How Roman Abramovich changed the face of English football

Roman Abramovich, who has put Chelsea up for sale, changed the face of English football by taking over the Blues in 2003.

The Russian billionaire didn’t just turn the London club — at the time something of an under-achiever — into the leading force in England within a couple of years and later into a European and world champion.

He ushered in an era of remarkable spending, the likes of which the game had never seen, that inevitably led to the super-rich from Asia and the United States coming in and competing as owners of England’s biggest clubs.

He also ensured the transfer market was distorted by paying over the odds for transfer fees and wages, exacerbating inequalities between the haves and have nots in the English game.

Abramovich’s 19-year reign, which is set to come to an end after he announced plans to sell Chelsea amid the threat of financial sanctions targeting Russians in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, has been an incredible journey for English football.

TROPHIES

Before Abramovich arrived, Chelsea was widely regarded as a “cup team.” Indeed, their one and only league title came way back in 1955. That quickly changed.

The Abramovich era has seen Chelsea win 19 major trophies, notably the Champions League twice — in 2012 and 2021.

Domestic trophies came thick and fast, and quickly. The first of five Premier League titles came at the end of Abramovich’s second season in control. There have also been five FA Cups and three League Cups.

Add to that two Europa League titles, two Uefa Super Cups, and most recently the Club World Cup — for the first time in the club’s history — in Abu Dhabi last month, which ensured Chelsea had won every possible trophy under Abramovich.

No English team has won more trophies than Chelsea since Abramovich arrived at Stamford Bridge.

MANAGERS

To say Abramovich was ruthless when it came to hiring and firing managers would be an understatement. For much of his tenure, failing to win the Premier League effectively spelt the end for a Chelsea manager — like when Carlo Ancelotti was relieved of his job in 2011 in the bowels of Everton’s Goodison Park at the end of his second season in charge, having won the club’s first league-and-cup double in his first.

Claudio Ranieri was the manager when Abramovich arrived and he was dispensed with after just one season.

Jose Mourinho — brash, awash with self-belief, and a tactical genius — was the early face of Abramovich’s Chelsea until he fell out with the Russian in 2007 after a trophy-laden three years. Mourinho came back for a second spell, from 2013-15, and again won the league.

The only other manager to win the league under Abramovich was Antonio Conte, in 2017.

There were a couple of duds hired among the big names, with young Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas proving to be far from The Special One in his eight and a half months in charge in 2011-12 and Frank Lampard failing to emulate his remarkable playing career at Chelsea as the team’s manager from 2019-21.

MONEY SPENT

Chelsea spent more than 100 million pounds ($135 million) on players in less than seven weeks in the first summer transfer window of Abramovich’s reign. In the second, there was an outlay of another 94 million pounds ($125 million), laying the platform for Mourinho’s trophy surge.

These were unprecented sums, leading to Arsene Wenger — then the manager of Premier League rival Arsenal — describing Chelsea as a “financially doped club” with “unlimited” resources.

The emergence of Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City from 2008 finally gave Chelsea a challenger in the transfer market, but the west London club launched its biggest spending spree yet in the summer of 2020 when there was a remarkable outlay approaching $300 million.

In total, Chelsea has spent more than two billion pounds ($2.7 billion) on players under Abramovich.

PLAYERS

Prominent Pakistani businessman Javed Afridi and a group of investors are also looking at the possibility of buying Chelsea. Afridi is the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, the popular franchise in the Pakistan Super League, one of the world’s most successful T20 cricket leagues. “Afridi’s team held a meeting this afternoon (Wednesday) with a sports and legal agency in the UK. There’s a bunch of investors who are interested in Chelsea Football Club,” a source told Khaleej Times.