Roman Abramovich's 10-year Chelsea anniversary: What did he ever do for us? (Spend £2 billion in 10 years at Chelsea, that's what)

 

Steve Tongue
Monday 01 July 2013 13:15 BST
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Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003
Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003

On the morning of Wednesday 2 July 2003, Tim Henman was preparing for a crucial Wimbledon quarter-final and David Beckham had signed for Real Madrid, but both were elbowed off the top of the sports pages by a little-known Russian businessman.

Roman Abramovich had bought Chelsea from Ken Bates for an initial £60 million that would more than double but represented no more than a drop in the Black Sea compared with what he would pour in over the next 10 years, while changing English football.

2003-04 Buys club for eventual £140m

Transfers: £121.3m (net £111.3m).

Main buys: Damien Duff £17m, Hernan Crespo £16.8m, Claude Makélélé £16.6m, Juan Sebastian Veron £15m.

Wages: £114.8m.

Losses: £87.8m.

Team: 2nd in Premier League. Claudio Ranieri replaced as manager by Jose Mourinho.

2004-05

Transfers: £95.8m (net £92.2m)

Main buys: Didier Drogba £24m, Ricardo Carvalho £20m, Paulo Ferreira £13.2m, Arjen Robben £12m.

Wages: £108.9m.

Losses: £140m.

Team: PL Champions, League Cup winners.

2005-06

Transfers: £54.2m (net £27.9m)

Main buys: Michael Essien £24m, Shaun Wright-Phillips £21m.

Wages: £114m.

Losses: £80.2m

Team: PL Champions.

2006-07

Transfers: £66m (net £36.2m).

Main buys: Andriy Shevchenko £30m, John Obi Mikel £16m.

Wages: £132.8m.

Losses: £74.8m.

Team: PL 2nd, FA Cup/League Cup winners.

2007-08

Transfers: £43m (net £18m)

Main buys: Florent Malouda £15m, Nicolas Anelka £15m, Branislav Ivanovic £9m.

Wages: £172.1m.

Losses: £65.7m.

Team: PL 2nd. Champions' League runners-up after Avram Grant replaces Mourinho.

2008-09

Transfers: £28.2m (net profit £12m)

Main buys: Jose Bosingwa £16.2m, Deco £8m.

Wages: £167.2m.

Losses: £44.4m.

Team: PL 3rd. FA Cup winners after Guus Hiddink replaces Luiz Felipe Scolari.

2009-10

Transfers: £21.5m (net £14.7m)

Main buy: Yuri Zhirkov £18m.

Wages: £174.1m

Losses: £70m.

Team: PL Champions and FA Cup winners under Carlo Ancelotti.

2010-11

Transfers: £95.8m (net £81.7m)

Main buys: Fernando Torres £50m, David Luiz £21m, Ramires £19.8m.

Wages: £191.2m.

Losses: £67.7m.

Team: PL 2nd. Ancelotti sacked, replaced by Andre Villas-Boas.

2011-12

Transfers: £72m (net £51.6m)

Main buys: Juan Mata £23.5m, Romelu Lukaku £18m, Raul Meireles £12m.

Wages: £172.9m.

Profit: £1.4m.

Team: PL 6th. Champions' League/FA Cup winners after Villas-Boas replaced by Roberto Di Matteo.

2012-13

Transfers: £84.5m (net £64.5m)

Main buys: Eden Hazard £32m, Oscar £25m, Victor Moses £9m, Demba Ba £7m.

Wages: £140.3m.

Losses: tbc (February 2014).

Team: PL 3rd. Europa League winners after Rafa Benitez replaces Di Matteo.

Which makes a total of....

Wages: £1.49bn

Transfers: £642.3m (net £510.1m)

Training ground: £20m

Losses: £629.2m

Source: Deloitte's Annual Review of Football Finance

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