Story of Roman Abramovich and Chelsea’s new Era

The story of Roman Abramovich and his influence at Chelsea began in Taurage, a small town in Lithuania. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich owns the 3rd-largest yacht in the world and a customized airplane with a 30-person banquet hall.

Of course, that is not all. His ambitions doesn’t end here. He spotted something different in football. Something that inspired him to invest in this game, and turn it into a business industry. There is little doubt that Abramovich is one of the major football players, and he re-asserted this claim by spending 200 million pounds this transfer window, far from any other club in the

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Story of Roman Abramovich and Chelsea's new Era

Let's move backward in time to find out about the story of Roman Abramovich and his influence at

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How Abramovich’s Chelsea takeover changed football forever

To tell the story of Roman Abramovich and his influence at Chelsea, we must go back to year 2003. In June 2003, Abramovich became the owner of the companies that control Chelsea Football Club.

Chelsea immediately started an ambitious plan of commercial development, with the aim of making it a worldwide brand on a par with footballing giants such as

and

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To put Abramovich’s influence on Chelsea in context, the club had only won 1 Premier League title before him. Then came Roman. 5 Premier League trophies in 17 years. Isn’t this just magical?

Chelsea achievements since Abramovich took over the club

Since the takeover, the club has won 16 major trophies – the 

, the UEFA Europa League twice, the Premier League five times, the FA Cup five times (with 2010 providing the club's first ever league and FA Cup double), and the League Cup three times, making Chelsea the second most successful English trophy winning team in the decade with 16 honours, behind only Manchester United with 17 honours in the same time span. His incumbency has also been marked by speedy turnover in managers, who can be fired if they do not bring immediate success and maintain it.

The Blues have spent 200 million Pounds during this summer window, far more than any other Premier League side. One of the many questions is why now? Why the extent of the expenditure in the middle of a global pandemic? Are Chelsea ready to repossess their position as a team on a par with Liverpool and Manchester City? What - as far as we can ascertain - is the thinking of one of the most influential but enigmatic figures in football?

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On speaking to prospective new Chelsea managers, Abramovich will always talk about “identity”.

“I want to find a manager that gives my team an identity,” he told Carlo Ancelotti. “Because when I watch Chelsea I’m not able to find an identity.” Ancelotti has said he had up to 10 meetings before eventually being appointed by Chelsea, some with Abramovich, all involving a lot of scrutiny about how he’d handle the job; his vision; how he’d work. The Italian described this as “the correct way to do business” in his last autobiography, “but certainly not normal in football”. “All clubs should take note.”

“I had heard he was deliberately keeping a low profile in the UK in the hope the Russian controversies would die down and he could re-acquire his visa. I guess that has taken a step back. There is no sense he has lost interest in Chelsea or in having a UK visa. There are no rumors of the club being put up for sale. Equally, there is no evidence he is about to move with the planned stadium expansion.”

This is Chris Weafer talking. The co-founder of Macro-Advisory in Moscow. He is renowned for his deep and mostly to-the-point analysis of Russian billionaires.

Results and appearances under Abramovich

Quite a taskmaster, he doesn’t like failure. Nobody does, but failure isn’t an option in “The Roman Empire”. He expects results, fairly quickly.

The last 999 games of Roman era came with the following statistics: Chelsea has played 999 competitive matches, achieving 608 wins, 215 draws, suffering 176 defeats, scoring 1,903 goals and conceding 896 goals.

The Blues have a 60.9 per cent win percentage (compared to the all-time 44.3 per cent). That is why the 

story of Roman Abramovich and his influence at Chelsea

 is of utmost importance.

Players who have had most appearances under Roman Abramovich’s era are: John Terry with 599 caps (it’s a pity he never got to 600!), Frank Lampard with 547 caps, Petr Cech with 494 caps, Cesar Azpilicueta with 395 caps and the exceptional Didier Drogba with 381 caps. Frank Lampard has also scored the most goals for Chelsea in “The Roman Empire” with 196 goals. The rest of the top scorers are Didier Drogba with 164 goals, Eden Hazard with 110 goals, Willian with 63 goals and Salomon Kalou with 60 goals.

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Abramovich is considered to be an enigma. A figure who rarely talks, but is known for his tough and charismatic character. If you look at some Chelsea players and coaches interviews, you’d find out interesting details about him that might attract your attention. Carletto (

) once said that Roman came onto the training ground and demanded answers after a 3-1 blow to Wigan.

He advised Ancelotti to be tougher with players, believing that he is too kind. Ancelotti though Abramovich is even more demanding than Silvio Berlusconi. Mark Scharwzer once said that whenever the security went too far, we knew that “The Boss” was stepping in. Eyewitnesses say that Abramovich rarely talked to anyone other than the coach and managerial staff, yet Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech were exceptions.

Abramovich is known for his love and craving of attacking football. It is believed that one of the reasons he sacked Avram Grant, despite his excellent relationship with him, was his defensive style of playing. When he appointed Moruinho, Jose employed attacking style tactics as well as developing Chelsea’s defense.

Marina Granovskaia, Abramovich advisor

Marina Granovskaia is the lady whom Abramovich trusted with day-to-day running of the club affairs, and is believed to be in touch with her everyday, keeping up with the news and events of the day. It was a widespread rumor that Lampard and Granovskaia would have the meetings and discuss the potential transfer targets, and whenever they faced a hard decision, they would take the issue to Roman and he would sanction the deal.

Marina is his most trusted advisor. He is not running Chelsea like a dictatorship in any sense. He makes sure that he is informed of everything, but he doesn’t intervene unless it’s a crucial matter. It is said that he leaves areas he doesn’t feel he is an expert, to the people he has the most confidence in. Granovskaia has had a great influence on him, convincing him to renew Drogba’s contract in 2009, thus securing a UEFA Champions League trophy.

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Abramovich’s take on football influenced many businessmen such as the young and ambitious Steven Zhang (Inter Milan), Farhad Moshiri (Everton), Shahid Khan (Fulham), Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed (

), Abdullah bin Musa’ed (Sheffield United), Thaksin Shinawatra (previous owner of Manchester City). There is a widespread rumor that Stan Kroenke was highly influenced by Abramovich, and this influence played a major role in him completing the Arsenal takeover in August 2018.

Many of these names are probably unknown to you. You are right. They have nothing to do with football. They just entered the game because they thought they could profit from the football industry like Roman Abramovich. It is no exaggeration to say that Abramovich revolutionized the game of football.

He turned it into a complex industry using advanced marketing strategies. It is safe to say only two entrepreneurs were nearly as successful as Abramovich. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed of Manchester City, and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar and the owner of

football club. However, their success is due to their never-ending and unlimited wealth.

There is a big difference between Roman Abramovich and Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and that is their approach to the game of football. Football is not just about spending eccentric amounts of money on big names. Abramovich has kept a close eye on the Chelsea academy as well as signing big players. Mason Mount, Tommy Abraham and such players, are players that Abramovich has watched closely and made sure they have their share of annual progress.

He trusted Frank Lampard to manage a team, mixed with players from Chelsea academy as well as good signings like Christian Pulisic, or Kai Havertz. The shared vision between Lampard and Abramovich, and his understanding of football is very much different from that of bin Hamad Al Thani. He thinks success can be achieved via spending exuberent amounts of money, while Abramovich thinks further ahead and likes to invest in youth team as well as signing smartly.

In today’s world, maybe we can compare Steven Zhang, to a certain degree with Roman Abramovich, in terms of ambition, intelligence, and investing in youth teams as well as employing good managers and signing well-thought-of players. But we all know that Steven Zhang has a long way to go to become Roman Abramovich. This is 

how Abramovich’s Chelsea takeover changed football forever

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