Your Verdict: Chelsea & the Russian

[Lord E]

Well, Chelsea spent something like £120m this season, and thats with their £50m attempt to get Thierry Henry early on failing... and now they've made a 'huge' bid for Walter Samuel?

Obviously they can afford it, and Abramovic is clearly going to keep spending this summer even if/when Samuel signs. Wouldn't surprise me if his price comes in at £25m plus.

Then theres the mounting speculation of Beckham and Ronaldo... not sure where I stand of that right now considering Beckham has a buyout clause in his contract for something like £120m (apparantly). That can't be right though, because some papers have even linked Arsenal with Beckham, and they're skint!

Does anyone else get the feeling Abramovic plays Championship Manager? Builds his 'dream-team' on that then tries to buy it for real? :D

Anyway, where do you think his spending will leave Chelsea? Will it take them to regular league titles and cup wins? Or will it leave them being a team of superstars, all of which moan every single time they don't play a full 90 minutes? There are already signs of that happening, and the superstars haven't stopped arriving yet by any means.

[Andy Villa]

superstars who moan but also win things..... european domination within 3 years in my opinion......

[Lord E]

Hmm, can't see that happening ma'self. Far too unbalanced in whatever line-up they put out... I think they should appreciate how they've performed this season, because I don't think they'll do as well again for another couple of seasons at least.

[Scarface]

They will domintate and this is how:

The Wigan rugby League team of the ' 90s came up with a great idea.

They were clearly the richest club in the league but instead on spending their money on a few of the best players they brought them all.It didnt matter that they couldnt even get them all on the feild as long as they wernt playing for the opposition.

They were unbeatable.

I see every top player coming off contract in the next few years being offered contracts by chelsea.Whether they ever play more than cup games and freindlies is another matter.But atleast they aint playing against you.

Of course the player pool in football is vast compared to league ,but if you got enuff cash its possible.

[Lord E]

Real Madrid tried that, and they are far from unbeatable. Worked for them for a short period of time only... and thats how I see it for Chelsea. And this season has been the short period of time. From now on their squad will just be more and more unsettled and unbalanced - until their attitude changes and they start buying players for football reasons instead of for the sake of having big names in their squad, they won't be a consistantly dominant force - even big name players need a run of games to perform at their best every time. One off opportunities every couple of games will just mean inconsistant performaces in my opinion.

[Scarface]

Real Madrid tried that, and they are far from unbeatable.

Tru but it got results.

leage cups and cheampions league cups are better than what chelsea have had in recent years.

[stevengemmell]

They spend all that and we beat em 2-1 :D

[Andy Villa]

we beat them twice this season.....

[speed demon]

I think if anything they will only win one domestic cup and possible one cup in europe in the next few years, if Aresnal play as well in the next few years as they did this year, well ignoring champions league and FA cup performances... Chelsea have no chance of suddenly becoming totally dominant.

[stevengemmell]

Chelsea want instant success, not good for football as a whole.

Man U, NUFC Liverpool and Leeds to a certain extent used youth development for success

[Lord E]

Liverpool? What success did Liverpool get thanks to their own youth players?

And Newcastle haven't won **** for years - where's the success, nevermind the youth development players :D

[Scarface]

Liverpool? What success did Liverpool get thanks to their own youth players?

Steven Gerrard?

[stevengemmell]

Gerrard & Owen, fair enough not much success, but Still they are good for footbal as a whole.

As for newcastle, again not much success, but most of these players will be exceptional players in years to come.

Bellamy,dyer,jenas,viana,griffin,hughes,harper,ber nardand bramble.

Some of thos eplayer aint a direct link to youth dev, but all are young and some came from other clubs and are now or are gonig to be international class players due to bobby robson and co.


Especially Arron Hughes, I think He is one of the best defenders in the premiership.