Are Chelsea Everyone’s New Sugar Daddy?
June 21st, 2006 by Alan HylandsFor the last few years I’ve railed against Chelsea and Roman Abramovich for their spendthrift ways and their ability to buy a mid-sized West London club the title two years on the trot when before they could have played another fifty years and never sniffed such glory but I always thought that they were a menace because they had such an unfair advantage all to themselves.
Hearing the rumours of Uncle Roman’s proposed deal to buy Didier Zokora, star of Ivory Coast’s World Cup campaign, and loan him out straight away to his old friend Alexandre Gaydamak who has bought control of Portsmouth really makes the veins on my forehead throb. We’ve seen him sign Alexei Smertin to send some money to his friends in Russia and then loan him out to other clubs in successive seasons and the same with Jiri Jarosik who has now seemingly collected enough cash and has moved on to Celtic to actually play a bit of football in a settled environment but I’m getting pretty tired of this old friends network skewing the Premiership even further.
Maybe the fans of Portsmouth, Charlton and Birmingham who benefit from having these players join them and don’t have to fork out cash for them in transfer fees think it’s a great idea but is there any football fan who hasn’t wondered at what is going on behind the scenes with these deals?
Roman Abramovich isn’t just a cash splashing village idiot from Siberia, he’s cold and calculating and this latest stunt with Zokora is proof of it. If Zokora goes for the money and joins Chelsea before being immediately farmed out then we’ll be able to draw some conclusions of his main motivation with his career, if not then “tu salut” Mr. Zokora, I’m sorry I doubted you. Roman’s main aim with the Zokora signing will be to disrupt the transfer plans of his nearest rivals in the only way he knows how: spend a lot of money to prevent them getting the players they want.
He’s done it before with Scott Parker and most famously with the ludicrous price he paid for bench warmer Shaun Wright Philips. Liverpool and Arsenal may have been interested in SWP at ?15m but at ?23m they realised the lack of value and backed out. Once again money ruled over everything else for both player and club. Manchester City must have been rubbing their hands with glee, ditto Charlton with Parker. Good old Roman sharing the cash around, isn’t he a great fella?
I’m sure the Glazers at Manchester United are seeing him for what he is though, Roman didn’t step in with a ?15m bid when they were selling Phil Neville so maybe he’s not quite as cash happy as everyone makes out. Same with Arsenal when they sold Patrick Vieira.
I’ve seen the future of English football and it isn’t pretty, the continued presence of the Russian billionaires makes it even worse and sadly for the fans, the Premiership chairmen with their noses in the trough, sucking up whatever Uncle Roman gives them, don’t even care.
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June 21st, 2006 at 10:45 am
Great piece, I agree with every word. I wonder what state football in England will be in 5 years. Fear the worst, the end is nigh.
Being a Celtic fan, i admit to feeling envious with the cash wealth in the EPL, and have longed for the old firm to compete in England.
No longer do most fans harbour a desire to play there, because what would be the point. That mid-sized West London club would just up the anti ( As only they can ) and that would be the end of that.
A word of advice to the rest of the clubs in the EPL. Get rid of this cancer in your league, before it destroys your game.
June 21st, 2006 at 10:46 am
What a load of twaddle. You clearly are paranoid, and bitter.
What qualifies you to know anything about a russian billionaire? your weekly giro?
fool.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:04 am
I’m a Celtic fan too and would go along with the first comment to a great extent, thought the linking to cancer seems over the top. Things change and rich guys will come and go when they are bored. I don’t expect Chelsea to ahve it their own way for too long.
Paul seems a bit upset and none too respectful of other’s rights to have an opinion. The web where anyone can give thier views must be a great disaapointment for people like him. I’m afraid you’ll have toget used to it Paul
June 21st, 2006 at 11:11 am
Paul
You wouldn’t happen to be a Chelsea fan would you? And what qualifies YOU to know anything about a Russian biilionaire; please tell us.
Chelsea’s transfer antics are slowly but surely eroding the structure of the game and in a negative, divisive and utterly uncompetitive fashion. I have no Premier League sympathies (I support a team in the CCC league who are unlikely to afford promotion) hence no axe to grind but enjoy your days in the sun. Before very long Abramovich will have permanantly bought the Premier League trophy and probably the FA Cup by dint of paying ludicrous prices for any and every player that’s worth buying.
The PL is becoming a game of Subbuteo owned by the richest kid in the street whose dad can afford to spend more than all the other kids parents put together.
Finally, so what if someone posting here gets a weekly giro? It doesn’t mean their views and opinions are any less valid than yours. In fact, your attitude regarding money speaks volumes; you’re on the dole and I have ‘loadsamoney’. I think you know the price of everything and thye value of nothing.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:16 am
Paranoid or what mate. Get a life. No idea who you support but no doubt it is a team that wears red shirts. This is the sort of stuff that kids used to post on 606 before they closed it down because of didiots posting rubbish. I would assume the author used to say the same when ManU had all the aces and could pay outrageous amounts for Rooney, Ferdinand etc, or when the scousers had the dosh of the football pools company to fund their dominance.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:29 am
The last 3 words of the article “don’t even care” nicely sum up what most Chelsea fans think about these rantings.
It’s getting too boring reading these jealousy filled postings all with the same arguments.
Get used to Chelsea winning a lot of things for the next several years. Roman isn’t going anywhere.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:36 am
That’s the problem Roy.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:36 am
could you give me an idea of what makes yourself qualified to comment on russian billionaires,
if you can without reducing yourself to teenage stereotypes or abuse as i assume you want to be taken seriously
June 21st, 2006 at 11:39 am
Why can i be bitter amigo, when i support one of the biggest & greatest clubs in the world. While you support a club that is supported by one of the biggest bank balances in the world, thats the difference.
When Chelsea have won 90 trophys and particularly the big one, come back to me and we will have a chat.
Oh and by the way, im proud to say at 43 I have never claimed dole money in my life. Im just a humble black cab driver. Unlike you LOADSAMONEY
June 21st, 2006 at 11:47 am
Trev
Neither Man U or Liverpool then (and even more now in the case of the former) ever spent more than they could reasonably afford in terms of transfer fees and, more importantly, in wages.
The onus was on ‘big’ clubs to try and balance their books and not to run up long term debts. Just look at what happened to Leeds when their ambition ran away with their financial common sense?
You say Man U ‘held all the aces’; that’s true but their gates of 60,000 every other week and world wide marketing meant they had the resources to do so. That was galling for fans of other clubs but certainly wasn’t unfair or unreasonable in my opinion.
The Moores family put money into both Liverpool and Everton and to some extent the transfer fees paid circulated around the game and filtered down to the clubs in the basement but this doesn’t happen very often these days. Yes, Chelsea more or less saved West Ham (if you beleive some accounts) by paying more than the going rate for Cole, Lampard etc but the money paid for the likes of Ballack and Shevkcenco (sp?) are lost to the English game forever.
Liverpool paid big fees for players while they were dominant but not enormous sums of the sort that alienated other clubs from trying to buy them; success breeds success so the Daglieshs, Sounesses and Hansens joined the (then) top club in the land for the oportunity to win trophies and play against the other top clubs in Europe.
Compare the recent experience of Sean Wright Phillips; yes, he is earning shedloads of money but as he sat in the stands for much of last season did he ever think that he had made the wrong career move? Has SWP watched the coverage of the World Cup and realised that, just maybe, if he hadn’t taken the Abramovich rouble and signed for (for example)Arsenal then today he’d be in Cologne rather Croydon?
If it hadn’t been for Abramovich - who allegedly turned down Spurs before arriving at Stamford Bridge- then Chelsea may not have existed much longer as the bombastic Bates had run the club into the ground.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:57 am
Why dont you all get a life. Haven’t you got friend to discuss these topics with?
June 21st, 2006 at 12:15 pm
I feel sorry for chelsea cz everyone knows how much money you could make off selling stamford bridge and one day abramovich will sell and there will be no chelsea.
June 21st, 2006 at 12:25 pm
ZZZZZZZZZZZ. How many of versions of this same article have I read? Can you wait to see if Chelsea even have anything to do with a possible Zokora transfer before skewering Abramovich for it?
June 21st, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Sorry to pour scorn on you thoery Rory, but Roman can never sell(and never will) Stamford Bridge, as the pitch is owned by the supporters. An organisation was set many years ago(Well before Roman) to gaurd aginst this.
May i refer you to this link you jealous F***!
http://www.chelseapitchowners.com/
June 21st, 2006 at 12:37 pm
The only people who give a monkeys about Chelsea spending too much money are those who support teams whose billionaire owners aren’t prepared to keep up.
Anybody supporting a team who benefits from a deal with Chelsea can have no cause for complaint and no reason to not try if they ever faced them. What is the threat to the English league if the FA are only too well prepared to investigate anything that smells bad?
Also, I’m a Celtic fan too and any numpty knows the reason Celtic and Rangers can’t ever go into the EPL is because a) the problem of what would happen if they got relegated and b) the pressure it would cause from FIFA for the SFA and EFA to merge which means team GB, no thanks.
June 21st, 2006 at 12:54 pm
? ??????? ?? ??? ???????, ????? ?? chelsea
June 21st, 2006 at 12:58 pm
If my Russian is up to scratch (and I think we all know that it is) I’m reading that as Mr Abramovich is making me an offer of ?30m plus ?150k a week for State of the Game if I slag off the Glazers instead for a while.
You can keep your money sir, I won’t be bought.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:35 pm
If you don’t like it go find your own billionaire.
A word of caution though, Manure got thier own billionaire who just saddled them with hugh debt. Proof that not all billionaires are the same!
You don’t like our transfer policy? Tough luck. You’ve seen the future of English football have you? Just where did you see that? Too much time spent gazing at your crystal balls feeling jealous. If it were your club Roman bought you’d be laughing just like we are. Grow up man.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Abramovich has got so much blood on his hands, that in the end someone will put a bullet in his head.
Listening to Chelsea fans gloat over the trophies he’s bought them is a bit like ugly blokes boasting about paying for sex.
Nobody’s impressed.
June 21st, 2006 at 2:58 pm
stamford bridge wat a laugh celtic have more season ticket holders than that shithole can hold and theres a fact so y shud we be jealous u may have more money but ur stil a mediocre team.
June 21st, 2006 at 3:01 pm
i thought the point of message boards ron were for diff points of view?whats your excuse
June 21st, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Woah. Some debate there.
Good call: you do question those motives when they’re put into context of what Manchester United and Arsenal do: they seem to use it to train their players, and then see what they’re actually like out there: after all, Manchester UNited now really know the metal of the keeper they have lent to Watford for a season. However: SWP, yes, he’s a back-up, “block” buy, but they did use Smertin in the main team for a year. It’ll be interesting to see how it progresses: I can’t see them going for Zokora though.
June 21st, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Maybe Abramovich would like to branch out and buy the Chicago Cubs. They have not won the world series since 1908. Quite frankly, I would welcome a owner with commitment
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:23 am
“Chelsea are ugly men paying for sex” Brilliant statement… and when dear old uncle Roman walks away or is grabbed by his fuzz for (alleged) financial irregularities, you will be ugly men (once more) with no money for your jammer. The only sex available then, will be getting rogered by every other team, week-in, week-out.
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:46 am
I don’t understand why the blue scum are getting so mad and irate on this thread. As a yid, the interest in Zokora pisses me off a little, but then I think if the player is stupid enough to warm benches instead of testing or enjoying himself in his profession then so be it. Chelski are buying all the silver at the mo’ but it won’t last forever. Roman will never sell chelsea as it is his little child but he will get bored or get banged up, and then where will they be?? COYS
June 25th, 2006 at 11:04 am
[...] With Didier Zokora telling the News of the World newspaper that his club St. Etienne have agreed a deal with Spurs to bring him to White Hart Lane and that he already feels like a Tottenham player I’m able to get over some of the paranoia I felt last week and look to the new season with a renewed appetite for the game. [...]