Chelsea's prospective new owners face a fight to convince a clutch of the club's top stars of their ambitions as they consider their futures.
Sportsmail has learned there is a growing uncertainty among a number of the club's squad after the successful and lucrative Roman Abramovich era was brought to a halt on Thursday with the Government's decision to sanction Chelsea's Russian owner.
The likes of N'Golo Kante and Jorginho are entering the final 12 months of their contracts — while academy products Reece James and Mason Mount were both in line for much-improved new deals.
But there are no guarantees that players will commit to the club under the next regime.
Chelsea were one of the most attractive clubs to join from a player's perspective, providing a guarantee of challenging for trophies as well as being handsome payers.
But certain players want to gauge the new regime's ambition before deciding their futures. That will alert Chelsea's domestic and European rivals.
Sportsmail has learned that England star James is attracting attention. Manchester City are understood to have identified him as a long-term replacement for Kyle Walker, while Real Madrid are also interested, according to well-placed sources.
Similarly, there will be no shortage of takers for Mount while Kante and Jorginho will attract interest as they head into the final stages of their respective deals.
Unless the sale of the club is finalised before the end of the season, Chelsea are already facing up to losing Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta, who are all out of contract in the summer.
Others including Jorginho, Kante and Marcos Alonso will have one year left and might expect to open talks in more normal circumstances.
There will be young players in limbo, new first-year scholars and those looking for professional contracts after finishing their academy years.
Then the recruitment strategy is thrown into disarray unless the sale of the club can be completed quickly and the new owners have an appetite to invest on the same scale.
Long-term targets such as Declan Rice of West Ham and Sevilla's Jules Kounde would cost tens of millions and potential signings might think twice about a move to Chelsea in the post-Abramovich era.
They will not be short of players, there are so many returning from various loan spells but linked to all of this are doubts about the future of Marina Granovskaia, the director entrusted by Abramovich to oversee playing contracts.
It is tough to see how Granovskaia continues in her role, leaving any new owners to arrive cold to put together their own executive tier and deal with all of this.
Manager Thomas Tuchel admitted there will be nerves at the club. 'Some players will feel uncertainty,' he said. 'Some maybe will be a bit frightened. Some will be concerned. It's normal.
'It's not only the players,' Tuchel added. 'We have a lot of people on the staff, in the club who are maybe also worried and scared and uncertain.
'That's why it's very important that we keep the trust and the belief in the training centre, in all of us. We didn't cause the situation.'
Meanwhile, Tuchel is open to replacing Chelsea's shirt sponsorship with a symbol of peace.
The club's main shirt sponsor Three suspended their £40million deal after Abramovich was sanctioned because of his ties to Russia president Vladimir Putin and Evraz, a steel company accused of helping to make tanks for the invasion of Ukraine.
They have asked for all branding to be removed from the kit and around Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea play Newcastle in the league tomorrow.
'We can always wear a message for peace,' said Tuchel. 'It can never be the wrong message. Maybe the worry is to find enough shirts to play in with the sanctions.
'As long as the bus is full of fuel we will arrive and be competitive. This is what everybody can be sure of and this is what we demand of ourselves.
'When it's a big storm you dig in, you hold together, you stay strong and go through it. But a message for peace can never be wrong.'