Abramovich handed over the ownership of Chelsea to Todd Boehly a club he brought in June 2003 for £140m ($233m)then a British record although sanctions has made him relinquish his rights to benefiting from the takeover which is worth £4.25billion in May 2022. He was able to handover a football club which in terms of sporting achievements has exceeded most expectations.
THE MALE TEAM SETTING THE PACE IN ENGLAND AND CLOSING THE GAP IN EUROPE
The male Chelsea football club is the best club in the world, a former European champion as recently as in the 2020/2021 season. Domestically, to be the dominant club historically, they will have a long way to go, but YES! They are the current world champions and the most dominant English club between 2003-2022 The Abramovich era, winning all the available trophies they have competed in.
The Abramovch epoch started months after he brought the club in the 2003/2004 season and ended when he tasked the Chelsea foundation to manage the club and then put it up for sale but weeks later in March 2022, the British government placed sanctions. Within that time he has irrecoverably changed the history of the club with a trophy laden reign. It was like a parting gift, the last trophy the blues won was the world club cup and they were still European champions, it was a befitting compensation for an owner that sports history will never forget. Fate made it possible to handover as the best.
Roman Abramovich`s trophy sheet
They also won the European super cup once and two community shield averaging slightly more than one trophy per season, a very good return, before his takeover they were a very decent club with only one premiership title won in 1955. he succeeded in taking them to the elite level in club football within a short period. If you consider that a club formed in 1905 won just 11 trophies in 99 years while he won 21 trophies in less than 20 years, almost double the trophy haul within his time.
The two second division titles were excluded from this list, it cannot be considered a major trophy for a Club of their present status and in Roman Abramovich era they secured 65% of their titles. Enabling them to become the fourth most successful club in England.
It is instructive to note that Roman Abramovich trophy era started in the club`s centenary year in 2005(100 years;1905-2005) winning their second premiership league title and their third league cup in his second year as the owner, Chelsea went on to rewrite their history. They have been winning since then.
During Abramovich era from the English clubs with more than 10 titles, three has won the champions league and FIFA club world cup, Chelsea is the most successful within that era.
It does not simply mean having wealthy owners and the most important title will start arriving Manchester City was taken over by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan with the Abu Dhabi United group in 2008 and are still searching for the champions league title for 14 years and still counting while PSG owned by Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar through Qatar Sports investment (QSI) since 2011, has ruled France domestically with distinction but are still searching for the elusive champions league title, it took Roman Abramovich nine years to win his first champions league title the shortest time when compared with both City and PSG. For United they have spent more than a billion pounds the most by any club on acquisition of players since the post Ferguson era but have not even reached the semifinals of the champions league.
Chelsea has been able to compete and match both the new and old domestic super powers in English football giving a very good account of themselves.
The three dominant clubs were two from Manchester-City and United with Chelsea having won 5 league titles each. The remaining three titles were shared by three clubs achieved through extraordinary feats. In 2004 Arsenal won without conceding defeat a record, in 2016 Leicester had a fairy tale run they were very unlikely winners with Vardy scoring in 11 consecutive games which was a milestone. then in 2020, Liverpool dropped just 2 points from 81 in 27 games and won the title with seven matches to spare a record. It shows the level needed to win the premiership and how Chelsea has been able to acquaint themselves admirably.
They went on a record of 86 consecutive home matches between 20 March 2004 to 26 October 2008 without defeat extending the previous record of 63 matches held by Liverpool between 1978 to 1980 by 23 matches, in this period they won two premiership titles back to back. they also set a record for the fewest number of goals conceded in their first win 2004/2005 letting in just 15 goals and also set another record for most clean sheet which they achieved 25 times from 38 league matches. In 2010 when they won their first double, they also became the first club in almost fifty years to score 100 goals in a season.
The FA cup was dominated by Arsenal and Chelsea with 5 trophies. The Blues were also undefeated excluding penalties in 29 matches winning 3 titles from 5 editions between 2009 and 2013.
The EFL cup was shared between City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool winning 15 from a possible 19 with Chelsea`s 3 titles making them third behind the Manchester clubs, City with six and United with four.
In Europe, for the champions league, Chelsea was the joint best English winners and behind only the Spanish superpowers Real Madrid and Barcelona.
They have been impressively competitive and consistent at all levels matching the best reigns of other rich owners across Europe.
As defending champions league winners in 2013, they failed to advance from a group won by Juventus crashing out on the now defunct away goals rules, they were tied on points with Shakhtar Donestsk they became the first champions to be eliminated at this stage but they turned it to success by winning the Europa league. they became the first and only club to have in their custody the champions league and the Europa league at the same time and also the first English club to have won all the four UEFA club trophies (before the creation of the Europa conference league) this also placed them with Juventus , Bayern Munich and Ajax (another English club Manchester United in 2017 were the fifth club) as the only clubs to win the European treble.
winning the champions league trophy for a newbie has been made very difficult by a select few clubs across Europe, Trends in victories had been established in the 70s, all the winners were first time champions and most in that era were able to even win it a multple times following the trend of the first set of winners from its inception from the 50s, Real Madrid set the pace taking their reign into the early 60s, follwed by a two year reign of Benfica then the Italian reign with AC and Inter holding the title for three years. Real Madrid the former champions altered the trend by winning again in 1966, Britain with Celtic and Manchester United new winners held forte before Milan like Real, won again in 1969, the Dutch,Germans and English took turns to produce new champions in the 70s the English held the title for a six year spell between 1977 to 1982, this has never been done or repeated then Hamburg won for the first time, Liverpool just like Real and Milan in the 60s regained the trophy in 1984, Juveventus,Steau Bucharest,Porto and PSV from different countries helped to establish the reign of the first timers, Milan establshed the supremacy of the former winners, it will be the last time a club will retain the trophy back to back for twenty six years. Red star Belgrade, Barcelona and Marseille maintained the reign for the new champions between 1991 until 1993, the following seasons Milan, Ajax and Juventus former champions won in succession, it was the first time the previous winners will win wthin a period of time providing a futuristic trend, which Dortmund temporarily halted in 1997, from that time until Chelsea won in 2012 all the winners were former champions. a title drought for new winners which at the most was four years before a new champion was crowned. This trend helps explain the ardous challenge which the Blues were able to surmount in becoming champions,they won again in 2021 becoming the only club to win all three UEFA club trophies at least twice.(Champions league,the old Winners cup and the UEFA cup). they were adept at winning domestically and in Europe. winning has become a heritage embedded in the club`s DNA. A habit almost resembling an entitlement, a sort of birthright.
THE FEMALE TEAM THE BEST IN ENGLAND
For the female team they came close to winning the champions league almost becoming the first football team in history to win both the male and female champions league both appearances in the finals was a record achieved in the 2020/2021 season with the males defeating Manchester City in an all English finals while the females lost to Barcelona. Which for the females is the highpoint of their European campaign. Earlier in England in 2010, the Chelsea female team and 7 other English clubs founded the FA womens super league. In 2015, they won their first league (FA WSL) title and the FA womens cup, a double which they repeated in 2018. In 2020 they won their third league and first FA women`s league cup. Then in 2021 they won the domestic treble (league, FA and league cup) and reached the champions league finals their best season, almost having a clean sweep which is the closest any club in England as gotten to winning a quadruple of titles for both the male and female even better than what Manchester Citys male football club had achieved in 2019 when they won all the domestic titles and lost in the quarter finals of the champions league since it was achieved by Arsenal ladies team in 2006/2007 when they won the sextuple. Chelsea won the league again in 2022, the current English champions succeded in winning the league title three times in a row before then in 2017, they won the spring series an abridged edition of the league. they have held the league title since with 2019 the only exception in six years. it is worth mentioning that in 2015 when the female won their first title, the male team were also English champions. the Abramovich era started a dominance in FA WSL the modern version of the league which they have won more than any club. The Chelsea female team are currently the second most successful English team behind Arsenal an achevement made possible by the Russian ownership of Chelsea.
in Europe the pace setters is Lyon, the champions league holders have an unprecented 8 titles.This season, Chelsea will fancy their chances they have gained some valuable experience and their squad is among the best in he world.
BUSINESS SUCCESS FROM THE SALE OF FRINGE PLAYERS AND INTERNATIONAL VISIBILITY
Success on the pitch was achieved almost immediately but it took the business until November 2012 to make a profit. They raked in £1.4 million for the financial year, the preceding year they had a loss. They recorded their highest profit in 2014, £18.4 million and four years later in 2018 a record breaking £62 million after tax was reported. In 2020, it was £36m quite impressive considering the convid-19 that led to poor revenue for clubs, the FIFA transfer ban helped to curb huge spending on new players which boosted their revenue. for 2021 they had a loss of £169m their highest in their history.
Over the years they have been able to carry out shrewd business transactions with the recouping of about £275m profit from the combined sales of David Luiz,Oscar, Morata,Courtois,Diego Costa and Mata to the £142m(it will reach that sum) sales of Hazard who had past his peak and had just a year in his contract to Real Madrid if you consider he was acquired for £32m and sold after seven years another smart business, The most significant individual sale, they also had other profitable sale of former players. Another very succesful business was through the loan policy by grooming and buying players and selling them at a profit, the Cobham academy have made more than £163m, the second highest revenue behind Real Madrid since the past four years with the sales of Tammy Abraham for £34m to Mourinho`s Roma a club record. They have several players on loan at different clubs and are still producing promising stars for the future not necessarily for the senior team but for other clubs as a means for fianancial reward. they are the leading English club in player sales at the moment. The Premiership finest players midfielder Kelvin De Bruyne and Egyptian attacker Salah also passed through Chelsea although not from the academy, the few talents that were promoted into the main team and are still there are Recce James, Loftus-Cheek,Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount, world cup bound Sterling,Gallagher and Mount especially has cemented himself in the team and he scored in the semi finals against Real Madrid and provided the assist for the winning goal against City in the champions league finals, he was voted Chelsea player of the year twice(2020/2021 and 2021/2022 season).Chelsea has also contributed to the success of the English national teams in their recent achevement in world football, they provided Mount, James and Chilwell to the team that reached the finals of the European championships and Roftus-Cheek and Cahill to the world cup team that finished fourth in Russia four years ago, their best performance since Italia 1990, for the ladies, they also provided Bright,Kirby and Carter that won the 2022 European championship with more than five of their players representing other nations at the tournament. They also have Australlian`s Kerr a main contender for the women footballer of the year award.presently For the other male national teams they have Havertz(Germany) Jorginho(Italy, european champion)Silva(Brazil)Kante(France-world champion and Euro nations league winner)Mendy and Koulibaly(Senegal- africas champion)Lukaku(Belgium,their highest profile player on loan at Inter) just to mention a few, in the past the highest profile players that have played for them is former world player and ballon d`or winners Gullit and Weah although it was before the Abramovich era. it can only get better.
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS REWRITTEN
Roman Abramovich was able to deliver trophies and also create seemingly, a unique business model that poor results can provide opportunities for success a sort of trend in victory both times he won Europe’s most coveted trophy-the champions league, he had managers replaced, In 2012 and 2021.For their first champions league victory, Andre Villas-Boas was replaced with Di Matteo and they conquered Europe and for the second title, club legend Frank Lampard was disposed of for Thomas Tuchel after a run of poor results. He replicated this strategy at the Europa league when he replaced Di Matteo with Benitez and won in 2013. it was not the first time the club had won in europe in this way but he perfected it. He had 13 managers in 19 successful years. Those changes took little time to achieve positive results, In most instances it was a catalyst. This was his recipe for success. He gave management not just in sports a different and a refined working model -success from instability. He was able to accomplish success with a great team of directors most notably Marina Granovskaia before her, Michael Emenalo a former Nigerian international, his inner caucus was not limited by nationality, he was willing to seek competence from anywhere.
Successful management principles encourage stability especially in leadership to sustain growth; his was the opposite and is the benchmark. It looked simplistic only because they have deeply analyzed all the elements with objectivity and the timing of the managerial changes radical but very effective. No luck involved or sentiments, decision making driven by success only. The fans in return resisted any form of animosity towards him despite those changes, he had given them a great identity with lots of success.
Questions and debates about the role of money to sporting success which has been answered to some extent by Abramovich who has left with an impression that money with the right plan will buy trophies this will bring some consolation and hope to Manchester city, PSG and more recently Newcastle united.
He has built a solid foundation for the new owners to hopefully consolidate success.
Most sports fans elsewhere will wish this can happen for them and most will not have it, clearly showing how remarkable this feat has been.
The new owner has sacked Tuchel copying from the success principle playbook of the former owner can it bring back success? Time will certainly answer.
What we can learn from Roman Abramovich `s era at Chelsea.
Money answered all things with the right available structure.
There are opportunities in every setback which can be unraveled.
It is never late to achieve success.
- The Liverpool carabao cup win was the last of the trophy in the 2021/2022 season that Roman Abramovich was Chelsea owner at the others, the club had a new owner.