Jose Mourinho and his team were told by the boss exactly what was expected of them.
The full scale of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s win-at-all-costs philosophy will be unveiled to us in the off-season. For those involved at Stamford Bridge, I’m reliably informed it has already happened.
After the Blues’ shameful Champions League exit in Barcelona 10 days ago, Abramovich called his entire staff together. From the over-paid to the humble. From Jose Mourinho to the less special ones who languish in the star-spangled reserves, to the ground staff and the training staff. Even the media guys.
And he told them just what he thought, how bad it had been at the Nou Camp, demanding a full-scale investigation into a failure that has clearly shaken one of the world’s richest men.
Remember, Abramovich is no ordinary football club owner. Okay, it’s great having a boss who brings in £7-billion in a good year, but remember, this lad was orphaned by the age of four in 1970, he was raised close to the Arctic Circle at a time when being Jewish and frozen out went hand in hand.
He started his business career selling plastic ducks from a grim Moscow apartment before entering the oil business.
Though he was still in his 30s, he didn’t buy Chelsea for fun two years ago, though it does seem to provide plenty of that for his huge circle of grinning Russian pals, flown over at regular intervals, bugger the cost. And being in charge of a glamorous English football club provides Abramovich with a legitimacy he has always craved.
But by now Mourinho and company will know the ever-smiling Abramovich expects Chelsea to rise through the ranks in world football just as quickly as the orphan rose through the ranks of Russian society. Meteoric is an understatement, for a man who will be 40 this year.
Thing is, this passion for footballing conquest is going to hurt the rest of us as much as it hurts Mourinho if he fails to win the double this season. By the start of next season, Chelsea will be the proud owners of the two best-paid players in the history of football, so desperate is Abramovich to conquer his footballing foes as thoroughly as he did his rival oilmen.
Already Chelsea’s debts have been wiped out by the Abramovich chequebook. They exist on paper, but not in the mind of Mourinho. They have the highest wage bill in the Premiership and a plush new £30-million training facility, plus the most expensive reserve team ever assembled.
Next on the £330-million shopping list? Michael Ballack, the Bayern Munich midfielder, and Andrij Shevchenko, the Ukrainian striker currently at Milan. And they don’t come cheap.
Mourinho, Abramovich and the rest of us all feel that Didier Drogba is not quite up to the job of spearheading the most expensive side in Europe. I mean, he cost only £24-million when they signed him from Marseille in June 2004 (the French club had picked him up for £4-million from Guingamp just 12 months before).
And poor old Hernan Crespo might be on £90 000 a week after his £16,8-million move three years ago, but the poor lamb still can’t settle after spending most of last season on loan at AC Milan.
So apparently Crespo is going back to Italy. Shevchenko, with the old Russian connection coming to the fore, will arrive at Chelsea for £35-million, having already turned the Blues down last year, insisting he was happy in Milan.
Similarly, Ballack is on his way to the Bridge though he’s out of contract and won’t cost a penny in transfer fees.
The pair of them, certainly among the best in their positions anywhere in the world, stand to earn well over £100 000 a week and both are expected to rival the world-record wages of Ronaldinho and Ronaldo at Barcelona and Real Madrid, who earn a reputed £120 000 a week.
It’s nonsense of course, Chelsea being able to spend money like this. If Shevchenko can’t be persuaded, no doubt they’ll find Ronaldinho or Raul will finally accept the lure of the Abramovich rouble.
In the meantime we must sit and wait, hoping other clubs can keep up. And sneakily enjoying seeing the millionaires fail.
Ah well, they’ve already wrapped up their second successive Premiership title, something only Manchester United have managed to do in the past. So money clearly does talk.