Billions in the bank… Check

Owner of Chelsea… Check

377 foot yacht… Check

$500 million house… Check

That’s right, Roman Abramovich just dropped $500 million for La Leopolda, the hilltop villa looking ver the French Riviera. Now I have heard of some pretty expensive homes, but this is just stupid. Half a billi for a house? Wow! I feel like I should write something more about this, but I think I am actually at a loss for words.

[Source National Post]

After losing the League Cup Final 2-1 to Tottenham, Avram Grant led Chelsea followed that up with a shocking defeat to Championship minnows Barnsley yesterday in the FA Cup quarterfinals. Losing to a club that is 33 places lower in the table was not only a shock to the system for Chelsea fans, but hopefully an eye opener for Roman Abramovich who might have made the biggest bungle of the year with the firing of Jose Mourhino.

By lining up with only 1 striker against Barnsley, Grant has continually showed us his lack of faith in the squad, plugging players into the midfield and looking to counter rather than being the explosive Chelsea we once knew back in 2004-2007.

Could Dane and Getafe manager Michael Laudrup be the next to lead one of the most powerful clubs in the world?

image via ChelseaPies

I sure do miss the Special One, AKA Jose Mourinho. In an article that came out in the Guardian, the Portugeezer refers to Chelsea and states that “If I play them in the Champions League, I want to go there and kill them - that’s my message.” Yikes! That’s some heavy talk my man. Although he goes on to say that he has love for the club, and he’s still down with Roman (my personal favorite Russian oligarch / gagillionaire) and Peter Kenyon, there clearly seems to be some juvenile “you broke up with me so I’m going to talk behind your back” type of thing going on. I guess that’s understandable and all. If I was one of the most successful managers in the world and I got replaced by some dude who doesn’t even have his qualifications to be a manager in England, I might be hot and hold some contempt too. I’m just saying…

No one ever quite knew how much Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich had put into Chelsea FC, but with the big name players he’s bought, you knew it was a boatload of scratch.  Thursday it was revealed Abramovich has spent 578 Million Pound to date and there’s no indication that he’s going to stop anytime soon.  Chelsea’s total non-footballing income from media and merchandising is a staggering 223 Million Pound, only behind Manchester United at 245 Million Pound.  The only problem, Chelsea lost 74.8 Million Pound which includes the pay off to Jose “The Special One” Mourinho.

image via BBC

After being very vocal about wanting to explore other European options (Think Barcelona), the price on Didier Drogba’s head has been set at 35 Million Euro by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. With the Cote d’Ivoire hitman about to hit 30 years old in March, is there a club willing to pay that much when he was bought for only 23.8 Million Euro in 2004?

[image via WhoAteAllThePies]

It’s been widely reported that Flavio Briatore and Bernard Ecclestone bought into Queens Park Rangers and that they have stated they expect to see the club fighting with the best Europe has to offer in a matter of years.  Pretty big ambitions for a club that is not even in the Premier League.  Now I knew that these dudes have some serious coin, especially Ecclestone.  What I failed to realize until now, is that the 5th richest dude in the world, Lakshmi Mittal, also bought a piece of the club.  This gives QPR three owners with a combined net worth of almost $55 billion! Yes, I wrote that right…it’s not a typo.  That crushes Roman Abramovich’s deep pockets.  So this basically means that QPR has the wealthiest owners of any sports team in the whole wide universe.  Maybe their big time ambitions don’t seem so out of the question anymore.   Now back to your regularly scheduled programs…

image via DailyMail

It’s been a long time since she was a part of the US setup, but Lorrie Fair and her 123 Full Team caps have been signed by Chelsea’s Womens team over in London.  Even though she’s been signed to help the team win, she’s also been brought over in a coaching capacity, helping the womens game grow in England.

(image via dailymail.com)

When going to St Barts to vacation, you don’t think paparazzi. But when you’re the richest man in football, Roman Abramovich you better be careful, especially when your girlfriend is 26 year old Russian model Daria Zhukova, daughter of Alexander Zhukova, another Russian oil tycoon.