When two of the Premier League’s porcine plutocrats Chelsea and Man United face off against each other in tonight’s Champions League bonanza, countless fans in millions of living rooms across the country will be shooting witheringly jealous looks at the TV.

Chelsea and Manchester United are, in many eyes, the richest of the rich, two bloated clubs with vast reserves of moolah, and even vaster reserves of players.

Chelsea are a club that quite happily had Winston Bogarde on their books, raking in tens of thousands of pounds every week and Manchester United had Giuseppe Rossi who managed a sum total of five appearances with them before moving on to Villarreal, where he has more than held his own in La Liga.

'The vast majority of the dosh owed to creditors at Chelsea is actually owed to Roman Abramovich himself'


The Guardian reports, though, that there may be trouble lurking amongst the mountains of cash for these two clubs and that between them they owe a massive £1.5bn to creditors. A look into each club in a little more detail shows us that, according to the most recent figures, Chelsea owe the princely sum of £736m to all its creditors, whilst their Champions League counterparts, Manchester United, owe £764m.

Interestingly, the vast majority of the dosh owed to creditors at Chelsea is actually owed to Roman Abramovich himself, who gave an interest-free loan of £578m to the Stamford Bridge club.

The fact that Abramovich didn’t give the money to Chelsea but rather lent it means, obviously, that one day the money will have to be paid back. All this means that if Roman Abramovich did ever tire of being Chelsea’s sugar daddy - and he has tired of other admittedly smaller projects before (ice hockey interests in Russia) - then Chelsea would be up to their necks in the proverbial you-know-what.

The Telegraph today claims that this nightmare scenario of Chelsea’s oligarch - the man who defined the modern version of the club - losing interest, could be slowly solidifying into a harsh reality.

Not only has Abramovich gone on a 10-game sabbatical from Chelsea - the excuse given is his increasing business and governmental responsibilities in Russia - but he has recently been splurging lots of money (over £60m) on paintings. Could this be a hint that Abramovich is growing bored of Chelsea?

Peter Kenyon continues to smile away whenever Chelsea’s finances are brought up. But if Abramovich does leave Chelsea they will find it very hard indeed to meet their declared aims of becoming self-sufficient.

Not only are there question marks over Avram Grant’s future, there is also a cloud over Abramovich too, not to mention the players. Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda, Andriy Shevchenko and Frank Lampard could all be leaving in the summer.

There is an odd strength that Chelsea draw from their elusive billionaire owner, their quiet and phlegmatic manager, and their team of mercenaries – and somehow together they can be ruthlessly efficient.

If this is to be a last hurrah for many of these members of Chelsea FC then I predict a Champions League win for the Londoners.