ROMAN ABRAMOVICH will no longer throw his billions at
Chelsea to make them successful. The Russian owner has told the
club they must operate without his money and run as a proper
business. Abramovich will remain as sole owner but has told club
directors he is not interested in remaining as a key decision
maker. He made his decision known to directors Peter Kenyon, Eugene
Tenenbaum and chairman Bruce Buck at a board meeting last
Monday.
The summit was called to decide strategy for next season but boss
Jose Mourinho was not invited to attend. Abramovichs move to pull
the plug on his unlimited funds could now see Frank Lampard and
skipper John Terry leave the club. The two England stars have
failed to agree new deals with the Blues and Abramovich has laid
down the law that there has to be a wage cap. Neither player is
willing to accept a deal less than they think they are worth and
could now sit out their current deals, which have two years
left.
Lampard is currently paid £118,000 per week and could stay another
season at Chelsea before they would be forced to sell him for a
nominal sum with just a year left on his contract. Chelseas only
other option would be to try and cash in on him now though so far
no club has made a firm offer.
From now on, Chelsea will be limited the same as every other club
and will have to generate its own budget. The Russian owner has
fallen out of love with the club and is intending to spend more
time abroad and with his new girlfriend Daria Zhukova.
Daria Zhukova
It is unlikely he will attend as many games as he has in the past
and wants only to be informed of important issues regarding Chelsea
when it is thought necessary. The club will sign three new players
this season but hardly a penny will be spent on transfer fees.
Steve Sidwell has signed on a free from Reading and Claudio Pizarro
will do likewise from Bayern Munich. Brazils PSV Eindhoven
defender Alex is already owned by Chelsea and will arrive for a fee
of one dollar in July.
It is a far cry from the first days of Abramovichs reign as the
clubs owner when he spent £74m on seven players in his first two
months. Since then, more than £250m has been spent on transfers in
total and the waste of money is partly to blame for Abramovichs
disinterest.
For instance, Hernan Crespo cost £18m from Inter four years ago but
has spent only two years playing for Chelsea. Half of his
£90k-per-week wage is still paid by Chelsea while he has won two
titles in Italy on loan at AC Milan and now Inter. Players like
Adrian Mutu and Asier Del Horno were signed for £12m and then sold
on at a fraction of their original price. And that is without even
mentioning the likes of Juan Veron, Mateja Kezman, Jiri Jarosik or
Khalid Boulahrouz.
