Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has no intention of walking away
from Stamford Bridge, with the reassurance coming on the morning
the club revealed losses of £80.2million for the year ended June
2006.
The club's director of public affairs Simon Greenberg has moved to
quell fears with regards Abramovich's future, following the
billionaire's non-appearance at Chelsea games in recent weeks,
amidst talk of a spat with manager Jose Mourinho.
Although Greenberg believes the confirmed losses do need to be
reduced, he is confident that costs being cut by 42.9 per cent
indicates the club are heading in the right direction, of the
opinion they are still on course for their long-term plan to break
even by 2010.
While Abramovich has ploughed £500million of his personal fortune
into the club and in the process made them perhaps the biggest
player in the global transfer market, Greenberg has intimated that
the idea is turn Chelsea's policy from buying big, into one of
nurturing young talent of their own.
"No, I do not think it is success," he told Radio 4. "It is moving
in the right direction, reducing losses and increasing major income
streams.
"Our turnover was up and football activities increased income by
6.6 per cent.
"It matters to him (Abramovich) and it matters to us as we have an
ambitious and challenging target of breaking even by June 2012. We
are on track or at least hope to get very near to it.
"We are not spending as much as we used to do on wages and they are
more manageable. We are not spending as much on players, wages are
down by 2 per cent. We think that has become more stable and as
revenues grow the business will become more successful."
Greenberg insisted that Abramovich remains entirely committed to
Chelsea's cause, explaining his absence from games in recent weeks
was due to other business commitments.
"He has a lot of business to attend to," he added. "Mr Abramovich
made his views clear about transfer policy and investing in the
academy.
"You can never say never [that Chelsea would not buy a £20million
player] but that would be an exception.
"We would hope not to have to go to that level and that our academy
would bear fruit in the near future."
In summary, Chelsea reduced losses by £60million to the year ended
June 30, 2006. Losses were reduced by 42.9 per cent from
£140.4million (2004-05) to £80.2million (2005-06), while turnover
increased by 2.3 per cent from £146.6million (2004-05) to
£150million (2005-06).
Merchandising increased by 44 per cent from £7.7million to
£11.1million, and football activities increased by 6.3 per cent
from £122.7million to £130.4million.
