Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher has claimed Chelsea's financial might has allowed them to take advantage of their Premier League rivals for the best part of 20 years, as owner Roman Abramovich looks to sell up.
Abramovich has been disqualified as a Blues director by the Premier League, amid the imposition of sanctions from the UK government. Chelsea themselves, meanwhile, have been forced to operate under a restricted licence which looks set to impact their ability to complete transfers and hand out new contracts.
In the 19 years since Abramovich completed his takeover of the London club, Chelsea have won the Premier League five times, the Champions League twice, and an array of other trophies including the most recent Club World Cup. They have also taken advantage of rivals, as Carragher puts it, on multiple occasions, and Mirror Football has looked at a few of the examples.
1. The Ashley Cole saga
Back in 2006, the phrase "tapping up" was on everyone's lips as Ashley Cole completed a move from Arsenal to Chelsea. A clandestine 2005 meeting involving the England defender, Blues manager Jose Mourinho and others took place at a London hotel without Arsenal being informed, and both player and manager were later hit with hefty fines for their part in proceedings.
"We'll go and get Ashley Cole, an invincible, we'll get caught tapping up, doesn't matter, we'll play the fine," Carragher said of Chelsea's part in the incident, during a Monday Night Football debate. While Cole renewed his Arsenal deal after the meeting, he would later move to Stamford Bridge in a deal which saw William Gallas move in the opposite direction.
Cole would end up staying at Chelsea for the best part of a decade, eventually leaving for Roma in 2014. During his time with the club, he won the Premier League and Champions League, and would later spend time on the coaching staff in west London.
2. Bringing in Peter Kenyon
In the early years under Abramovich, it wasn't just about players. It wasn't even about managers, though the financial incentives may have made it easier for them to attract the likes of Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti before their title wins.
'We can throw our money about and we can get who we want, we're going to go to Manchester United, the first thing we do, we're going to get Peter Kenyon their CEO," Carragher said. Kenyon was one of the first Chelsea hires of the Abramovich era, moving to London in September 2003 after several years with United.
Kenyon had been Man Utd's chief executive when they broke their transfer record to sign Rio Ferdinand in 2002, and was in place at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea completed a number of deals of their own, including the signing of Cole. He was involved in discussions which could have seen then-England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson join the club, and remained in place for two title wins and a number of big-money signings including the arrival of Andriy Shevchenko in 2007.
3. Youth signings and transfer ban
Chelsea faced an investigation into their recruitment of young players, with their move for Bertrand Traore featuring prominently in discussions of potential misconduct. Questions over a transfer ban were being asked as early as 2016, but it was not until 2019 that the club was hit with a one-year suspension when it came to new signings.
Traore, now a Burkina Faso international, played for Chelsea in friendly matches as a trialist before his 18th birthday, with FIFA rules stating that players from outside the EU couldn't transfer between clubs when younger than 18. The forward wasn't officially announced as a Chelsea signing until 2013, shortly after his 18th birthday, but had been seen turning out for the Blues' age-group sides before then.
Chelsea lost an appeal against their transfer ban in 2019, with FIFA identifying alleged breaches in relation to as many as 29 deals for young players. There was a fine on top of the ban, but Chelsea were able to make a number of senior signings in the years between the Traore deal and the ban.
4. Hijacking the Mikel deal
Back in 2005, Manchester United looked to have won the race to sign John Obi Mikel from Lyn. Indeed, the Norwegian club's director Morgan Andersen said as much in public.
However, the Nigerian - still just 18 at the time of the dispute - ended up moving to Chelsea with the Blues insisting they had an agreement with the player and his agents. He would end up joining the Blues in 2006, eventually spending more than a decade with the London side.
Chelsea ended up reaching a settlement which saw them pay out millions to both Lyn and Manchester United in order to resolve the situation. A less financially secure team might have been caused problems by the scenario, but it was not an issue with Abramovich at the helm.
5. Scooping up young stars
"They win the Youth Cup every year or get into the final, not because they have the best coaches or the best academy, but because they go and basically take the best players from every club within this country and relocate the family," Carragher said. Indeed, 10 of Chelsea's 13 FA Youth Cup finals - and seven of their nine wins - have come in the Abramovich era.
Back in 2006, former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates - then at Leeds United - accused Chelsea of tapping up over deals for academy talents Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo. Bates demanded £24m for the pair, neither of whom had played a first-team minute for Leeds, but Chelsea ended up paying a sum which could have eventually risen to £10m.
Taiwo and Woods weren't the only talents brought to Stamford Bridge after starting out at other academies, while Chelsea's financial might has allowed them to complete big-money deals over the years for players subsequently loaned out before making their first-team bow. Examples include British wonderkids Patrick Bamford and Scott Sinclair, as well as highly-rated young European talents such as Patrick van Aanholt and Charly Musonda.
6. Stockpiling big-money signings
It's not just youngsters who have joined Chelsea's so-called loan army. Indeed, the financial reserves have allowed the club to speculate on expensive senior players and move them along if things don't work out.
Michy Batshuayi joined Chelsea from Marseille for £33.2m in 2016, amid interest from other Premier League teams, while the Blues have paid similar amounts for Tiemoue Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater. None of the trio have reached 50 Premier League appearances in a Chelsea shirt.
The £100m+ outlay would be significant for most other Premier League clubs, to the point that the failure of such players to make an impact would hit them hard. In Chelsea's case, though, they have been able to simply go out and spend again.
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