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Chelsea are going down and indeed already are well down the track of being the most hated side in England and possibly Europe.
When Abramovich came in, for neutrals it was exciting. For years that had seen Arsenal and Manchester United dominate the Premiership but suddenly there was a 3rd rival who on paper, could completely dominate them.
Plus, the manager who seemingly benefited from it was one of the nicest in the game. Can anyone here seriously say they dislike Ranieri? I doubt it, the guy is a complete gentleman, and the only good thing I took from us losing to Chelsea in the Champions League was the sheer joy in his eyes. It wasn’t arrogance like Mourinho running down the touchline at Old Trafford, it was pure unadulterated joy, it was like he couldn’t not believe what had happened. I was devastated we lost, and did not want Chelsea to win the CL because of our rivalry, but deep down if they had done I would have been pleased for Ranieri.
But this year it has all changed. They sacked a gentleman who got Chelsea to their best finish in 49 seasons, and who also took them the furthest they (and indeed we) have been in the Champions League. Instead they installed a guy, who while brilliantly football wise, was only interested in promoting himself and how great he was. Slowly as the year has gone by he has become more and more full of himself and Chelsea are just acting like they can do what they want, when they want.
To make things worse for neutrals, Chelsea have actually gone the other way this season, instead of competing with us and United they, through spending a ridiculous amount of money, have been far too good for both of us. The fact is that without Chelsea, we would be on for a SENSATIONAL title race this season, United leading us by 2 points with 8 games to go. But no, Chelsea have ruined that too.
Now it should be said, that the Chelsea players deserve all the accolades they will get. They have been SUPERB, both in performances and commitment, and it’s not fair to taint them with the same brush. Even Chelsea’s fans, while sometimes embarrassing are only doing what any other set of fans would. If a billionaire bought Arsenal tomorrow, gave Wenger £220 million and we won the Champions League would we give a damn? Probably not, in fact I’m sure we would revel in it.
But the management at Chelsea, Abramovich, Kenyon and Mourinho look like killing the game. If Chelsea have £50 million to £100 million to spend every summer then how can ANYONE compete?
Worse of all, when Chelsea act like they own football, like in the Cole saga, or in this case, what can you do? Fining them is pointless because unless you going into the hundreds of millions range its nothing to them. But at the same time, you cannot say, deduct Chelsea 5 points for tapping up Cole when Villa only got a £20,000 fine for tapping up Beattie. Chelsea would take the FA to court and win.
So where does this leave us all? God only knows, we can only hope at some point the Russian pulls out and hopefully ask for his transfer money back.
I feel for Wenger, having read books on him he was denied a legacy at Monaco because he could not play Marseille on a level playing field due to match rigging. Now Chelsea have done nothing illegal, but instead of having a chance to dominate English football with a combination of established quality, impressive youngsters, a great new stadium AND finally some cash to strength the squad, he is going go have to work miracles to stop Chelsea because of their unlimited cash flows.
The only good thing to draw from the situation at Chelsea is this:
While it may be hard for us to stop them over the next few seasons, any trophies we do win will mean all that much more and ANYTHING they win will be tainted because they, literally, would have been NOTHING without a Russian oil oligarch.
