I had a week or two off, so has anything happened at the club while I have been away? If only I was blissfully unaware, but of course I, like everyone else, have been watching as one of the most extraordinary periods in the club’s history has played out before our eyes, and in the full glare of a worldwide audience.I was asked to go on a huge number of national and international TV, radio and other broadcast outlets to talk about what has been and what is happening at Chelsea. And of course what will be happening in the future.The first thing I tried to underline to any Chelsea fans listening, or having their breakfast ruined by me appearing on their TV screens at an ungodly hour, was that the club would be okay in time and probably a relatively short time. The problems of course pale compared with what is happening to the Ukrainian people still, but our club has got so much going for it that at no point could I say I feared for its future.

Having been at a Scottish club [Motherwell] as an executive when its wealthy owner withdrew his largesse, as opposed to being demanded to stop financing the club, I wasn’t worried that we would go under even back then. There was the stadium, the history, some interested parties and we weren’t world and European champions with an extraordinary squad, amazing world-class staff, one of the best-situated grounds on the planet, a world-renowned history and a development ethos second to none.Obviously a few very wealthy individuals and consortia around the world agreed with the assessment that Chelsea FC is an asset that is worth getting hold of. The question is which one to go for and I find it impossible to stick my oar in on that one right now.To fully understand who the best new owners for the club would be, you would need to know everything about the bids and to be fair, that is not the case for most of us. Well certainly not for me anyway. Like every Blues fan at this crucial moment I want to know as much as possible, but have to accept that right now this is impossible, as the complex business is looked into from every angle.

What has been heartening is that there have been some efforts to liaise with the fan base, the supporters’ organisations and the CPO to some degree. Going forward some sort of relationship between the ownership and the fans will be vital, having witnessed and hopefully learned from other’s mistakes elsewhere.In the meantime there have been very few mistakes made by the team as the outside pressure seems to have had, if anything, a positive effect on the staff when it comes to the games. Since that night at Kenilworth Road in Luton, there have been five games in three tournaments, all of them won and with a combined score of 12-2. Considering the pressure, problems and the ghoulish outside interest, this is at the very least dammed impressive.Certainly a good number of players have stepped up to the plate when needed and maybe none more so than Kai Havertz. His goals in this period have been crucial. On top of that, when he has been interviewed, he has generally shown great intelligence and emotional understanding of the delicacy of the situations. When you consider how difficult this can be, with so many understandably angry people ready to jump on any misplaced word, he has been as impressive as anyone in the game.

You have to add on top of this his recent record with his national team as well. When he plays, he usually scores as he did against Israel along with Timo Werner who added the other. This is an incredible German side to muscle your way into, but he has become integral to it. Even so, I will not be disappointed if he gets a rest for the game against The Netherlands tonight. We could do with a fresh Kai for our next run of games.Even though it is tempting to look ahead to next week and Real Madrid, Brentford cannot be taken lightly and this game will go a very long way to nailing that top-four place I suspect. Spurs and Arsenal are well capable of going on a charge and remember neither of them are likely to have the number of other games in competitions that we will have between now and May.So yes, a win against Brentford might just give us the opportunity to rest some key players in a few weeks’ time, especially if they pick up niggling injuries.Over the coming weeks, but hopefully not months, the future of the club’s ownership will be settled. The sooner the better for everyone, but not until the due diligence has been done on all candidates. This season is important but the next 20 are even more so, so it is vital to make the right decision over a quick decision.

What would be great is if all the fans could be allowed to support the team as soon as reasonably possible again at all the home games. There is no understanding that Roman Abramovich would make or indeed want to make any profit from the sale of these tickets and if those monies were redirected in the short term to the obvious good cause, there is scarcely a downside I can see.It is of course a small problem in the wider scheme of things, but eventually the situation at the club must be normalised.