Roman Abramovich built his dynasty at Chelsea based on frivolous spending in the transfer market and ruthless decision-making.
Clearlake Capital and BlueCo, owned by Todd Boehly, completed the £2.5 billion takeover of Chelsea in May 2022 after Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government.
The Russian billionaire reportedly spent approximately £2bn on signings during his 19-year stewardship, resulting in the club winning 21 major trophies.
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Chelsea have been charged by the FA for alleged breaches of regulations, which are believed to have occurred during Abramovich’s reign.
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However, despite his long history of prolonged spending at Stamford Bridge, one former Blues boss believes a lack of transfer activity resulted in his short-lived spell.
Andre Villas-Boas blames lack of spending for Chelsea failure
In an interview with GiveMeSport, Andre Villas-Boas cited the lack of backing in the transfer market when discussing his time at Chelsea.
“What I mostly recall from that time it was uh the lowest investment Chelsea has ever made in a transfer window in the Abramovich era was that specific year. So from then on after there were investments of 300 million in the transfer window.
“As you can recall our transfer window on that particular year which led to the Champions League was uh Gary Cahill for a few quid or Romeu for a few quid Lukaku for a few quid, Mata which we didn’t spend a lot as well so nothing compared to 300 400 500 that went on the following years.”
Villas-Boas lasted only nine months in West London before the Chelsea players pushed for his dismissal, with interim boss Roberto Di Matteo winning the club’s first-ever Champions League at the end of the 2011/12 season.
He is now club president of FC Porto, the club which the Blues paid a £13.3m release clause to hire, a world-record fee at the time.
His subsequent spell at London rivals Tottenham Hotspur would prove more fruitful, although he lasted one-year-and-a-half, Villas-Boas’ departure had a profound effect on his players and he departed with the club’s highest win ratio of the Premier League era.
Although Oriol Romeu would fail to meet the mark at Stamford Bridge, the rest of the players Villas-Boas cited enjoyed successful stints at Chelsea, with Gary Cahill in particular winning eight major trophies.
Roman Abramovich gave up on Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea
In hindsight, dismissing Villas-Boas was the sensible decision despite the enormous release clause paid for his services, as it led to European glory.
The Portuguese former boss left West London with a win percentage of just 50% while this is in no way as shocking as the 39% Graham Potter achieved while at the club, Abramovich set incredibly high standards.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2012, Villas-Boas said that the Chelsea owner made the decision to terminate his contract for reasons that he did not agree with.
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“I respect the decision of the owner of Chelsea, but I will never accept it. I told him that for me, it was him quitting on me when he had been so much involved at the beginning in bringing me in (from Porto), and he was also (the one) who was not putting up to the things that he promised.
“What reason did he give to me? I’m not sure if I can make it public, but the reasons don’t go along or can’t be applied to the fact that I was dismissed.”