A new era began at Chelsea when Roman Abramovic bought the club in 2003. Glory was just moments away for the London club fans as the Russian, along with his deep pockets, turned out to be quite a shrewd businessman and made Chelsea a force to be reckoned
with.
Not many teams could stare at Sir Alex Ferguson's eyes and just walk away with it. It was Chelsea who set the new Premier League order and went on to lift the title in 2004 and 2005. 3 barren years followed, but once again the 2009-2010 Season saw http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786
play one of the best football since the Russian’s era and lift the trophy again.
Any team that challenged them was swept aside last season and even Manchester United was forced to submit.
This season promised to be a lot like the last one and the initial signals suggested that Chelsea might roll on to lift another successive Premier League title.
But things haven’t gone according to plan for either Carlo Ancelotti or Abramovic. Lingering in the 5th position isn’t something that would put a smile on the Russian’s face.
Let’s talk a bit about Chelsea’s glory days first, before going to the gruesome present or, perhaps, the future. Claudio Ranieri was given a 100 million pounds by the Russian and the Italian brought on some really good players to the team, but got the sack
as Abramovic got Jose Mourinho, who had great success at Porto.
But what Roman didn’t know was that Jose wasn’t the type of manager who would just sit and listen to what the owner had to say. The Russian was responsible for bringing in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Shevchenko-c6014 and the Ukrainian turned out to be a 30 million pound flop. The
only good transfer bargain made by the Russian billionaire was getting the German international, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-Ballack-c25270.
This was too much for a guy like Jose Mourinho to digest, who has always been known as a man who values his ego a lot, and he resigned in 2007. Avram Grant came next and then Felipe Scolari was given the job, but the Brazilian was sacked just 4 months in
the job. Gus Hiddink was then made the interim manager, and after seeing what he was in for, he refused to sign a permanent contract.
In 2009, it seemed that Abramovic made the right appointment when he brought on Carlo Ancelotti from A.C Milan. It turned out to be a very good deal as the Italian really got the best out of an ageing Chelsea side that still had a lot to offer. The double
last season made everyone sure that Chelsea are still the team to beat, ahead of both Manchester United and Arsenal.
Perhaps, the exploits of last season made the Chelsea players very complacent and it is very visible that this season, Chelsea are giving more emphasis on the Champions League than the domestic league- a fair choice considering they have never won the European
crown and all players would want to have a bite at it.
Ever since Ray Wilkins was fired (last November), things have been going downhill for the reigning English champs and it seems that they are not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s true that Terry and Lampard have been injured a lot this season and their missing games turned out to be a curse for the side. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Didier-Drogba-c11044 isn’t doing too well either and at 32 years old, he can't be expected to be going back to the good old days
at all.
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