When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea Football Club wholesale in 2003 for £140m it changed the norms and practices of English football forever. Not many would say it was for the better.
The Russian oligarch was the first example of heavy investment from overseas dramatically transforming the fortunes of a club, in doing so rocketing them into the elite and competing for major honours.
In his first summer as owner, Chelsea nearly broke the British transfer record by luring Hernan Crespo over from Inter Milan, before securing Damien Duff at considerable expense. From there came a flurry of activity that shocked a watching public.
In a matter of weeks, Adrian Mutu, Juan Sebastian Veron and Claude Makelele were purchased from Parma, Manchester United and Real Madrid respectively, all at well over the average fee for the time.
It’s worth noting too, that not only were established superstars targeted. Across several windows, Premier League sides were deprived of their best players, tempted to Stamford Bridge for an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Let’s stick to that first summer though. In that first summer, the Blues spent in excess of £170m and to put that into perspective, the next biggest spenders were Manchester United, whose expenditure was £56m.
One takeover later and Chelsea were immediately cast as title challengers elect, their odds in the betting shortening accordingly.
In the years since of course, Manchester City have followed suit, capitalising on the substantial funds of an extravagantly wealthy owner by embarking on periods of accelerated spending. Newcastle are presently attempting to do likewise, even if hugely hampered by FFP regulations.
It should be remembered too, the times when this highly divisive model of heavy investment from a singular source failed. In the 2000s Portsmouth flew too close to the sun, backed by their own mega-rich benefactor.
Pompey went into administration in 2010 and have flailed around in the lower leagues subsequently.
But back to the Blues and naturally enough the purchasing of 17 top-class players in a calendar year, with another £161m spent in the 12 months thereafter, brought a great deal of success to West London. It was inevitable.
Over the next seven seasons, Chelsea finished in the top two of the Premier League on six occasions, winning it three times. They went on to win it in 2015 and 2017 also.
Very quickly, a club that was last English champions way back in the mid-Fifties, became one of the dominant forces domestically.
And if the speed of their rise was astonishing, the swiftness in which they were welcomed into the highest echelons of the English game surprised.
Sure there were gripes about the somewhat unsavoury method in which they broke into the top four and for a brief period they were dismissed as ‘Chelski’. Their success was solely attributed to wealth.
But roughly speaking, by the time Jose Mourinho left acrimoniously in 2007 – a mere four years after Abramovich first started to sign off on one expensive signing after another – Chelsea were an established, accepted, fully paid-up member of the elite, immune from criticism regarding their methods as a consequence.
Compare and contrast this easy ride to Manchester City, who long before the 115 Premier League charges found themselves demonised, hated, their rise accompanied by nothing but bitterness and resentment.
City have been accused in print of financially doping their way to success. Of inflating the transfer market. Of ruining football by diminishing competition.
Even taking these dramatic accusations at face value, isn’t it true to say that Chelsea were the original financial dopers? The original market inflaters?
As regards to the last denouncement, consider the wonderfully creative and innovative football that City play, to the ultra-pragmatic fashion in which Chelsea secured their crowns under Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
All of which leads us to a conclusion that baffles. That they were the original sinners who, for whatever reason, got off scot-free.
Moreover, when you stop to think about it, there are plenty of other examples of Chelsea being excused of actions that would prompt wrath if undertaken by others.
They hire and fire managers at the drop of a hat, every time eliciting a collective shrug as if that’s perfectly fine.
After all, it’s Chelsea. Furthermore, they were the first club to use their academy as a cashcow, very rarely offering a pathway to their brilliant youth but instead buying in their first teamers and selling on potential. Again, criticism of this would barely fill a jam jar.
And should we move forward to the present-day we again find Chelsea treated very differently to how others would be in the same circumstances.
The sanctioning of Roman Abramovich in 2022, which resulted in Chelsea being put under a special licence to operate, made headlines news many times over because that was an incredible development. No club would have been given an easy ride for that.
Similarly the unique structure put in place by new owner Todd Boehly, signing players on ridiculously long contracts, has been properly scrutinised and condemned, as you would expect.
But looking past these two unavoidable areas of criticism what we find is a club currently in an unholy mess of their own making, where any reproval is reserved squarely for the owner.
What Manchester United – another Premier League giant enduring a nightmare campaign - wouldn’t give for that same leniency right about now. For the Glazers to be entirely saddled with the flak, while the club, manager and players are kept out of the spotlight.
Instead we hear only of crisis, amidst back pages of cracked United badges and photos of Erik Ten Hag looking miserable. The doom-mongering has been relentless, to such an extent that someone with only a passing interest would assume the Reds were languishing in the bottom three.
Whereas Chelsea once again are being spared, the gun-fire aimed elsewhere.
This is a club that has spent over a billion pounds in the last calendar year yet only Almeria, Werder Bremen, and Empoli lost more games in 2023 across Europe’s big five leagues.
This is a club awash with gifted players, capable of subverting the live betting with an individual moment of magic. Yet by and large they have been disjointed, uninspired and downright disappointing.
Where has been their criticism? Where is all the talk of crisis that envelops Old Trafford?
Rather there has been a collective shrug. After all, it’s Chelsea.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
