Thank You Mr Roman Abramovich

[PloKoon13]

Ironically most of them were sold anyway!

[Englishman]

21 hours ago, abister1 said:

Haha haha, again haha haha.

Let me just say not many businesses have been sold for £1 and still stand today.  Let's just be grateful that we survived that in 1982 and were lucky with Roman's intervention in 2003.

And well we may not have been extinct, maybe just like the new rangers in Scotland.  

I was referring to 2003, when Roman forked out £60m for something he could have apparently had for peanuts days later. In 2003 we had £250m of fixed assets, including a stadium on the most valuable real estate in the world, a multi-million pound squad, were in the CL, etc. The problem was short-term liquidity, with the £9m Eurobond installment we were struggling to pay. Not exactly an ideal situation, of course, but it's an exaggeration to claim we were at the point of extinction either. Had Roman not bought us we probably would have been sold to Ecclestone's group.

[nutmegsw6]

On 10/11/2016 at 13:20, DonAntonio said:

In this era a club like Chelsea wouldn't go into obscurity it's far too attractive an investment for us not to get an owner like sheikh mansoor, maybe even him considering Arabs obsession for SW1 and surrounding areas, if you offered him Chelsea or city he would take Chelsea 100 out of 100

Agree with the first part, though one of the main reasons the Sheikh bought City was to trade on the Manchester name, those Tevez 'Welcome to Manchester' posters were all part of it. You maybe right but City had huge potential and the Sheikh followed it through.

[abister1]

On 17/10/2016 at 12:04, Englishman said:

On 18/10/2016 at 19:29, Englishman said:

I was referring to 2003, when Roman forked out £60m for something he could have apparently had for peanuts days later. In 2003 we had £250m of fixed assets, including a stadium on the most valuable real estate in the world, a multi-million pound squad, were in the CL, etc. The problem was short-term liquidity, with the £9m Eurobond installment we were struggling to pay. Not exactly an ideal situation, of course, but it's an exaggeration to claim we were at the point of extinction either. Had Roman not bought us we probably would have been sold to Ecclestone's group.

It's no exaggeration but a statement of the facts as they stared down at us.  Your argument takes a in hindsight view with reference being made to probable occurrences which you and I will now never know would have materialised. 

Don't forget the times then we're not particularly like they are now 13 years later. It was real trouble and like Coxy15 touched on in his earlier post the champions league football wasn't guaranteed. We were saved by a combination of factors swinging our way in quick succession. If the swung against us we could have been bankrupt. It's not even as if the physical stadium site belonged to the club. 

We will never be in that position again due to the strides we as a club have made and yes if we were to be put up for sale there would be a queue of buyers due to prime geography,history and recent achievements but it hasn't always been the case.  In a way Roman started the wide scale foreign billionaire investment in English football so let's not act like at the time it was a given that a situation like this would be the ultimate outcome

 

[Carshalton Blue]

Ive not agreed with everything Roman has done just like i didnt with Bates, saying that both have my up most respect for how both put us back on the map(even more so under Roman)

In football terms i do think with all the money Roman has spent we should have at least 2/3 more titles under our belts.

When you think after Jose's first stint ended it'd took us five years to win another title, with the spine of the team still at the club then maybe we should have sown up another title in that five years, of course with the amount of different managers who came & went during that time i suppose it was inevitable.

Then Carlo came & we won our first double, the following season we finished 2nd, then we sacked Carlo, another 4/5 years without a title ensured during a managerial runaround.

It took us to get Jose back before we won another title, now what? will we find another Carlo or will we be back to square one with various managers coming & going & all failing to win the League?I'd love Conte to be given time & for him to win us the PL only time will tell with that.

Yes i know we won cups & the bigun the CL during those times which i could have only dreamt about but i'm just talking about PL titles, i'm sure Roman would have expected to win a few more by now.

 

[Englishman]

2 hours ago, abister1 said:

It's no exaggeration but a statement of the facts as they stared down at us.  Your argument takes a in hindsight view with reference being made to probable occurrences which you and I will now never know would have materialised.

It is an exaggeration and it's not a statement of fact to say we were about to go bankrupt when Roman bought us. Against £250m of assets, the issue was a £9m Eurobond installment we were about to default on. The problem was short-term liquidity, ie cash flow. Not an ideal situation, but not on the verge of bankruptcy either. In that situation, before going bust, we had the option of seeking out new investment (which is what we did, successfully), selling some assets or trying to renegotiate/restructure the debts. The fact that the likes of Roman and Ecclestone were interested at all shows we were considered an attractive proposition.

[Scott]

Mr A with RLC, Solanke, and Tammy

 

 

[kiwi1691]

9 hours ago, Scott said:

Mr A with RLC, Solanke, and Tammy

Many people on the internet are arguing that isn't Ruben. 

[ForeverCarefree]

29 minutes ago, kiwi1691 said:

Many people on the internet are arguing that isn't Ruben. 

In which case many people have too much time on their hands. 

[Jezz]

That's a priceless photo of Roman with the three academy prospects!

Great photo!

[enigma]

really interesting read on abramovich and his legacy in russia. sad to hear about his parents both dying while he was so young. 

http://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/08/03/the-early-years-of-roman-abramovich-and-his-legacy-in-russia/

[bola]

On 23/10/2016 at 06:03, Scott said:

Mr A with RLC, Solanke, and Tammy

 

 

 

I see.. so that's how all the sentimental about RLC coming from..  just to make sure, which 1 is rlc? the kid in the centre?

[kiwi1691]

5 hours ago, bola said:

 

I see.. so that's how all the sentimental about RLC coming from..  just to make sure, which 1 is rlc? the kid in the centre?

RLC is not in the image. 

 

[Argo]

On October 20, 2016 at 20:28, Carshalton Blue said:

Ive not agreed with everything Roman has done just like i didnt with Bates, saying that both have my up most respect for how both put us back on the map(even more so under Roman)

In football terms i do think with all the money Roman has spent we should have at least 2/3 more titles under our belts.

When you think after Jose's first stint ended it'd took us five years to win another title, with the spine of the team still at the club then maybe we should have sown up another title in that five years, of course with the amount of different managers who came & went during that time i suppose it was inevitable.

Then Carlo came & we won our first double, the following season we finished 2nd, then we sacked Carlo, another 4/5 years without a title ensured during a managerial runaround.

It took us to get Jose back before we won another title, now what? will we find another Carlo or will we be back to square one with various managers coming & going & all failing to win the League?I'd love Conte to be given time & for him to win us the PL only time will tell with that.

Yes i know we won cups & the bigun the CL during those times which i could have only dreamt about but i'm just talking about PL titles, i'm sure Roman would have expected to win a few more by now.

 

After jose left we were average at flat track bullying, that's why we didn't win more titles. Even in 09/10 it was the same story but we got away with it due to a unique 6 out of 6 vs the red rivals. The issue was Fergie use to drill it in his teams that every point counted wereas we didn't show the same intensity for the Hulls of this world and it often shown in the final table.

[Jezz]

30 minutes ago, Argo said:

After jose left we were average at flat track bullying, that's why we didn't win more titles. Even in 09/10 it was the same story but we got away with it due to a unique 6 out of 6 vs the red rivals. The issue was Fergie use to drill it in his teams that every point counted wereas we didn't show the same intensity for the Hulls of this world and it often shown in the final table.

We should have won another title between 2007-2009. We had too much quality in those years to be left empty-handed but the circus of managerial changes in this time didn't help.

To be fair, Manchester United were a quality side in those years with Ronaldo emerging as a superstar of the game. Essentially between 2006 to 2011, the competition for titles was between us and United. Arsenal had declined in late 2004-2005 and City didn't emerge as a major force until 2012.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Jezz

[Argo]

9 minutes ago, Jezz said:

We should have won another title between 2007-2009. We had too much quality in those years to be left empty-handed but the circus of managerial changes in this time didn't help.

To be fair, Manchester United were a quality side in those years with Ronaldo emerging as a superstar of the game. Essentially between 2006 to 2011, the competition for titles was between us and United. Arsenal had declined in late 2004-2005 and City didn't emerge as a major force until 2012.

United had Ronaldo but we had the better all round team (although i guess if you include managers in a team that tips the balance in their favour), the application in flat track games was what separated us. 07 08 is the biggest example, 10 points we dropped after 88 minutes vs Everton, Villa, Spurs, Wigan and Bolton.

[charierre]

http://8by8mag.com/into-the-mystic/   

Good article on Roman.

[Haz139]

On 20/11/2016 at 19:21, charierre said:

http://8by8mag.com/into-the-mystic/   

Good article on Roman.

Came here to post this. A good read about our supreme leader and glorious overlord. Much nicer than people make him out to be 

[kiwi1691]

Chelsea shell out over £30,000 on hampers for ex-players as Roman Abramovich reconnects with the past

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4103744/Chelsea-s-30-000-hamper-gesture-former-players-Roman-Abramovich-continues-reconnect-past.html

[TheChelseaBlues]

lol, the word hamper has a very different meaning in Missouri. I was very confused at first

Edited January 10, 2017 by TheChelseaBlues

[Jezz]

Under the ownership of Roman, I've heard from all corners that our ability to reconnect and reach out to old club servants has been nothing short of outstanding.

This article merely confirms that.

[PythonLu]

Such a lovely gesture, and they seem to do it without telling the whole world about it. Great club, great people.

[robdog]

I remember when these days came few & far between, so I had to give a shout out to Mr. A -  quick look at the Roman effect

personally I don't thank this guy enough but I don't forget the leap we have made w/ CFC having Mr. A at the Helm

 

[Brutos]

Remember when jealous fans stated it was his play thing and he will get bored well it seems he gets more passionate each year. I hope he has learnt from the Jose fiasco and back Conte 110%

[Paul70]

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by Devil Dog