It has, by any measure, been an amazing turnaround for Chelsea, who start favourites against Liverpool in this weekend’s FA Cup final and must now fancy their chances of clinching the Champions League after their remarkable win over Barcelona last week. But any success has come in spite of, not because of, owner Roman Abramovich’s string-pulling.
Chelsea have endured their worst Premier League campaign since Abramovich bowled up about 10 years ago. The fact they could still emerge from such a turbulent season – manager Andre Villas-Boas was sacked in March just eight months after arriving – with two pieces of silverware is nothing short of remarkable. Failure to qualify for next year’s Champions League would be a disaster for Chelsea and their Premier League form has been so poor that they currently sit outside the top four, too low to qualify for next year’s tournament. Unless they win it this year, in which case they would automatically secure a spot.
Given the polarity of Chelsea’s performances – they may the win the tournament they have otherwise not been good enough to qualify for next year – it is worth asking whether Abramovich has been part of the problem or part of the solution. He paid £13m to poach Villas-Boas from FC Porto with the brief of turning over and rebuilding Chelsea’s ageing roster. That plan, though, didn’t go down too well with the senior players and, apparently, that was enough to change Abramovich’s mind. And, to be fair, the players have responded emphatically, vindicating, at least partly, the owner’s decision to side with them over his young manager.
But Abramovich himself doesn’t seem to see it that way. Indeed, the Russian has already drawn up a star-studded shopping list, reportedly flagging plans to buy a striker, two full-backs and an attacking midfielder. And, on prior form, it’s hard to imagine pennies will be pinched. And what of the caretaker manager, Roberto Di Matteo? Some might assume that Chelsea’s revival would guarantee Di Matteo a permanent job but Abramovich, as ever, may have other ideas.
The great paradox is that, even if Chelsea finally deliver the owner his most coveted prize, he may still spurn that continuity. It would be the smoking gun, proof of Abramovich’s fundamental misunderstanding of how to run a football club beyond having the means to outspend his rivals.
