As Drogba rolled the ball past Manuel Neuer, with his last kick of a football in Chelsea colours, the vocal Chelsea support in Munich had witnessed the greatest moment in the history of their beloved club as the Ivorian had delivered them the Champions League. More significantly, mega rich Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, made his feelings visible to both the support and the millions of viewers in the world by celebrating with the players on the pitch, and the dressing room thereafter. They had finally delivered the Holy Grail that the cash strapped Russian had become obsessed with.
However, once the air had finally cleared and the rest of Europe had come to terms with what Chelsea had achieved in their remarkable journey, general football talk I began to hear was that Abramovich was finished with the club, now that he had won the Champions League, leaving nothing more for him to see the club he owned win. Events over the last few weeks have suggested otherwise, with the signing of the Eden Hazard, as well as the increasingly likely signing of Hulk, the barrel chested Brazilian who will add to Chelsea’s attacking options.
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Shortly after purchasing Chelsea in 2003, the billionaire sparked a spending spree, allowing Ranieri, the manager at the time, to spend just over £150 million on players that oozed quality, with some of the names brought in including Hernan Crespo, Arjen Robben and Petr Cech. With around £60 million being spent the summer after, it was clear that Abramovich was looking to bring instant success to the club. Fans of other clubs soon realised that Chelsea meant business, labelling the ‘transition’ that Chelsea were experiencing as the ‘Russian Revolution’.
Within a few seasons, Jose Mourinho had delivered consecutive Premier League titles to the club, alongside the FA Cup and a Carling Cup trophy in his first season of English football. One of the primary reasons Mourinho had been brought into the club was due to his successful Champions League campaign with former club Porto the previous season, and Abramovich had hoped that he could emulate his efforts and deliver the biggest trophy in Europe to the West-London based club. The owner decided that Mourinho’s time was up after 4 seasons, as he could not meet the needs of the club owner, with big name managers being sacrificed soon after for their lack of luck/management in the Champions League.