When Roman Abramovich assumed ownership of Chelsea FC in 2003, it didn’t take long for the then manager Claudio Ranieri to say he felt like he was in a sweet shop. Chelsea spent hundreds of millions on footballers and went onto to win trophy after trophy.
Now comes the turn of Manchester City, whose owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has a bottomless pit of cash and whilst unsuccessful attempts have been made on players like Kaka, one feels the dam will burst and the world’s best will flood in.
Money has indeed improved the Premiership, Arsenal or Manchester United finished top in every season between 1996 and 2004. Chelsea interrupted this flux and forced their rivals to concentrate on youth. Ferguson spent big on brilliant young players and Wenger sought after untouched gems.
Along With Liverpool’s resurgence under Rafa Benitez , the ‘top four’ have become regular participants in the later stages of the Champions League. An English club has played in the final every year since 2005, a feet unthinkable before Roman’s billions. This of course is cheap, the improvement described seems more a result of engineering than one of evolution.
A manager like David Moyes, who has served at Goodison Park since 2002, must wonder what more can he do? It would be intriguing to know where Everton would be had Chelsea not seen such an injection of cash. What’s worse for the former Preston North End manager is that any dreams he harbours of being involved in a title race are now a million miles away thanks to the pots of gold at Manchester City.
There is a distinct difference between the wealth of Manchester United and that of Chelsea. The former has a polished business model with a global brand that has taken decades to build. If Mr Abramovich were to suddenly leave, where exactly would Chelsea be?
If, like me, you view the beautiful game as more than just a contest between 22 men then the ‘money thing’ should concern you. Football is becoming increasingly tainted, a playground for the rich and most worryingly a sport where a manager’s hard work can be erased with a checkbook.
I guess there are a lot of people around the world who feel the same way. It’s not affecting the Premiership alone. Take Real Madrid for instance. Even cash-strapped teams in La Liga often trouble them in their pursuit for the title! With their star-studded line-up, they should be winning the Champions League almost every alternative year, but they haven’t. Teams like Sevilla in Spain and others around Europe have done very well for themselves despite having the millions to buy the likes of Kaka or Ronaldo. It goes to show that even all that money can’t buy you results all the time in the ‘beautiful game’.