The times have not been kind to Chelsea and the people associated with the club as in the last few weeks the club owner Roman Abramovich had to face sanctions and charges for his possible link with Russian president Vladimir Putin and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Due to this, the club is under inspection by the UK Government and the club’s reputation is tarnished to a large extent.
All these although can not put Abramovich’s commitment towards the club under any sort of question and one of those incidents were revealed by Glen Johnson, one of Chelsea’s former players. He was registered as a Chelsea player for four seasons and during that time, in the last season, he made a loan move to Portsmouth before permanently joining them in 2007.
Roman Abramovich – A Pretender Or An Ambitious Owner?
The English right-back came into his own during his time there and that made the big names such as Manchester City and Liverpool interested in him. His former club Chelsea soon jumped into the action and wanted to go all the distance to bring him back to Stamford Bridge.
This is where Roman Abramovich separated himself from other owners as he himself visited Glen Johnson to try and convince him to join Chelsea. Looking back on that instance, Johnson said, “I had Roman and his team over at my house and they were trying to get me to return to the club”.
Eventually, though, Glen Johnson did not join his former club and picked Liverpool instead in 2009 where he played for six years and won a League Cup in 2011. Chelsea went a different way too as they brought in and developed Branislav Ivanovic and the Serbian established himself as sort of an icon in London.
Abramovich’s small gesture did not bear any fruit on this occasion but it mattered a lot to Johnson. That’s why looking back, he only remembered the good parts of his relationship with Roman. As for the future of the Russian Billionaire, it is still unclear what the future holds for him and his beloved Chelsea. The club is expected to find a new owner soon and it will be interesting to see whether or not they get to maintain this level of success in the post-Roman era.
