Crossroads for Abramovich: Sell or Invest?!

This morning The Sunday Times published an article claiming that Roman Abramovich is ready to sell his stake in Chelsea Football Club; Abramovich has denied this vigorously and has begun legal action to sue The Times.

However, Abramovich’s recent reluctance to invest further into a club he has already poured hundreds of millions of pounds into, begs the questions; why does he still own Chelsea? Is he still interested in the club? And if so why can’t he see that Chelsea need to spend further to keep up with their rivals?

Abramovich has suffered badly during the global economic crisis. Despite still being estimated at having a net wealth in the billions his companies are struggling in Russia, and he has lost much of his fortune.

Contrastingly, the new owners of Man City seem to have millions of pounds burning a hole in their pockets. No doubt, with the huge improvements Abramovich has made to Chelsea’s reputation and success, he would be able to sell the club for far more than the £150 million he bought it for.

The crucial factor is that Abramovich and the Chelsea hierarchy have refused to invest into buying the extra one or two players that could turn Chelsea from a very good team into a team of real world beaters. Last August, a deal could have been done for Robinho weeks before the September deadline, but the refusal to up the bid by less than £5m allowed Man City to snatch him away at the last moment.

It is so clear to any Chelsea fan, or anyone who has watched Chelsea this season, that they are in desperate need of a quick, young striker, especially now with Joe Cole—the only player who seems to be able to open up games for Chelsea—out injured for the rest of the season.

Despite form that can simply be described as mediocre, with Chelsea consistently failing to have a plan B in order to break teams down, Chelsea have denied all rumours of them buying any players in January. Furthermore, Chelsea have sold attacking players such as Shevchenko, Pizzaro, Wright-Phillips, and Arjen Robben, but have bought only the distinctly average Florent Malouda to replace them.

Please, don’t sue me Mr. Abramovich, I don’t know whether you want to sell Chelsea or not, however, the matter deserves long and hard consideration. Based on the success he has brought, I for one, as an avid Chelsea fan, would certainly look at proceeding with extreme caution with regards to the future of this great club.