The billionaire owner celebrates 10 extraordinary, trophy-filled years in charge tomorrow – a decade in which he has transformed the club and turned them into one of Europe’s powerhouses.
Last year, Abramovich achieved his ultimate ambition as his club lifted the Champions League for a first time.
Chelsea have also won three league titles. But having brought back his most successful manager, Jose Mourinho, the owner wants more.
Abramovich has, since that heady summer of 2003, spent £2billion.
But a source close to the reclusive tycoon told the Daily Express last night: “Roman wants to win everything again. He wants to win everything – even though he has already won everything.”
The original £140m deal, back when Manchester United and Arsenal were dominant, took just 15 minutes to push through, as Abramovich, after watching United in the Champions League that year, decided that he wanted to buy his own club.
Chelsea were duly acquired and the face of English football changed.
Since that deal, 11 trophies have been won and 10 permanent managerial appointments made.
It has been the most unprecedented transformation in British footballing history – dwarfing the achievements of other tycoons such as the late Jack Walker at Blackburn.
Mourinho, the man who won back-to-back titles for Abramovich when he was hired in 2004, is taking on the project again.
Chairman Bruce Buck was just a corporate lawyer who was a season ticket holder back in 2003, but he suddenly found himself in at the heart of the negotiations.
He said: “Mr Abramovich went to see the Champions League quarter-final between United and Real Madrid and he was enchanted. He fell in love with football. He asked his advisors to find out what clubs in England were available. An investment bank was hired to see what was available. They came back with five clubs and among them were United, Chelsea and Spurs.”
“Roman wants to win everything again. He wants to win everything – even though he has already won everything”
A source
Along the way, managers have come and gone at bewildering speed, despite mostly winning things. The price of failure has been high.
But the owner’s passion has, according to those closest to him, grown and he intends to build a legacy.
The club have not won the title for three years and Mourinho has been hired to put the finishing touches to the team that began to be rebuilt last year, in order to put that right – but in the right style.
Chelsea are in negotiations with Napoli for striker Edinson Cavani, who could be the marquee name that Abramovich intends to hand his new manager this summer.
But they have not yet put in a firm bid and are some way off the £53m that the Italians want .
Abramovich is also still targeting Borussia Dortmund forward Robert Lewandowski as a possible alternative and Manchester City striker Edin Dze ko – and there will be other signings – because the quiet man who took 15 minutes to turn English football on its head, is not finished yet.
Keeper Petr Cech, who joined in 2004, said: “At the start people said that Mr Abramovich would spend two or three years at Chelsea, then leave. However, his passion now is the same as when I saw him for the first time.”
