For the residents of a Middlesbrough hotel, it may well have been a surreal sight.
A lobby full of people in blue tracksuits with nowhere to go, passing the time playing cards because one of the biggest football clubs in the world could not afford to pay for their rooms for an extra day.
Such was life for Thomas Tuchel and his Chelsea staff following the pre-sale sanctions imposed by the government in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Roman Abramovich's ownership.
'We didn't know how we will arrive in a Champions League game, whether you have a plane or don't have a plane,' the German recalls of what he now describes as 'crazy moments'.