Chelsea cult hero Pat Nevin dropped from club’s media duties without explanation

Pat Nevin has been told that he is no longer needed as a Chelsea columnist for the club’s website and match-day programme via messages passed to him from “higher up”.

Former winger Nevin, who made 242 appearances for Chelsea during five years at the club, has also stopped being asked to provide co-commentary for the club’s in-house stations, even though that has not been specifically communicated to him.

Nevin provided written analysis for the club for around 13 years, penning roughly 750 articles for both the website and the match-day programme.

The 60-year-old was not told over the summer whether he would be required for this season, but, some time later, he received a message that a decision had been taken from “higher up” to say his website columns would not be needed.

He received the same message from the publisher of the match-day programme, but Nevin has received no direct communication from Chelsea’s owners Todd Boehly and his consortium Clearlake Capital, chief executive Chris Jurasek or any heads of department.

Nothing was said about his co-commentary work, but Nevin has not been asked to comment for Chelsea’s in-house stations this season and presumes that his services are also not required in that capacity.

Nevin, who is a highly regarded radio pundit for BBC 5 Live and provides a weekly column for the BBC website, told Telegraph Sport that he was philosophical over Chelsea’s decision and the way it was communicated second-hand, even though he has received no direct thanks or explanation.

“There are no bad feelings, you just shrug your shoulders and move on,” said Nevin. “A few people have told me I should be angry about the way I found out, but that’s not me. I’ve never really been like that.

“I’ve got no high expectations just because I played for the club or anything like that. You do a job and then you don’t.”

Chelsea have not commented on the decision to stop using Nevin, although it is claimed it was taken by an employee who is no longer at the club and it could be reviewed in future. The club insist their former players are “deeply important”.

Nevin has always given an honest appraisal of Chelsea, but the club’s Roman Abramovich ownership only once questioned one of his proposed columns when he was tackling the issue of a conflict with the Chelsea Pitch Owners group.

“I wanted to put both sides and it was deemed to be a sensitive subject, but, otherwise, the last ownership let me get on with it,” said Nevin.

Under the latest Clearlake Capital-Boehly ownership, Nevin faced more internal questions over some of the points he made, but was never asked to take anything out.

Nevin questioned the transfer strategy of Chelsea’s owners in a BBC column at the start of the month, in which he wrote: “For all the possession stats, chances created and positive expected goals, 18 months on and it is the same old story for the ‘all-new Clearlake Chelsea’. Around £1 billion spent and they still can’t field a fit regular goal-scorer.”

A popular figure with Chelsea fans, Nevin has written two books, The Accidental Footballer and Football And How to Survive It.