Roman Abramovich won the lot as Chelsea owner and spent plenty of money doing so – but he wasn’t been able to secure moves for every player that caught his eye.
Over the course of his near two decades as Chelsea owner, Abramovich spent over £2billion on transfers to help establish the club as one of European football’s biggest powerhouses.
Star players have moved to Stamford Bridge since 2003 but there’s arguably an equally long list of players whose mooted transfers to Chelsea failed to materialise.
We’ve identified nine amazing players Abramovich missed out on as Chelsea owner and who they signed instead.
Lionel Messi
“It was not one step away but Chelsea were really trying to sign Leo Messi in 2014, with Jose Mourinho as the manager,” journalist Fabrizio Romano revealed in a YouTube interview.
“They were really pushing and pushing on Leo Messi’s side to try to persuade him to try a Champions League experience.
“They [Chelsea] were contacting people close to Leo Messi, discussing with people and lawyers close to Messi to try to convince him for a new opportunity in the Premier League.
“Then everything collapsed simple because of Barcelona. Barcelona was something special for Lionel Messi.
“But Roman Abramovich wanted Leo Messi. He was going seriously to try for Messi as the new star for Chelsea but the deal collapsed.”
Just imagine – all our questions about Messi’s ability to perform on Tuesday night in Stoke would have been answered.
Instead, we found out that Juan Cuadrado couldn’t.
Neymar
Back in 2010, when Chelsea were league champions, they came incredibly close to signing a certain young Santos prospect. Wonder what ever became of him?
“There were many calls for him,” Neymar’s former agent Wagner Ribeiro said in an interview with AS.
“I received an official offer from Chelsea the day Neymar debuted with the Brazilian team in 2010. They made an offer, we studied it, but in the end we didn’t decide anything. On that occasion, we transferred it to Neymar’s father and the player himself.
Their bid was deemed to have been around £25million, but the move never came to fruition. Yossi Benayoun would have to do instead.
Steven Gerrard
He may be regarded as a Liverpool legend, but Gerrard almost joined Chelsea in the mid-2000s.
After a move in 2004 petered out, Gerrard consoled himself by winning the Champions League. It didn’t stop him seriously considering a move south that summer though.
“I rang…
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