How Abramovich short term approach held Chelsea back

Under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea won a total of 21 trophies including the prestigious UEFA champions league twice. Despite winning the Champions league in 2021 under Thomas Tuchel, The London club has failed to challenge for the Premier league title since they last won it in 2017.

Now this raises a difficult question, even though Roman Abramovich carried Chelsea to the most successful period in their history, did he actually also held them back on long term?

When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea back in 2003, They became competitive almost immediately winning their first league title in 50 years in 2004 and won another the following year both under Jose Mourinho’s management. 

Over the course for the next couple of decades under Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea had already won the Premier league five times, The Champions league and Europa league twice, League Cup 3 times and FA Cup five times.

However, despite the huge success, there was a clear decline in Chelsea’s ability to maintain challenging at the highest level. Although Chelsea continued to win trophies, they last won two trophies in the same season in 2014/2015 season when they won the Premier League and the League Cup during Mourinho’s second stint at the club.

Before that, they’ve won doubles on 3 occasion in the past. But the competition in which Chelsea’s decline have been visible enough is the domestic league in which they compete – The Premier League. Winning five titles of the competition under Roman Abramovich, the last coming under Antonio Conte back in 2016/2017. 

Since then, Chelsea have struggled to compete in the league at all, finishing between third and fifth in the five completed seasons at the end of the Roman’s era. When you compare the point gap where Chelsea have finished to the league leaders, it becomes more shocking. The least point gap between Chelsea and the league leaders coming at 19 points and was as bad as 33 points in the 2019/2020 season.

So, what went wrong in five years that made Chelsea no longer competitive in the league ?

Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Kloop happened. The addition of these two coaches to the premier league raised the summit of the league. In the last 14 seasons before Conte won the league, the average points total of the Premier League winner was just over 88 points. 

Antonio Conte’s 93 points in 2017 was the highest total points by any premier league winner since Jose Mourinho 95 points in his first season at Chelsea in 2004/2005.

But the five completed seasons that followed Conte’s title winning season, the average points for any premier league winner has jumped by an incredible 7 points raising it to an average of 95 points for any league winner an increase about 8% on the previous 14 seasons of the Abramovich era. 

The 93 points that won Chelsea their last Premier League would have only won on one occasion in the last five years beating Manchester City in 2020/2021 and would have only missed out on goals difference in the 2021/2022 season.

So many factors facilitated the shift in expectations for Premier League success. But the most interesting part is the failure of Chelsea to implement their own managerial dynasty during the Russian reign.

Since Jose won the league back to back in his first stints at the club, the others titles came as one off which is largely opposite to what is happening in the league now. Jose on his return won the league and then singular titles for both Carlos Ancelotti and Antonio Conte.

Of which in that period, Chelsea hired 14 different managers including the return of both Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink under the ownership of Roman Abramovich. Manchester City have manage to dominate the league with Liverpool coming as their only direct rival, only Arsenal this season have managed to come close. 

At the time, this short termism as proven successful, which is why despite the expensive approach to this method, the then owner was willing to go with it. But in recent years, it look like it has lost it effectiveness, which answers the question above – was it holding Chelsea back?

It has indeed held Chelsea back in the present day, none of which proves Manchester City and Liverpool have spent than required but has shown a fact that expenditure isn’t enough anymore to win the premier league title. Arsenal who are topping the league table has also proven this fact by spending and sticking to long term vision. Seeing through your expenses and long term lens has proven to be the best approach to winning the Premier League in past few years.

Author: FASUYI BOLUWATIFE.