Tactics and Transfers: Market volatility presents options for Chelsea and Mr. Abramovich

With the Coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc across the entire football landscape it is hard to predict how the transfer market will eventually respond when football resumes, but Chelsea will be a key player.

Many clubs have already publicly stated that transfers are going to be much less prevalent this summer. Some have even suggested American sport style trades will be the way business is conducted for at least a few years, if not simply the way of the future. Liverpool are publicly coming to terms with the fact that they will likely not make any transfers. UEFA have had to announce that they’d loosen the grip of FFP on football to let clubs come to terms with the humongous amounts of debt they have accrued.

Chelsea quite literally have an ace in the hole in this situation: Roman Abramovich. Though he is no longer the wealthiest owner in British football or in the European game, he is still—on his day—perhaps the most influential. While other clubs can call upon greater sums of money, they are often through convoluted and politicized channels. At Chelsea, it is just one man and during the summer when ability to act quickly will matter, that’s going to be one of the deciding factors.

It is important to remember that before the transfer market was ruined by Paris Saint-Germain’s purchase of Neymar and no one could really afford players at any sort of reasonable level, Abramovich could be counted on to make at least one major splash every other year—if not every window.

Eden Hazard, Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack, Fernando Torres, Hernan Crespo and Juan Sebastian Veron were all players that Chelsea acquired because Abramovich wanted them there. Some of them were more successful than others, of course, but what really matters is the significance and historical importance of each one of those players. In their respective times, each was a major star and a player that Chelsea ended up with simply because of the will of Mr. A.

The transfer market is back to a normal level, a level where the Kyle Walker’s and John Stones’ of the world aren’t going for over £50 million. Because of that, it’s possible that Mr. Abramovich will simply write the checks necessary to get Chelsea to the top of whatever the new power structure is in English football after the dust settles.

Though he has gotten criticism as an owner due to the firing of managers and his impatience before, a great deal of that is behind him. What he has always done is strive for excellence and Chelsea have benefitted greatly from that.

This summer, there are going to be an abundance of opportunities to sign players of a higher level for lesser sums than normal. With more of the competition out of the way, this seems like exactly the sort of moment where Mr. Abramovich has historically made a very big impact.