Chelsea were making steady progress up the Premier League ladder when, in 2003, Roman Abramovich came along and pumped in a few billion roubles. In 2004/05 The Blues put a smile on their Russian owner’s face by winning their first top flight championship for 50 years, but Abramovich’s lusty eyes are still set on the elusive Champions League trophy.
Former manager José Mourinho won it with Porto but couldn’t win it with Chelsea. Current boss Carlo Ancelotti won it twice with AC Milan and won his first Champions League game with Chelsea 1-0 against Porto. His progress might be hindered somewhat though by the transfer ban that FIFA has slapped on the club until 2011.
90minutesonline spoke to Rowan Farnham-Long, editor of CFCnet, about his team and his hopes for this season… before they lost 3-1 to Wigan.
How happy are you with the season so far?
A perfect start, what more could we ask for? I am writing this before the QPR game [in the Carling Cup] so could be made to rue these comments, but fully expect our run to stretch to eight wins from eight games in league and cup competitions against our neighbours. [It did,Chelsea won 1-0]. Other than the usual off-pitch shenanigans, it has been a great 2009/10 campaign.
What are you expecting from this season?
I think the league is ours, purely because of our squad strength and unity. The togetherness in the side is patently obvious and we just seem to operate as a unit in every game, pulling together to gain three points or move on to the next round of a cup competition.
There will be a strong challenge from Manchester United, but I think we're better than them...just. We should have enough to wrestle the title back from them. As for the cups, we often do well in the domestic tournaments, and the less said about Europe the better.
What are your greatest fears for this season?
Injuries, scandals and a heartbreaking European exit. A bit like every season really.
Will it be a bad season if you don’t win the Champions League?
No, it will just be the standard. Many fans see the league as the priority and the Champions League as a bonus, and when you consider how our European campaigns usually end you can probably understand why.
Of course we believe that we can win it in theory, but the cosmic forces - UEFA and Barcelona - will have something to say about that no doubt.
Who’s your best player and why?
It's always difficult to answer this question because our main strength lies in the collective strength of the squad.
There is the core of the side - Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba - but they are only as good as they are because of the players around them and the stability which exists at the club.
There seem to be no major weak links in our chain, and that spells good news all round for Chelsea, both in the present and the near future.
And which player would you gladly see the back of? And why?
Again it's hard to pick one for the same reason as above. Some fans seem to have it in for the inconsistent, to be kind, Salomon Kalou, but he is only young and still provides the odd special moment every now and again [he scored the only goal in the aforementioned 1-0 Carling Cup win over QPR]. Every player gives his all when he steps onto the pitch in a Chelsea shirt, and the minute they stop doing that is the time to sell up.
How happy are you with Carlo Ancelotti?
Some of us had our doubts before the season began because of what happened under Luis Felipe Scolari.
It was nothing against Ancelotti as a manager, just a fear of the unknown. But Ancelotti has made subtle changes without radically altering the balance of the side, and as a successful club manager he has fit into the swing of things better than Scolari seemed to.
It's easy to crow about Ancelotti's great start to the season, but if things start to go wrong then the tune may change. The thing is, can you see it going wrong? Because many of us can't, and Ancelotti looks set for a bright future at the club.
Obviously you can’t sign anyone at the moment, but if you could sign one player from another team in the Premier League, who would it be and why?
Creative sparks are always welcome, and if Joe Cole was to suffer another lengthy injury I would like to see someone like Luka Modric, Andrei Arshavin or even Stephen Pienaar come in. Someone with real quality and the ability to change a game.
Outside of the Premier League I would love to see Arjen Robben return, for the same reason as the above players. He may always be injured, completely selfish and have the tendency to moan, but boy can he run!
What do you make of the transfer ban? Is FIFA’s ruling justified in any way?
It's hard to know what goes on behind the scenes at the club, we are just the lowly peasants who are left out of decision making by the powers that be, so it's difficult to decide whether it is justified.
If we have done something wrong then punish us, but punish other clubs who have done the same. It seems sometimes that we are UEFA's whipping club, and this has vocalised the conspiracy theorists who are bombarding the forums with cries of “I told you so”.
We'll have to wait for the appeal hearing and go from there. We are fortunate to have such a strong squad that it doesn't need any additions at this moment in time.
What’s Chelsea’s best terrace chant?
I'm always partial to an airing of “Celery”. I can't go in to too much detail as it’s basically about tickling a certain area of a lady with a piece of the aforementioned vegetable. It's bizarre to say the least, but always a crowd pleaser.
It’s also often accompanied by pieces of celery thrown around the crowd.
What half-time snacks do you recommend at Stamford Bridge?
Hmm, unless your pockets are overflowing with plenty of spare change, don't bother.
What are your best and worst memories of supporting Chelsea?
Best moments include the Premier League wins, the 1997 FA Cup Final [a 2-0 win against Middlesbrough] and beating Liverpool at Cardiff in the Carling Cup [3-2 in 2005 courtesy of a Steven Gerrard own goal, Didier Drogba and a rare Mateja Kežman effort].
Memorable moments under Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli when we were tentatively growing as a side include the Champions League 1999/2000 [where they reached the quarter-finals, beating Barcelona 3-1 at home in the first leg and losing 5-1 away after extra time in the second].
Worst moments pretty much involve the latter stages of the Champions League after 2004.
If you could change one thing at Chelsea, what would it be?
The culture of money.
Where are Chelsea going to be in five years’ time?
Hopefully European champions for five years running. John Terry as boss perhaps!