In June 2003, Abramovich became the owner of the companies that control Chelsea Football Club in West London. Since then, the Russian billionaire has been the owner of the London club.
When a billionaire buys a club, they are often portrayed in a negative light. People believe that the owners are uninterested in football and are only interested in buying the team as an investment.
The trend of buying mediocre clubs and making them reach the pinnacle of success has only become fashionable now.
But this trend was started by none other than Roman Abramovich.
He took Chelsea to new heights that were not seen before. In an era where United and Arsenal were the big names in town, Chelsea and Abramovich completely disrupted the contest.
Wenger and Ferguson were amidst the battle for England and it seemed no other team had a chance to compete. Exactly at that point came in Mourinho’s Chelsea. With money in pocket, Chelsea was a revamped club.
With important signings and a solid manager at the helm, Chelsea took the premier league by the storm.
Under Mourinho, Chelsea became the fifth English team to win back-to-back league championships since the Second World War (2004–05 and 2005–06), in addition to winning an FA Cup (2007) and two League Cups (2005 and 2007).
The Roman Abramovich era started with a bang.
Chelsea later played in their first Champions League finals in 2008 where they lost to Manchester United on penalties. But they redeemed themselves by winning the 2012 Champions League, defeating Bayern Munich in the finals in their backyard.
A second spell for Mourinho with Chelsea saw them winning the league cup in march 2015 and winning the league couple of months later.
Antonio Conte delivered the next premier league title in the 2016/17 season and also delivered the Europa League for the blues.
The next man in charge Thomas Tuchel led Chelsea to their 2nd Champions League title. Thomas Tuchel with his Chelsea team is looking good for the future.
In the Abramovich era so far, Chelsea has won 18 major trophies – the UEFA Champions League twice, the UEFA Europa League twice, the UEFA Supercup twice, the Premier League five times, the FA Cup five times, and the League Cup three times, making Chelsea the most successful English trophy-winning team during Abramovich’s ownership.
The reason? – Roman Abramovich thinks like a fan.
Whenever you see Abramovich present at Stamford Bridge, you could see the emotions on his face. He reacts just like a fan; you could really make out that Chelsea football club has his heart. The point we are making is he actually cares about the club enough that he wants them to win trophies, season in and season out.
Another testimonial is his reactionary decisions to change managers. If a manager fails to bring in trophies, he gets the sack immediately.
Thirteen managers have taken charge of the Blues during Roman Abramovich’s reign. 13 managers but 18 trophies. This just shows that the dug-out brutality of Chelsea has worked so far for them.
Even Frank Lampard got the sack when he was unimpressive in his short tenure as Manager for the club.
Roman Abramovich is impatient just like any football fan would be. He wants results and trophies every season and if a manager can’t bring that to the table, they get the boot.
Chelsea’s short-term philosophy has served them well so far, as they enter their 19th year with Roman at the helm. Chelsea with a fantastic nearly two decades, and with a passionate owner like Abramovich, will only continue to assert their dominance.
Roman Abramovich the biggest Chelsea fan in the world.
(Also, the richest!).