Opinion: Why I don’t blame Roman Abramovich

Roman Abramovich is a humble man, a man of honour, and a man of respect. No I don’t know the man personally, none of us do, but take some time to take a step back and it all becomes clear.

First and foremost, football is a business, and these businesses MUST always look for ways to maximise profits, I am afraid that will always be the priority in this game.

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However, as Chelsea fans proved last night, it is the supporters that matter, and without the supporters, you have no club, you have no business.

But Roman is fully aware of this, and this is all part of what he fell in love with when he bought the club 18 years ago. Roman LOVES the magic and history of the game, and he is fighting hard to run this club in a balanced way.

There are strong reports suggesting that it was Roman who pulled the plug on our entry into the European Super League, and I am inclined to believe that.

Roman has his advisors in the business, and Chelsea as a collective board made the wrong decision joining this league. Whether it was rushed, they were promised false promises, or whether they just didn’t want to be left behind – the decision was a huge mistake and error of misjudgement.

But I do not for one minute believe that it was Roman driving this decision, there are others on the board who would have been looking only at the financial gains, whilst not taking into account a single thought of the supporters and the history of the game.

I do not for one minute believe that Roman would not even be thinking about the fans, and look how quick he intervened to pull Chelsea out once he realised what the club had done. Roman at the very least, loves and appreciates the fans, therefore he takes our thoughts into consideration at the very least.

Don’t forget that it was Roman driving all of the clubs community work and donations raised for those affected by the pandemic, giving free accommodation to NHS staff in his Hotels, this was ALL driven by Roman. He could have took advantage of the furlough scheme and saved a ton of money, but no, he was GIVING money away instead to help the local Chelsea community.

I was once told by a reliable club insider, that Roman sees everything the fans say and do, and a lot of how they react to things inside Stamford Bridge, plays a massive part in his decisions.

This is why the protests outside Stamford Bridge yesterday, and the fact they sent Petr Cech out to speak to the fans, proves it was absolutely pinnacle to what soon happened after.

This is why I do not hold a grudge or anger towards Abramovich. He cares. Yes he is the owner of the club and the final decision always rests with him, but his misjudgement will not be blamed by me, I have already forgiven him because there is nothing malicious in his ways, you can see how much he loves this club, and you can see he is also a fan just like us, but a fan that is also trying to make this club run successfully and in profit.

It’s an impossible balancing task, but he is doing it well.

Chelsea were the first club to come out and start proceedings to leave the Super League pretty much the day after, to me that was again driven by Roman, and to me that means something.

Direct your anger elsewhere, to those who are not so honest, those who are not so fan and community-focused at the club. Those who are only profit driven. You know exactly who I mean.