It’s back to the drawing board for Roman Abramovich

With the fifth anniversary of Roman Abramovich’s Russian Revolution at Chelsea coming in July, the club are back where they were when he arrived, hugely ambitious arrivistes lurching from one crisis to another, incapable of coherent management and proper business practice because one man matters.

José Mourinho’s managerial alchemy may have delivered two Premier League titles and three domestic cups, but Chelsea remain as far away from being a mature football club – financially stable with a series of long-term plans in place – as ever.

They have gone through the motions of attempting to establish modern business practices after acting like cowboys following Abramovich’s takeover. They hired Peter Kenyon as chief executive to increase sponsorship revenues and build their brand overseas amid grand claims of breaking even by 2010. But, in reality, little has changed. Five years ago European football’s leading agents thought that all their Christmases had come at once, as £110 million was spent on players in a matter of weeks, and the next few months promise to be just as hectic.