Roman Abramovich celebrates his ten-year anniversary as the owner of Chelsea today, but after a turbulent decade just how far have the blues come since July 1, 2003?
When the Russian billionaire arrived in London, Chelsea were sidled by huge debts left by former owner Ken Bates. The fact that the club had just qualified for the Champions League couldn’t hide the fact that they were on the brink of going bust.
The blues were in £80 million worth of debt and often finding themselves paying over the odds wages with very little by way of success. In that sense, Abramovich has already saved the club once.
During his time he has not been scared to make big, and sometimes very unpopular, decisions. This has been perfectly demonstrated by the seemingly constant revolving door of managers.
Chelsea have had nine different bosses since the Russian arrived, all with differing levels of success.
Claudio Ranieri was the first to go despite leading the club to second in the league and a Champions League semi-final in his single season under Abramovich, he was never the choice of the owner and it seemed his days were numbered from the beginning.
Next it was the time of Jose Mourinho part one, who’s record of winning six trophies in just three seasons speaks for itself; but when his relationship with Abramovich deteriorated and it was time to move on.
From there Chelsea have had a total of six different managers, each with varying successes and many having left Stamford Bridge feeling that they were unlucky not to still be in a job.
Not least Roberto Di Matteo who lifted the European Cup last May only to be relieved of his duties the following November.
Many will argue that the mere fact that during this time the West Londoners have won 11 major trophies justifies the decisions taken by their owner, but the flip side to that is that many are also ready for a period of stability.
Now Mourinho is back the hope is that stability can finally be found.
He has also not been one to hide when the big cheques have needed to be signed having spent a reported £2 billion during his reign.
A large majority of that amount will have been spread across the numerous signings made too. His biggest outlay on a single player being the cool £50 million paid to Liverpool to bring in Fernando Torres in 2011.
There have been a number of other big money signings too, with Eden Hazard and Andrey Shevchenko each costing up to the £30 million mark and above.
Nothing is ever certain with Roman Abramovich, however one thing that can never be taken from him is that his ten years at Stamford Bridge have been the most fruitful in the club’s history.
Most Chelsea fans I’m sure will agree, here’s to the next ten, Roman.
By Jack Murphy
Image provided by Maxeen Ford on Flickr
