In a parellel universe somewhere Putin didn't pull the trigger and invade Ukraine and Roman is still the owner. Who would our manager be and how different would our starting eleven be? What sort of transfers would the old ownership have made? Would we be in the champions league this year? 

This is not a hating thread on the new owners at all, so please do not turn it into one. Just a hypothetical scenario that seems interesting to think about. 

Manager: Thomas Tuchel 

 

Edited August 21, 20241 yr by Erik

alternatively, now that Ukraine has invaded Russia can we have Roman back please

Tuchel would’ve got one more year for sure but I think the gulf between us and City/Liverpool was only ever going to expand. Maybe Nagelsmann is his replacement?

 

No idea who would have been the GK it’s obvious Kepa wasn’t the answer and the drop off from Mendy is something that needs studying.

Chilwell barring injuries would’ve been LB

Rudiger would’ve stayed if the Government hadn’t stuck their noses in

Gvardiol had a Marina transfer written all over it

James, as has been with his trajectory, would’ve been Club Captain

Rice would’ve not been f**ked around by us so much and come home

Ugarte would’ve been a natural replacement for an aging/injury riddled Kante

Mount is not worth wasting any breath on but he stays and never loses faith/form

Olise we’d have signed before last season

Lewandowski I think we’d have taken advantage of Barcelonas finances ‘to get us over the line’

Bailey we seemed to be linked with for an eternity.

 

Obviously I think Gallagher would’ve been sold to Palace & Colwill to Brighton a la Guehi.

We never sign Cole Palmer so what would’ve happened to his career?

Still think we’d have moved Havertz on alongside Pulisic etc.

The undermining of Roman's ownership pre dated the Russian invasion. He was persona non grata as far as the British government were concerned following the Salisbury poisonings and therefore he was probably exiled from the country for about two years prior. So i think it is hard to tell really what would have happened if things weren't just left to Buck, Marina et al to deal with. Who knows.

We could have gone this way though, god forbid

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/5064922/chelsea-news-leonid-slutsky-hull-city/

We would be in a much better position, Roman wouldn’t have bought a billion pound’s worth of players 

Probably would have had a better defence, we still wouldn't have been playing like Barcelona, we can't because of how the PL and PGMOL allow defenders to get away with murder. A Jacobs on Talk S**** on Monday didn't disappoint, saying E Fernandez is suited to La Liga not the BPL. What sort of frikin quote is that, I know what he means and it's one of the reasons why I can't feel support towards the England football team, I cheer on the England RU team sometimes, especially when they're playing against New Zealand.

Jacobs soothing the Talk S**** base, trying to make them feel better, well they should be watching RL not football.  

3 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

The undermining of Roman's ownership pre dated the Russian invasion. He was persona non grata as far as the British government were concerned following the Salisbury poisonings and therefore he was probably exiled from the country for about two years prior. So i think it is hard to tell really what would have happened if things weren't just left to Buck, Marina et al to deal with. Who knows.

We could have gone this way though, god forbid

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/5064922/chelsea-news-leonid-slutsky-hull-city/

I personally think the reason why the last few years were so rocky were because of this. Very hard to run a football club when you're not even allowed in the country anymore. It was left in charge of the people that had the best intentions, but were very up and down with their success rate.

Roman was the enemy of the whole western world due to being Russian even prior to the war in the Ukraine, it was only a matter of time, I'm just grateful he decided to play along and not to watch the club getting fully destroyed.

What makes me mad about it all is that I don't even believe our government had any good intentions when it came to stealing the club from Abramovich. All they cared about was getting one up on Russia, they didn't give a sh*t about anything but that.

5 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

What makes me mad about it all is that I don't even believe our government had any good intentions when it came to stealing the club from Abramovich. All they cared about was getting one up on Russia, they didn't give a sh*t about anything but that.

The fact that they are still sitting on the money when I thought it was being used for humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Was Roman negotiating for this at one stage.

13 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

The fact that they are still sitting on the money when I thought it was being used for humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Was Roman negotiating for this at one stage.

RA wanted the aid to be used "for all victims" of the conflict. The government specified Ukrainian victims.

1 minute ago, dermott said:

RA wanted the aid to be used "for all victims" of the conflict. The government specified Ukrainian victims.

Hmm, not sure how David Cameron falls into either category.  He was just a victim of his own ego in misjudging the mood of the majority at the time leading up to brexit.

We definitely wouldn't have signed Mudryk.

Colwill would have been pure profit fodder the way Guehi and Livramento were, possibly Gallagher aswell but he may have insisted on staying and forcing his way in although that pivot with Rice would have been brutal in possesion.

There wasn't a snowball in hells chance we would have got Kvaratskhelia however, the old regime struggled badly in negotiations with ADL. Off the back of that 2023 title there's no way Marina would have negotiated ADL down to a price she would pay/we could afford.

Lukaku also would have got another chance (confirmed by Cech).

Roman's days were numbered, as was said earlier in this thread they (the government) made it difficult for him to run the club.

One way or another they would have found a way to force him out, the Russian invasion was just an excuse.

BlueCo had been on the scene for a while indeed they supposedly had offered £2 billion the year before sanctions.

All the rumours are that following him withdrawing his investor visa all the ducks were being put in a row manoeuvring toward a sale.

Valuations had been obtained and that was key.

So I personally believe RA wouldn’t be around in effect the only question would be would it have BlueCo or that chap ( I  cant be bothered to look up his name ) who was in contention indeed some thought favourite , if you remember the fan base put an end to his ambitions 

So for me nothing would be different 

 

59 minutes ago, terraloon said:

BlueCo had been on the scene for a while indeed they supposedly had offered £2 billion the year before sanctions.

All the rumours are that following him withdrawing his investor visa all the ducks were being put in a row manoeuvring toward a sale.

Valuations had been obtained and that was key.

So I personally believe RA wouldn’t be around in effect the only question would be would it have BlueCo or that chap ( I  cant be bothered to look up his name ) who was in contention indeed some thought favourite , if you remember the fan base put an end to his ambitions 

So for me nothing would be different 

 

Lifelong MU supporter Jim Radcliffe?