Chelsea FC – The method behind the madness

Roman Abramovich – eccentric billionaire or smart businessman?

For years now, Chelsea have been spending bucket loads of money in the transfer market. Every summer, and winter for that matter, the Blues are backed to sign at least one big name. The summer of 2013, as it turns out, is not any different.

The transfer market is yet to officially open, but, as luck has it, Chelsea are already ‘close’ to signing major superstars from leagues across Europe. As soon as the season ends, irrespective of how successful it was, the media goes wild with their imagination and start linking the Blues from West London to every big name in the world of football.

We do not have to rewind decades to see why this is the case though. Since Roman Abramovich stepped in the board room of Chelsea, they have followed only single mantra, ‘Success, at any cost’. Now, one could easily argue that the pensioners have bought their way to success. And for the masses, it stands true. However, behind all this madness, there is a method, and a rather brilliant one.

To begin describing this method, we will have to take a step back and look at the year when Roman took over the reigns at Chelsea. It was 2003 and Chelsea was a club which was on a Tottenham-esque rise up the ranks. They were playing attractive football and were churning out results; still, they were just about good enough for Champions League qualification. In came Roman with his crazy money and took an oath to turn the club’s fortunes around.

Ranieri received a war-chest and was instructed to sign the best available players to make an invincible team. He did make use of the overflowing cash and signed some top names from across Europe; however, the one thing he failed to deliver was a trophy. As a result, he was relieved of his duties as the coach of Chelsea FC.

The enigmatic Jose Mourinho was hired on the back of a Champions League triumph with FC Porto. Again, Abramovich made it very clear that he demanded success, no matter what the cost. Mourinho delivered, and how! A Premier League and League Cup double in his debut season was followed by another Premier League title the following season.

All of this made the big Russian smile and he believed his investment was paying dividends, if not in numbers, at least in pride. However, all of this was to change as grey clouds hovered over Stamford Bridge. Mourinho was unable to deliver a third Premier League title on the trot.

Even though Chelsea won both the domestic cup competitions, something was not right. Cracks were starting to show in the relationship between Roman Abramovich and Jose Mourinho. Back-to-back losses to Liverpool in the Champions League did not help either. So, in the following summer, when Roman decided to take the matters in his own hands and signed some top-class players without the assent of Mourinho, things started falling apart.

Soon after that, Mourinho left the Blues by ‘mutual consent’. It was the end of the chapter, at least for the time being.