Chelsea FC: How Roman Abramovich Is Preventing Future Success for the Club

While Roman Abramovich might be happy with his position as owner of Chelsea FC, his impatience with managers over the past five years have been far from it.

For the past month there have been a number of reports linking Carlo Ancelotti with a move away from the club and a host of managers lined up to take his place.

Does this come from fans who are at odds against a manager who brought them the domestic double last season? Or maybe the players who are unable to adjust to his brand of management and therefore can’t translate his ideas into wins.

No, it comes from the owner—one who clearly can’t see a good manager when he has one.

The problem with Abramovich’s philosophy of running a football club is that there is only so much money one person can throw at a club before UEFA enforce their new financial regulations.

Chelsea have become known as a club who cannot operate from within. They are constantly looking for quick-fix solutions to problems which will take a number of seasons to rectify.

The transfer of Fernando Torres is a example of an owner who was desperate to achieve something this year—a stark contrast to his policy of trimming the wage bill and keeping his chequebook firmly in his pocket last summer.

The problem with this is where does it leave Chelsea this summer?

Most clubs who had spent £50 million on one player and were yet to see a return in the form of goals would be hard pressed to raise that kind of cash for another spending spree six months later.

The acquisition of Torres was clearly something that came from Abramovich and not a burden Ancelotti wished to place upon his own shoulders.

The price tag alone is something which forces the Chelsea manager to put Torres in the starting lineup even though the combination of Drogba and Anelka has worked well over the season.

Torres’ failure to score goals leads to Chelsea failing to secure a trophy and thus has a knock on effect on Ancelotti’s job security—a ridiculous position to be in considering what he had achieved in his first season in English football.

The problem with Abramovich is that he doesn’t understand football. He fails to see the success managers like Ferguson and Wenger have had by having the freedom to build a club.

These are managers who know they can go a number of seasons with a trophy and still retain their position as manager due to the direction they take their respective clubs.

Abramovich needs to understand that a young manager like Ancelotti or even Mourinho is exactly what the club need in the long run to be successful.

A club who can produce and implement youth  into the first team is vitally important in an era where UEFA are becoming far more strict on club’s ability to be self-sustaining.

No longer will Abramovich be able to spontaneously splash the cash on players like Shevchenko and Torres against the wishes of the manager and expect instant results.

La Masia, London Colney and the Ajax Academy are examples of the model Chelsea should be investing in.

Going forward Abramovich needs to understand the importance of a manager needing time to develop an aging group of winners into a club who can look to their own conveyor belt of youth products to supplement a squad.

If he doesn’t, he may be looking at a situation where no top manager will want to work with him due to his interference in first team matters.

Chelsea need an owner who will allow the club to move away from the reckless spending of unneeded superstars and towards a goal of achieving long-term self-sustainability.