The side-effects of Abramovich's reign

The big money transfers are a feature of his time at Chelsea. Well frankly it is his money, he can spend it the way he wants. What hurts football is the number of players he brings as back-up. For almost each position, the club has 2-3 back-ups. So many players of the same type at a single club at the same time mean that the growth of the players gets stunted. The club gets options, but we as fans get robbed of some genuinely good players or genuinely good players in the making.

The number of players brought in from other clubs in the 10 years under Abramovich – 83; And this is excluding the youth team players promoted to the first team and loan transfers. An average of about 8 per season. The result – many players came with trophy ambitions to the club, only to waste 2-3 years, stagnating, in the end transferring out to other clubs.

Jiri Jarosik, Thiago, Mateja Kezman, Slobodan Rajkovic, Lassana Diarra, Asier Del Horno, Saloman Kalou, Franco Di Santo, Ben Sahar– at varying stages of their career but have similar stories of unfulfilled potential. The reason for it is that at Chelsea they didn’t get enough opportunities to grow.

Who knows, perhaps the England squad could have been better had the likes of Scott Parker, Steve Sidwell, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips got more first team football when they were at Chelsea. All of them suffered by being at Chelsea when they most needed regular football for their development. One would be tempted to even include Glen Johnson and Joe Cole in the list. Thankfully Daniel Sturridge, realizing the future prospects at Chelsea, decided to leave for greener pastures at the right time.

Same fate holds true for the returning Jeffrey Bruma, Patrick Van Aanholt, Tomas Kalas, Kevin De Bruyne, Gael Kakuta, Lucas Piazon if they don’t leave Chelsea shores again next season at least on loan. Thibaut Courtois already realizing the situation has made statements that his place in the Belgium squad will be in danger if he doesn’t gets enough first team action next season, which he won’t at Chelsea till Cech remains at the club.

There is no doubt that Abramovich’s arrival at Chelsea has changed the dynamics of the Premier League, it has been a major factor in the commercial growth of the EPL in the last decade. It has made things much more interesting and yes, it has made Chelsea fans happier. But the football purists will always place the achievements of the likes of Swansea and Wigan Athletic, the rise of Borussia Dortmund, the business acumen of FC Porto above the accolades of Abramovich’s Chelsea.