In the words of minister Nadine Dorries, the clock is ticking for Chelsea Football Club.
Just when it looked like the saga was progressing towards a transfer of ownership, with the consortium led by Todd Boehly entering exclusive talks to seal a record-breaking deal, it emerged that sanctioned incumbent Roman Abramovich was considering a U-turn on his promise to write off the club's £1.6bn debt.
There is concern at Westminster around that development, brought up during meetings last week, not least because the government cannot be seen to make exceptions for someone they described as having strong links to Russian president Vladimir Putin eight weeks ago.
