Fans’ view: Abramovich was upset by disturbing the relaxed world of football | Chelsea

sQ at the end of the Roman Empire in Chelsea It lasted nearly 19 years – much longer than many thought when he bought the club in the summer of 2003, but until recent disastrous geopolitical events, it was less than I expected given his apparent love for the club and his continued success on the ground.

A lot of people seem to forget that in the past six years Roman Abramovich The club bought Chelsea won the FA Cup twice, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup, so it wasn’t the mess some had imagined. What he did was to quickly move Chelsea to the next rare step, allowing global managers (such as Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte) and players to join in, resulting in a two-decade cup win that any new owner would find very difficult to replicate. He became a very effective disruptor, upsetting the relaxed world at the top of English and European football, and he was clearly upset by it.

Two Champions League. Two European leagues. Five Premier League titles. Countless domestic cups. So many memories for me. watching us Winning the league in Bolton West Brom. Being in Munich, Amsterdam, Baku and Porto to watch the European awards lift. Watching foreign signings like Arjen Robben, Claude Makelele, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, Eden Hazard and Thiago Silva wearing the Chelsea shirt. Player quality, a selection of trophies, and unimaginable memories of those of us watching the team in Division Two’s dog days between 1979 and 1983.

The directors’ unsympathetic and sometimes cruel dismissal was upsetting to many supporters, but it’s hard to argue, in retrospect, that those decisions were not justified, with the possible exception of Ancelotti. The Frank Lampard sacked It was decried by many but the appointment of Thomas Tuchel was a major blow, resulting in Champions League glory After many months.

Abramovich has been largely in the background, rarely giving interviews and content to allow his executives to run the club on a day-to-day basis, although he has clearly interfered with key strategic issues. Those who thought he would get bored or use the club as a public game were proven wrong. My point is that he really loves the club but he did the right thing, and in fact the only reasonable path given the current circumstances, is through Which indicates his clear intent to sell. I have no idea if he has close ties to the Putin regime – he says not – but his statement and gesture of writing off huge loans to the club and a commitment to use the proceeds of the sale “for the good of all”. Victims of the War in Ukraine “He sent me a very strong message.

His legacy, aside from fond memories, includes world class managers (Tuchel and Emma Hayes), a host of world class players on both men’s and women’s teams, and a superbly run academy that produces high-quality future superstars on a regular basis. My reading is that the vast majority of fans appreciate everything he has given the club and are very grateful for 19 years of unparalleled success (in terms of Chelsea).

Regarding the future, there must be some trepidation among supporters. The idea of ​​the owners taking over the club and piling on debts in the style of Glazers or Hicks and Gillett is not a happy one. Does he want a new Tuchel? Does he want to hang out? Creating a fully functional new hierarchy, perhaps from scratch, will be far from easy, as other clubs have found.

Try the club, and Failed amazinglyto buy back shares of Chelsea Pitch Owners in 2011. If a new owner tries again, he can look forward to another fight with backers. Shelving plans The construction of 60,000 high-speed stadiums is supposed to be revived, but since that would require moving away from Stamford Bridge for three to four years during construction, that would inevitably be a risky process.

The massive goodwill that Abramovich has with his Chelsea fan base since 2003 must be gained by the new owners, and that certainly won’t be as easy as Amanda Staveley’s brigade. I found it in Newcastle. Abramovich’s investment has transformed Chelsea into a truly global club, as evidenced by the recent period. Club World Cup success. Whoever is going to take over is going to have a really tough job to consolidate and build on that.

Tim Rolls first watched Chelsea in 1967 and is a contributor to cfcuk fanzine.