Quote Originally Posted by Tony C View Post
I’ve totally forgotten about all the nitty gritty ins and outs of this.

All I remember is us having to look after the pennies when Abramovic swooped in, bought Chelsea and changed all of the financials.
The main problem with the move from Highbury was that the plan was (quite reasonably) predicated on the status quo of us and United slugging it out for top spot. The idea was that AW's contacts and eye for a player would mean we could get quality in cheap to see us through the hiatus. As you say, Abramovitch moved the goalposts. Suddenly, players like Drogba and Essien - who would have been natural AW signings - were being lured away by Chelsea for more than we'd pay, plus we lost Cole to them and players like Vieira and Henry were looking elsewhere. This happened at a time when we simply didn't have the money to compete and we've essentially been playing catch-up ever since. The timing of Abramovich's arrival probably hit us harder than anyone.