The End of the Roman Empire
The year is 2065. A 98-year-old Roman Abramovich takes his final breath, clutching a blue scarf emblazoned with the crest of the club he has transformed into the greatest in England, as West London prepares to mourn the passing of its most influential hero.
Fans of Chelsea Football Club might have imagined the final day of Roman Abramovich’s tenure as owner of their beloved club ending in a more romantic manner akin to this.
Unfortunately, life is no fairytale.
Instead, their messiah leaves prematurely under a cloud of admittedly unfair pressure to carry a cross that is not his to bear.
It is safe to say that when Roman Abramovich first arrived at Chelsea in June 2003, the landscape of English football changed forever.
Instant success was the aim, and with a seemingly unlimited transfer war chest, he spared no expense to achieve his objectives. From the moment Chelsea won their first league title of the Abramovich era, which also happened to be their first in 50 years, they never looked back. Roman is set to leave the club with an incredible 18 major trophies won in 19 years.
That he spent 19 successful years at Chelsea in itself would come as a surprise to those of us who first predicted, with shades of hopeful jealousy, that the billionaire would inevitably tire of his ‘new toy’ after a couple of years and move on to other interests.
On the contrary, he leaves now as an act of selflessness to protect his club.
“I will not be asking for loans to be repaid. This has never been about business nor money for me, but about pure passion for the game and club”, Roman’s statement read.
Even as a person who has detested Chelsea Football Club for all 19 years of Roman’s ownership, this struck a chord.
Undoubtedly, there might be some Chelsea fans out there who are hopeful that the new owners, whoever they may be, might be just as amazing as their outgoing oligarch. I say to you, as a Man United fan, bury that hope. We are all entitled to one amazing owner in our lifetime, and you just lost yours.
An easy jab to take as rival fans over the years is that Chelsea bought their success, which is not entirely inaccurate. But it is worth mentioning that prior to Roman’s arrival at Chelsea, a stat that might surprise many is that between 1992–2001, the highest spending Premier League team was none other than Newcastle United. And no, they were not followed by Man Utd — that honour goes to that little red club from Merseyside. Take a wild guess how many league titles those two clubs won combined within that period. Money is no guarantee of success, particularly the emphatic kind that Chelsea has accumulated over the last two decades.
Money aside, one of the biggest reasons for Chelsea’s success under Roman has been his trigger-happy nature with underperforming managers. The mantra has always been simple — win now or face the boot. Over the past 19 years, there have been 15 managerial changes at Chelsea. Only five failed to win a single trophy, including Claudio Ranieri, who was already at the helm when Roman took ownership.
The perfect balance of allowing the football people at the club to do their work while stepping in, when necessary, is near impossible to replicate. Most club owners either do too little of either or too much of both.
Roman Abramovich arguably goes down as the greatest football club owner in history. Worthy arguments can be made for the likes of Silvio Berlusconi and Massimo Marotta. But simply based on the status of the club he bought and the one he leaves behind, Roman stands above all others.
Chelsea are, begrudgingly, at the football high table because of Roman Abramovich.
But in the words of Erin Morgenstern, “All empires fall eventually,” and alas, the Roman empire at Chelsea has finally fallen.
