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What is Roman Abramovich's football philosophy?
As the secretive Russian billionaire has given
just one unrevealing interview
during 10 years at Chelsea, that's left for others to describe.
The popular image is of a ruthless and impatient owner,
a man who has sacked nine managers and lavished £700m on transfer fees.
Yet Frank Arnesen, who worked for the 46-year-old for
six years, says this isn't the man he knows. The Dane describes
Abramovich as an owner who passionately believes in developing young
players, wants his teams to play attractive football and is thoughtful
and considered about everything he does.
Arnesen was chief scout and director of youth and
development at Chelsea from 2005 to 2011 and talks of an owner who
"would just show up at FA Youth Cup games, really enjoy them and then
come and congratulate us afterwards".
Chelsea trophies under Abramovich
- 1 Champions League (2011-12)
- 1 Europa League (2012-13)
- 3 Premier League titles (2004-05, 2005-06, 2009-10)
- 4 FA Cups (2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12)
- 2 League Cups (2004-05, 2006-07)
This is the contradiction at the heart of
Abramovich's Chelsea. On the one hand, Abramovich spent £20m on
Chelsea's state-of-the-art Cobham training centre and academy, millions
more to wrestle Arnesen from Spurs, and takes a keen interest in the
progress of the club's young stars.
And the results have been impressive, with Chelsea
featuring in four of the last six FA Youth Cup finals and producing a
host of excellent young players.
Yet on the flip side, not a single academy graduate has
established himself in Chelsea's first team during Abramovich's 10
years at the club, and they failed to field an English under-21 player
during the entire 2012-13 Premier League season.
Abramovich's first manager, Claudio Ranieri, once
complained that the Russian "knows nothing about football" and Arnesen
admits that "when Roman came in he didn't know a lot about the game".
Yet he quickly adds that Abramovich is "a very intelligent man who put a lot of effort into learning about the game".
His mentor has been Piet de Visser, a 78-year-old
Dutchman who was previously chief scout at PSV Eindhoven, where he was
credited with discovering Brazilian legends Romario and Ronaldo.
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| Abramovich brokered a £140m deal with Ken Bates to buy Chelsea on 1 July 2003 |
"Roman developed his knowledge of football through Piet," says
Arnesen. "He was with him for weeks in the summer [of 2004], explaining
formations, what he needed to be successful, that he had to start with
the youth.
"He caught up very quickly and was very serious about
it. He didn't want to just buy Chelsea and see how it would go. He was
actually working very hard to catch up about football all the time."
It was De Visser who recommended Arnesen, then
Tottenham's director of football, to oversee Chelsea's academy and
scouting network.
Arnesen explains "Roman wanted to have the best academy
and best scouting in the world and thought I was the man to start this
up."
Transfer spending under Abramovich
- 2003-04: £121.3m
- 2004-05: £92.2m
- 2005-06: £54.2m
- 2006-07: £66m
- 2007-08: £50.5m
- 2008-09: £24.2m
- 2009-10: £21.5m
- 2010-11: £95.8m
- 2011-12: £71.55m
- 2012-13: £86.5m
- TOTAL: £683.75m
Under Arnesen, Chelsea were aggressive in
securing the finest young talent in the world. They had a wrangle with
Manchester United over the
transfer of 18-year-old John Obi Mikel
and had to compensate French side Lens after the
controversial signing of teenager Gael Kakuta.
The priority was to sign local players, but Chelsea's
scouting network covered the whole world. They also wanted to develop
English coaches and Arnesen says: "We had one Dutch coach in the first
year I was there, but for the last five years we had only English
coaches".
Teams from under nines upwards played the same way, and
Arnesen and De Visser undoubtedly had great influence on Abramovich
when it came to how Chelsea sides should play.
"We made a programme for the style of play, from under
nines up," says Arnesen. "We were playing 4-3-3 with a number 10
[playmaker], learning to play from the back.
"I told Roman about my past at Ajax, for 18 years, then 18 or 19 years at PSV, and about my philosophy of football."
The influence of the Dutch duo created friction with Jose Mourinho, Chelsea's supremely successful manager who is now back at the club for a second spell.
Mourinho won back-to-back Premier League titles and two League Cups, yet Abramovich was unconvinced by some of his signings, frustrated by his sometimes functional style of play, and believed he should be giving more academy players chances in the first team.
In July 2006, Arnesen was handed overall control of transfers, which angered Mourinho, and the following year De Visser told a Dutch magazine: "Mr Abramovich is fed up that he has to keep paying millions and millions for big star players.
"There comes a stage where you think it is pointless to spend so much, especially when it concerns players that Chelsea could develop within their own system or within their own youth academy.
"He had to pay an absolute fortune to get players like Didier Drogba and Michael Essien. This is why he has asked me as a private scout to look out for top-class young players who will be the Chelsea stars in three years' time."
Things came to a head in September 2007 when Abramovich,
tired of Mourinho's outbursts, style of play and refusal to engage
with his football advisers, decided to dispense with his Portuguese manager.
Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink
stepped into the manager's seat for short spells. A manager who is under
pressure or on a short-term contract rarely looks to the longer term
and bloods youngsters, which proved the case here.
The strongest tie-up between the academy and first team
came under he stewardship of Italian Carlo Ancelotti, who joined the
club in 2009 and won the double in his first season. At the start of the
following campaign, he promoted four academy products - Kakuta,
Patrick Van Aanholt,
Jeffrey Bruma
and
Josh McEachran
- to his first team.
Kakuta played 19 games for Chelsea's first
team that season, Van Aanholt 18, Bruma 18 and McEachran 17, and
academy manager Neil Bath said: "With Carlo's support and the board's
support, we feel there is light at the end of the tunnel."
But at the end of the season Ancelotti was sacked, with
Andre-Villas Boas and then Roberto Di Matteo coming in as manager.
Chelsea realised Abramovich's dream of
winning the Champions League,
as well as the FA Cup, but the quartet's opportunities were severely restricted.
Bruma went on to join PSV Eindhoven and, although the
other three are still at Chelsea, they all have been out on loan since
the 2010-11 season.
Admittedly, another academy product, Ryan Bertrand, has
tasted first-team action and even played in the 2012 Champions League
final, but he has failed to fully establish himself in the side. Indeed
the last homegrown player to become a first-team fixture is John Terry,
blooded by Ranieri before Abramovich even arrived at Stamford Bridge.
Abramovich: 10 managers in 10 years
- 1. Claudio Ranieri (2000-04)
- 2. Jose Mourinho (2004-07)
- 3. Avram Grant (2007-08)
- 4. Luiz Felipe Scolari (2008-09)
- 5. Guus Hiddink (2009)
- 6. Carlo Ancelotti (2009-11)
- 7. Andre Villas-Boas (2011-12)
- 8. Roberto Di Matteo (2012)
- 9. Rafa Benitez (2012-13)
- 10. Jose Mourinho (2013-)
Arnesen argues: "What it's about at the end of the day is the
success of the team. You have to win trophies and this is what Chelsea
have done under Roman. They have won the Premier League three times, the
Europa League and the Champions League.
"He used his own money to invest, maybe £1bn, and you have to have a lot of respect for that."
Yet, as Chelsea themselves
say on their own website,
it goes deeper than that. "A successful academy has the potential
to save the club millions of pounds in the transfer market [and] can
also promote long-term loyalty and commitment among those players who
make it into the 'big time'," it states.
We'll have to wait and see whether Mourinho can promote
this in his second incarnation at the club - and whether Abramovich
gives him the time to do so.
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