When Roman Abramovich took over the reins of Chelsea Football Club in the summer of 2003, most people predicted that it would be a short-lived, if successful era in the Chelsea history.
Since then it has certainly been successful, despite trophy less seasons under Claudio Ranieri and last season under Avram Grant, José Mourinho provided the club's first two Premier League titles since 1955, along with The FA Cup and the Carling Cup. And, despite plenty of controversy, and Roman Abramovich failing to attend many important games at the tail end last season, so far there has been little mention of the Abramovich era coming to an end.
What is worrying however; is the direction that Chelsea appear to be moving towards. The noted best players in the world today appear to be getting younger (the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Torres etc.) compared to a few years ago when the golden oldies of Zidane, Ronaldo and Inzaghi reined supreme.
Meanwhile, an almost all over-30, World Cup winning Italian side slumped to a penalty shoot-out loss to Spain in the quarter finals of Euro 2008.
Despite the recent trend towards youth, consistently shown by Arsene Wenger's ability to buy talented youngsters, and despite the expensive and illegal recruitment of Head Scout Frank Arnesen from rivals Spurs, Chelsea's squad appears to be getting older. A natural sequence of events one may feel, however it has left the squad beleaguered and in desperate need of energetic young attackers who can run at opponents.
The injury-prone but vibrant winger Arjen Robben left the then champions 12 months ago, leaving Joe Cole to do his best to open up teams on his own, while Robben's replacement, the useless Florent Malouda struggled to make any impact whatsoever and Shaun Wright-Phillips impatiently warmed the bench.
The first team squad can now almost entirely be made up of aging players, bar Michael Essien and Petr Cech and perhaps John Terry, the likes of Drogba (30), Ballack (30), Lampard (30), Makelele (35), Carvalho (31) are the core of the team.
The squad however clearly does not lack creative midfielders who can make a pass from the middle of the park; Ballack, Essien, Lampard and Makelele fought for competition last year, but who is Scolari's first signing? The 30 year old creative central midfielder Deco.
Not many people would argue that there wasn’t a huge difference between Manchester United and Chelsea last season, and yet, Chelsea had their worst season for three years, missing out on three trophies, while it was the second greatest in United history, netting the Champions League and Premier League double.
Perhaps the only difference between the sides was the energy, youthfulness, and downright brilliance of 23 year old Cristiano Ronaldo, now rated as the best player in the world. Even Spurs have got the idea of bringing in the best youth players despite having their youth director Arnesen headhunted.
They have signed Aaron Lennon, Giovani Dos Santos, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, all younger than most of Chelsea’s reserve team players. Is Spurs’ surprising and impressive run against the Blues’ last season, including a famous Carling Cup victory a coincidence?
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