The transformation of English Premier League outfit Chelsea to the club most football fans despise is nearly complete.
It’s been a chaotic couple of weeks for Chelsea Football Club. They sensationally sacked manager Roberto Di Matteo after a 3-0 loss to Juventus in the Champions League. The move came after Di Matteo guided Chelsea to its first ever Champions League trophy in May this year. They then installed former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez in his place until the end of the season.
A tilt at ex-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola is expected next year, somewhat explaining Rafa’s short-term appointment. But Di Matteo’s axing caused an internal and external uproar and meant that the club has now had nine different managers in the past nine years, which could be a Premier League record.
The dismissal had followed a race row, with the club’s Nigerian midfielder John-Obi Mikel claiming that referee Mark Clattenburg racially abused him during a game against Manchester United. The complaint was investigated and Clattenburg was exonerated. Mikel was later slapped with a three-match ban and fined 60,000 pounds for threatening Clattenburg following the Man U loss.
Benitez’s tenure at Stamford Bridge has been rocky so far – Chelsea scored one goal in his first three matches at the helm, recording two 0-0 draws and a 3-1 defeat by West Ham. He has been met by boos and signs saying ‘Rafa Out!’.
Many Blues supporters have been aghast at the appointment of Benitez, considering Di Matteo was a former Chelsea player and a fan favourite, while the Spaniard had been a prominent critic of the club when he was in charge of rival Liverpool.
Benitez’s Blues have bounced back in recent games though, recording a 3-1 win over Sunderland, victory in the World Club Championship semi-final and a 6-1 thrashing of Nordskaelland in Europe.
Still that wasn’t enough to secure qualification to the next round of the Champions League so Chelsea had another unwanted record, the first holders to be knocked out in the group stages. Some UK newspapers labelled them the worst winners in Champions League history.
And this has just been the events in the past six weeks.
Bad news seems to stick to Chelsea. The club lurches from crisis to crisis, throwing money at problems as it gets into battle after battle with opponents, officials, the media and the like.
One man has to take the blame for the vitriol directed towards Stamford Bridge and that is Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich. The Russian billionaire bought the club in 2003 for 140 million pounds and overnight Chelsea’s image changed.
They went from being the entertainers, but not winning much, to being the big-spenders, the flashy Londoners, the giants who would not take a backward step and who would employ a take no prisoners approach.
There’s no denying that Abramovich’s tenure has brought success and a lot of it.
There were back-to-back league titles in 2005 and 2006, as well as the 2007 FA Cup and two League Cups.
Jose Mourinho took over from Claudio Ranieri and made Chelsea champions. Mourinho left in 2007, in controversial circumstances after a rift with Abramovich, but the arrogance and attacks on authority remained. More trophies would come under Carlo Ancelotti, with a double in 2010, but so has the controversy.
In the past nine years there have been too many incidents to name – the attacks on referees, like Didier Drogba’s confrontation of Tom Henning Øvrebø in the Champions League in 2009, the stoushes with Barcelona and Liverpool, the sex scandal involving John Terry and Wayne Bridge, the racial abuse involving Terry and QPR’s Anton Ferdinand, the failure to punish Terry for that case and the list goes on.
There seems to be a problem related to club culture.
The continued presence of Terry as Chelsea’s captain, a man with a chequered past and character at best, highlights this. So does the actions of an owner who fires managers on a whim and who makes certain players, like Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres, his pet projects.
Ruthlessness has been the hallmark of Abramovich’s Chelsea. Success has undoubtedly come to the club, and in a big way, but at what cost? What has it lost in this process?
It’s culture and its integrity has been under attack. There is now little respect for Chelsea across the football world. The saddest thing is that Abramovich cares little about image or criticism, or the views of others, and is focused on his path. Victory at all costs.
The oligarch is driven, and will not be swayed, even if it is to the eventual detriment of the 107-year-old Chelsea Football Club and its most passionate fans.
Follow John on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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