Luka Modric, Carloz Tevez: Former Chelsea boss reveals five biggest Abramovich transfer fails

Despite the current Todd Boehly era at Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich's legacy is still remembered.

Even though Roman Abramovich's £4.25 billion sale to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital was finalized in late May, the sanctioned Russian oligarch's judgments and overall legacy are still under scrutiny after a former Blues manager revealed some of his earlier transfer missteps.

The heirs of Abramovich have just spent upwards of £270 million on new players to help restock and remodel the squad.
However, a former Blues manager who spoke about his interactions with Boehly's predecessor revealed that some of the Russian's decisions are still having an effect. When he acquired the club from Ken Bates in 2003, the man was notorious for spending lavishly and for hiring and firing managers.

Andre Villas-Boas, a promising potential at the time who would be remembered by Chelsea and Tottenham supporters as one of the worst managers at their respective teams for a very long time, was one person who failed to fit into this culture. Villas-Boas, who rose to prominence at FC Porto, made a series of poor choices, including isolating Didier Drogba and other senior players.

But since then, a lot has changed, and the 44-year-old hasn't held back when describing his catastrophic time in West London, which he thinks would make for a "scary autobiography."

In his scathing analysis of what went wrong, Villas-Boas shifted blame from his own management and some of the decisions he made that resulted in the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo as temporary manager to actions made by Abramovich and his right-hand woman Marina Granovskaia off the field.



In fact, the Portuguese, whose most recent position was with Marseille, has outlined five transfer gaffes that he feels ultimately led to his demise at Chelsea.



We obviously missed the [Luka] Modric deal at the start of the season, he privately admitted to The Telegraph. If the Modric transaction fell through, there was still the [Joao] Moutinho transaction to be completed. At the moment, Roman had made that pledge.

"Moutinho joined the Premier League years and years after I tried, suggesting to Chelsea and Tottenham, and everyone has seen the player that he is. So you can't [blame] a coach for that failure, where he was denied. I believed that the Modric trade was finalized, but the next season, he joined Real Madrid. The agreement for Moutinho with Porto was then set to go through, but there was a problem: Chelsea's purchase of Porto's left-back Alvaro Pereira proved unsuccessful.

"Roman was furious. So, without Modric and Moutinho... Another one who was going to enter was [Radamel] Falcao, but [Didier] Drogba's indecisiveness in January prevented him from doing so. He was set to travel to Shanghai, but he decided against it, and Marina [Granovskaia, Chelsea's powerful director], who had sought Carlos Tevez, decided she no longer desired Tevez.



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The standard management and mismanagement practices within that organization, you know. However, Marina became into one of Chelsea's finest CEOs at the time. In comparison to all she has accomplished, I am nothing.

There are enough aspects of that season that merit one of those stunning autobiographies that tops the bestseller list at WH Smith in England!



Boehly will be hoping that Thomas Tuchel or current manager Graham Potter won't make these damaging claims in the future, around 20 years from now, when there may or may not be different owners in charge in West London.



Chelsea supporters Does this point of view from Andre Villas-Boas agree with you, and does it alter how you feel about Marina Granovskaia and Roman Abramovich's actions at the club? Post your comments in the space provided below.



 






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