Nearly 15 years after Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea, opposing fans and pundits still cannot accept the Blues’ success. Yet when any other club splashes a billionaire’s cash, they are lauded for their ambition.
Everton get a new owner who comes in, spends a shed load of money and suddenly they become the greatest thing since sliced bread. They have very quickly become the current media darlings of English football, taking the mantle from fellow scousers, Liverpool FC.
Going back in time, Chelsea welcomed a new owner. He came in, also spent a shed load of money and all of a sudden, football as we knew it, had gone to hell in handcart.
There was no, “oh, it’s marvellous how Chelsea are looking to break the Arsenal and United dominance and build a stronger team.” No, Roman Abramovich was the devil incarnate. This evil man single-handedly ruined the game of football by bringing a wallet full of rubles to the top of the Premier League table.
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In subsequent years owners from abroad have taken over one club after another. They all looked to cash in on what is still regarded as the greatest football league in the world. No one bats an eyelid when another billionaire comes into the room. Not even when Sheikh Mansour took over Manchester City and promptly spent over a billion pounds. That prompted nowhere near the furore that Abramovich incited when he bought the Blues from Ken Bates.
So, what’s going on? Why do media and fans find it so hard to accept Chelsea’s success under the stewardship of the Russian oligarch? Why are there so many haters?
We know Roman Abramovich properly supports the team, and not just financially. He truly cares about what is happening on the pitch. He is up there in his box kicking the ball in the back of the net with the rest of Stamford Bridge. He is a proper fan. He loves the club and the fans love him. Chelsea FC is no rich-man’s toy.
That shared passion clearly irritates the opposition. The opposing fans’ attitude to Chelsea winning – or as they would have it, buying trophy after trophy – and having an owner who cares comes down to simple jealousy. They want some of what Chelsea have.
They want their clubs to spend loads of money and win a cupboard full of cups. The top six have all spent big cash, and yet still they can not win that big prize. The ‘rent boys’ can, and that really grates.
Journalists at the various media outlets have less of an excuse. These are professional people who ought to be detached from club affiliation. Their problem is that their work brings them into close contact with the workings of the actual clubs. The manager, the players, the press officers and even security personnel. How the clubs look after them is bound to affect how they view the club.
Pundits will obviously have a club association, and probably more than one. The BBC have the most former Chelsea players, featuring Ruud Gullit, Graeme Le Saux and Frank Lampard. Super Frank also appears on Sky Sports and, as Chesney Hawkes would say, he’s the One and Only.
Ex-player/manager Glenn Hoddle also features on Sky, but his lily-white allegiance always shows through. BT sport have Chris Sutton, who played at Chelsea for one season.
"You can't tell me Chelsea get to be the pride of London just because they've won a pile of trophies and have a lion on their badge." #CFC pic.twitter.com/cYVEMQVQEa
— The Pride of London (@PrideOLondon) July 12, 2017
Out of the different factions of haters, pundits can be the most partisan and embarrassing of all. There is no hiding place on live TV. Who can forget Jermaine Jenas’s classic analysis of the Chelsea vs. Tottenham FA Cup semi-final. Following the 4-2 defeat, the ex-Tottenham man said with a straight face: “You can’t tell me Spurs didn’t deserve to win tonight.”
To say it was biased would understate his punditry phenomenally. Fortunately, Alan Shearer and Frank Lampard were on hand to shoot him down.
Does it matter that no one likes Chelsea Football Club? For any football fan, the name of the game is surely winning. Chelsea are a team that have learnt the magic formula for winning and that is what really hurts.
It’s like the saying “money comes to money.” In football, success breeds success. Roman Abramovich knows about both.
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The Russian’s mega millions came into the football with the ambition of cracking the dominant top two teams. The “new” Everton money sees them trying to buy their way into the top six. They arrived at the party a bit late, but at least everybody likes them.