now stalled and the 17-year-old will remain with the MLS side for the time being, and at least until Chelsea’s ownership situation has been resolved.
To that end, the Ricketts family and NBA owner Stephen Pagliuca have been included in the final four-party shortlist to buy the club.
Chelsea are expected to be sold for a price of over $3 billion (£2.27 billion), but there has been serious doubt over who the club’s next owners will be.
Offers from the Ricketts family, Boston Celtics owner Pagliuca, David Blitzer and Josh Harris and Todd Boehly are understood to have been shortlisted, with London-based Centricus now out of the running.
American businessman Pagliuca, 67, owns the Celtics and has a 55 per cent stake of Serie A side Atalanta.
Meanwhile, Boehly is part of the Los Angeles Dodgers ownership group and Harris and Blitzer – two private equity billionaires – own the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils and several other soccer clubs.
Raine Group have told shortlisted bidders that the sale of Chelsea could be completed by the end of April.
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