As for Capt Barclay, again you cannot compare a small donation to fix a roof, to Romans funding on players, it’s not the same. Delia Smith has pumped in 12 million in to Norwich City, 2 mil a year to keep it going, that is not comparable 434 million on players alone in 6 years. There is investment and there is fantasy football, acquiring players at any cost to achieve success and driving up the market.

I have no problem with investing and acquiring debt if its sustainable by income. In Chelsea’s case it is not. It’s just buying cups and trophies to placate the fantasy of a rich man.

I think you missed the point here mate. Regardless of how I feel about money in football, whether it be Chelsea or Real Madrid, the point of the above is that Roman is a hypocrite for criticizing and complaining about the spending of Manchester Arabia. He did the same on a bigger level and now he is driven to change the way things are done because he knows he cannot afford to spend another 434 million over 6 years. It’s smart but it is hypocrisy and that was my point. Man has balls.

regardless, you’re missing the point. transfers have been “inflated” since the concept of professional football began. and to point the finger at chelsea is to ignore 100 years of history. i don’t really understand how chelsea paying 30 mil for shevchenko is objectively any worse than juventus paying 100k in 1957 for enrique sivori (financed by a wealthy patron in the form of FIAT, i might add). transfers will go up every year, and that would’ve happened with or without abromovich buying chelsea. the fact is, he is now trying to reverse this trend and you are attacking him for it. i would hardly consider someone with 2 billion (as a very conservative estimate) “out of cash”, by the way.

lastly, the point i was trying to illustrate about the roof of the barclay stand (NOT the norwich & peterborough stand) is that it was donated as a gift by a patron in the 1930′s. relatively speaking, at the time it was a huge investment, and i’m sure norwich supporters were not “gutted” by their patron’s generosity. please explain why it’s ok for evelyn barclay to trade a bag of cash for his name on one a stand, yet somehow morally wrong for abromovich to buy players and build a new training ground and youth academy for chelsea.