Just bumped into Steve Avery at Swanley services coffee machine. I asked about if the sanctions would affect Mason Burstows transfer. He said he hadn’t seen the news so would read up back in the cat but doubted it as we’ve already been paid the first instalment
They must have money in the bank for a bit of cash flow. I'm sure a business that was valued at £3,000,000,000 only last week would be able to find a trifling £28,000,000 down the back of a directors box sofa.
£16 million 'cash at bank' apparently - and RA cannot feed in any more.
I believe the £16 million was shown in the end of year accounts, it’s seems very low for a company turning over around £420 million p/a. They will have of course generated income since then, but I get the feeling they could be in a world of pain very soon withe RAs cash coming in, having said that I do expect a sale relatively quickly.
Not that I want to see another football club go under, but hoping this once again brings to light the grotesque sums of money in the game and how unsustainable football is
I know the top end clubs like Chelsea have a brand, have huge commercial revenues etc - but that doesn’t hide the fact footballers are massively overpaid
Just bumped into Steve Avery at Swanley services coffee machine. I asked about if the sanctions would affect Mason Burstows transfer. He said he hadn’t seen the news so would read up back in the cat but doubted it as we’ve already been paid the first instalment
Just bumped into Steve Avery at Swanley services coffee machine. I asked about if the sanctions would affect Mason Burstows transfer. He said he hadn’t seen the news so would read up back in the cat but doubted it as we’ve already been paid the first instalment
The people i feel sorry for in all this are the ordinary behind the scenes workers at Chelsea, some of whom will no doubt lose their jobs as a result of the sanctions.
I am finding the difference in views of Chelsea between different generations of fans fascinating….
The younger fans have always only ever known them being a big club and as such see them as one of the elite.
Problem is those of us with longer memories are well aware that they are not that big a club…. Take Romans money away and what they are doing is not naturally sustainable by a mile.
Spurs are ten thousand times bigger as a club. Chelsea are like Man City for me…. And not in the same tier as Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs.
PWR so apologies if it's already been mentioned, but if you get into bed with criminals, you can't really complain years later when the law catches up with you. I don't feel sorry for a single fan, worker, or advertiser. We have all known Roman was dodgy from the beginning, it was always a matter of time IMO. I hope the sanctions hurt, and they cut as deep as possible.
The people i feel sorry for in all this are the ordinary behind the scenes workers at Chelsea, some of whom will no doubt lose their jobs as a result of the sanctions.
Scummy fans and scummy club....look what they did to the Valley in the 70's....
I am finding the difference in views of Chelsea between different generations of fans fascinating….
The younger fans have always only ever known them being a big club and as such see them as one of the elite.
Problem is those of us with longer memories are well aware that they are not that big a club…. Take Romans money away and what they are doing is not naturally sustainable by a mile.
Spurs are ten thousand times bigger as a club. Chelsea are like Man City for me…. And not in the same tier as Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs.
Chelsea in my eyes are like a West Ham.
Depends how far back you're going though? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s then yes you won't see them historically as a big club.
But people forget that in the 7 years before Abramovich took over, Chelsea won 6 trophies and finished in the top 6 of the PL every season. They were already in the Champions league when he bought them.
It’s all very well Syed smugly retweeting that, however he is in that clip himself guilty of promulgating the spin put out at the time that RA was over here to “protect himself” from Putin. This spin has now been comprehensively debunked by Catherine Belton’s book, despite RA looking to bankrupt her in court (and failing quite miserably). Syed ought to recognise that, otherwise Chelsea idiots will start to use it to argue its not fair because “Roman” wasn’t on Putin’s side.
I am finding the difference in views of Chelsea between different generations of fans fascinating….
The younger fans have always only ever known them being a big club and as such see them as one of the elite.
Problem is those of us with longer memories are well aware that they are not that big a club…. Take Romans money away and what they are doing is not naturally sustainable by a mile.
Spurs are ten thousand times bigger as a club. Chelsea are like Man City for me…. And not in the same tier as Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs.
Chelsea in my eyes are like a West Ham.
Depends how far back you're going though? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s then yes you won't see them historically as a big club.
But people forget that in the 7 years before Abramovich took over, Chelsea won 6 trophies and finished in the top 6 of the PL every season. They were already in the Champions league when he bought them.
People also forget that pre Abramovich they were in serious financial trouble and not far from going under. That’s when Ken Bates sold the club and all their troubles went away. They gambled on making the step up to become one of the big clubs of the world and it paid off for many years up till now. Many years back at one of our supporters club meetings one of our then directors called Abramovich a “crook and we know how he got his money”.
They must have money in the bank for a bit of cash flow. I'm sure a business that was valued at £3,000,000,000 only last week would be able to find a trifling £28,000,000 down the back of a directors box sofa.
£16 million 'cash at bank' apparently - and RA cannot feed in any more.
Could just imagine Matt Southall rocking up with his lucky pound coin to have a go at that nest egg.
This is certainly a good way to focus the mind to get a sale done, I think that £3bn valuation has just taken a huge hammering.
Almost a shame if that money was seized and really could go to help people.
One thing's for sure though, the Premier League is a massive spectacle globally, the Russian government can pump propaganda into people's houses but they can't manipulate league rankings and hide strange things happening at one of the biggest clubs on Earth.
It is less fair what has happened to Ukraine. What planet do these people exist on. I think Chelski should be banned or wrapped up to stop Abramovic profiting from the evil he supports.
I think Chelski should be banned or wrapped up just for the shits and giggles of it.
That as well. I believe he bought the club for a £1 from Ken Bates. Abramovic has always had that smug look about him. There was a time in the 60's when I knew some of the Chelsea players including Osgood through a Charlton player. They were decent blokes. I think Abramovic should be given his quid back and told that is it as he is still in a supporter if Putin .
Abramovic(h) is still in a supporter ??? I know they all love the crook but isn't that going a bit far ?
I had forgotten that Abramovic doesn't own Stamford Bridge and is in fact a fans group that have the deeds. If you're paying God knows how many £millions for a football club you'd surely think the Ground would be part of the deal? Similar to our situation and it's been mentioned how many investors would be/are reluctant to get involved as they wouldn't own any actual bricks and mortar. Might this be a stumbling block for Abramovics quick sale aspirations?
Good points. I didn't realise RA didn't own the ground. Yes, a huge stumbling block to a sale I would say.
Not sure Dorries has got this one quite right. If the football club is "the bedrock of the community" and with the stroke of the pen you have effectively just trashed that community ( with no further ticket sales, no chance of seeing the team at SB except STH's, and a shoal of other measures against that "community".
Is it not possible to keep the club operating as was but with all revenue streams going to the Govt and not RA? Seems punishing Chelsea fans, while enjoyable on one level, is not a just response.
If the issue is that RA is sanctioned for his previous close ties to the war criminal Putin then is there not an argument that anyone with any close ties to anyone who bombs the hell out of another group of people should also be sanctioned? I imagine the multibillion pound global sporting world would shrink quite markedly if this was the case.
very tough situation to be honest. This isn’t an asset like a mansion or a sports car. It’s a community asset supported by hundreds of thousands of UK citizens and employees hundreds of people.
Very hard to determine what is right and fair in this instance
Liquidate the club and use the money to pay the pensions of all those people in Siberia who's natural resources have gone into the club instead of the pockets of local, ordinary people.
There's new legislation going through parliament at the moment to change the sanctions rules, as the ones we adopted after we left the EU's sanctions regime turned out not the be very well written. I get the impression from journalists on Twitter that the intention is that once the new rules are in place the government intend to allow someone else to buy the club, with the proceeds of the sale being frozen, at which point the club can resume normal trading.
Shouldn't that be 'start normal trading', it's not been normal trading for the last 19 years.
Not too much going on at work tonight so I had a peak a Chelsea’s main fan forum. Looks as though they have a thread on Roman that’s members only but on the match thread for the Norwich game you could find regular comments like “support Roman, support the team and support the club” or my favourite “why are the fans getting punished? Guilty by association?”
Sooo let me get this right, you declare your support for an oligarch who is a cronie to one of the worst human beings since Hitler and think you shouldn’t be punished?!
The people i feel sorry for in all this are the ordinary behind the scenes workers at Chelsea, some of whom will no doubt lose their jobs as a result of the sanctions.
Scummy fans and scummy club....look what they did to the Valley in the 70's....
To be fair, the fire in The Covered End and the demolished turnstiles caused £25 of improvements.
I am finding the difference in views of Chelsea between different generations of fans fascinating….
The younger fans have always only ever known them being a big club and as such see them as one of the elite.
Problem is those of us with longer memories are well aware that they are not that big a club…. Take Romans money away and what they are doing is not naturally sustainable by a mile.
Spurs are ten thousand times bigger as a club. Chelsea are like Man City for me…. And not in the same tier as Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs.
Chelsea in my eyes are like a West Ham.
Depends how far back you're going though? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s then yes you won't see them historically as a big club.
But people forget that in the 7 years before Abramovich took over, Chelsea won 6 trophies and finished in the top 6 of the PL every season. They were already in the Champions league when he bought them.
But they'd spent beyond their means in that time and was on the cusp of being shut down as they had defaulted on a £75m loan... they had debts around £140-150m then before the huge influx of PL cash of recent times.
I am finding the difference in views of Chelsea between different generations of fans fascinating….
The younger fans have always only ever known them being a big club and as such see them as one of the elite.
Problem is those of us with longer memories are well aware that they are not that big a club…. Take Romans money away and what they are doing is not naturally sustainable by a mile.
Spurs are ten thousand times bigger as a club. Chelsea are like Man City for me…. And not in the same tier as Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs.
Chelsea in my eyes are like a West Ham.
Depends how far back you're going though? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s then yes you won't see them historically as a big club.
But people forget that in the 7 years before Abramovich took over, Chelsea won 6 trophies and finished in the top 6 of the PL every season. They were already in the Champions league when he bought them.
But they'd spent beyond their means in that time and was on the cusp of being shut down as they had defaulted on a £75m loan... they had debts around £140-150m then before the huge influx of PL cash of recent times.
Comments
I know the top end clubs like Chelsea have a brand, have huge commercial revenues etc - but that doesn’t hide the fact footballers are massively overpaid
The younger fans have always only ever known them being a big club and as such see them as one of the elite.
Problem is those of us with longer memories are well aware that they are not that big a club…. Take Romans money away and what they are doing is not naturally sustainable by a mile.
Spurs are ten thousand times bigger as a club. Chelsea are like Man City for me…. And not in the same tier as Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs.
Chelsea in my eyes are like a West Ham.
But people forget that in the 7 years before Abramovich took over, Chelsea won 6 trophies and finished in the top 6 of the PL every season. They were already in the Champions league when he bought them.
note the interviewer - says it all really its Roland's mate.. Has Shay Given commented yet?
Many years back at one of our supporters club meetings one of our then directors called Abramovich a “crook and we know how he got his money”.
Almost a shame if that money was seized and really could go to help people.
One thing's for sure though, the Premier League is a massive spectacle globally, the Russian government can pump propaganda into people's houses but they can't manipulate league rankings and hide strange things happening at one of the biggest clubs on Earth.
Is it not possible to keep the club operating as was but with all revenue streams going to the Govt and not RA? Seems punishing Chelsea fans, while enjoyable on one level, is not a just response.
If the issue is that RA is sanctioned for his previous close ties to the war criminal Putin then is there not an argument that anyone with any close ties to anyone who bombs the hell out of another group of people should also be sanctioned? I imagine the multibillion pound global sporting world would shrink quite markedly if this was the case.
Abramovich saved them from the abyss.