Gary Neville tells Ricketts family to end Chelsea takeover bid

Gary Neville has urged the Ricketts family to end their Chelsea takeover bid following the backlash from supporters.

The Ricketts family are one of four final bids under consideration to buy the club from Roman Abramovich.

But they have faced strong opposition from Chelsea fans, who held a protest outside Stamford Bridge before their 4-1 defeat to Brentford on Saturday.

The anger from Chelsea supporters has largely been sparked by Joe Ricketts, the father of the Chicago Cubs owners, after he described Muslims as ‘my enemy’ in leaked emails from 2019.

Joe Ricketts has no role at the Cubs and is not involved in the bid to buy Chelsea, but Neville fells the opposition from supporters should be enough to shelve the takeover plans.

‘There have been movements and noise in the last week that the Ricketts’ bid seems to be the favoured one and it seems to be getting preferential treatment as other parties have suggested,’ Neville told Sky Sports.

‘I have to say, we don’t know. There is no transparency, there is no independence in English football to be able to determine how you bid for a football club.

‘I have to say, if I were the Ricketts family and got that type of hostility on the way in… move away. Move away, the fans are important.

‘We’ve seen unpopular owners like the Glazers at Manchester United or Mike Ashley at Newcastle United, it drains the absolute life, not just out of a football club, but out of a city, and out of everybody watchingbecause the energy goes, and that can’t happen in a football club.

‘So we’ve got to make sure moving forward it’s not about best bids, it’s about what the fans want.

‘I have to say the Ricketts family are trying to reach out to Chelsea fans but they do have some historic issues that do need