Chapter 683 Win the game first, then recruit players

"Ravel Morrison, who came on as a substitute, was very active and wanted to break through on the left. Ivanovic had no choice but to foul, giving Southampton a chance for a set piece in the frontcourt!"

"It's already the injury time and the score is now 4-0. Southampton has already secured victory."

"The free kick was taken by Suarez. The Uruguayan striker performed quite well in this game and scored a goal."

"The other three goals came from his teammates, Kaka, Sturridge and Hazard. Hazard scored the most beautiful goal. He dribbled past three Chelsea defenders on the left baseline and shot into the goal before falling to the ground. It was quite exciting!"

"We can see that all of Southampton's tall players have gathered in Chelsea's penalty area."

"Drogba, Matic, Nastasic and Varane all came up."

"This is Drogba, the former Chelsea striker who was expelled from the team by Abramovich three years ago and was forced to join Southampton in the Championship. Since then, every time he returns to Stamford Bridge, he will score goals."

"We could hear him shouting, very active and eager to score goals."

"It all depends on how Suarez takes the penalty this time!"

In the chairman's stand at Stamford Bridge, Abramovich was also very nervous.

Chelsea have lost games this season, such as losing 0-2 to Everton, 0-2 to Newcastle, 0-3 to Sunderland, and 0-3 to Stoke City, but those were all away games.

Chelsea remain unbeaten at Stamford Bridge this season!

This is also what Mourinho is most proud of. He has never lost a game at Stamford Bridge!

But now, this game has obviously been lost, and it will be a complete and utter defeat!

Bielsa and Southampton used such a crushing defeat to tell Mourinho that today's Premier League, with a hundred schools of thought contending and many heroes competing, is no longer the Premier League when he left.

At the same time, it is also a severe lesson for Abramovich. With Chelsea's current lineup of old and weak players, if they want to compete in the Premier League, they can just dream on!

It's not that Abramovich hadn't thought about these things before, but he still had hope in Mourinho.

But now, being humiliated by Southampton at home has once again opened this bloody scar.

With a clear whistle from the referee, Suarez ran quickly towards the ball.

There was a bang, the ball was kicked out, and everyone in the stadium held their breath.

Abramovich couldn't help but stand up, and kept saying in his heart, God bless!

There was chaos in the penalty area, with everyone entangled with each other, but just when the ball was about to fall, suddenly a red figure stood out from the crowd, jumped high, like a super giant elephant from the African grasslands, raised its long trunk heavily, and smashed down heavily towards the ball.

The ball bounced off the bottom, passed Cech's hand and hit the Chelsea goal.

Five to zero!

At the moment Drogba scored, Abramovich seemed to have been drained of all his strength. He sat back in his seat dejectedly, looking at Drogba who was celebrating wildly on the court with frustration.

The Ivorian rushed to the bottom of the presidential stand arrogantly and celebrated towards himself in the stands!

To Abramovich, this seemed like a slap in the face. He repeated this celebration action for every goal Chelsea scored. It was as if Drogba had become a vengeful demon who specialized in defeating Chelsea!

Oh, by the way, there is also Sturridge, who has also scored in the recent games against Chelsea.

There are also Matic and Oscar, who performed like crazy when they faced Chelsea.

This made Abramovich very depressed and annoyed.

He even couldn't help but doubt himself for the first time, asking himself, "Marina, did I do something wrong?"

Sitting next to Abramovich was his close confidant, Marina Granovschia, Chelsea's CEO, who also looked embarrassed and worried at this time, fearing that her boss would reprimand her.

After hearing what Abramovich said, she also looked a little worried.

"Boss, actually, it's hard to say. Not every player who leaves Chelsea performs well."

After a pause, Granovskia continued: "Besides, when it comes to transfers, the head coach's personnel decisions are often more important. Players come and go, which is quite normal in professional football. If this is the case, then teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United will regret it to death, right?"

After hearing what Granovskia said, Abramovich felt better.

There is some truth to it. After all, Chelsea was pursuing a youth-oriented reform in those years, so it was normal for Drogba to leave the team.

As for Sturridge and Matic, when they left Chelsea, who knew they would perform like they do today?

The only regret is Oscar, but this player leaked the secrets of the locker room, so isn't it normal for him to leave the team?

Thinking of this, Abramovich felt much better.

But when he looked up at the big red scoreboard at Stamford Bridge and saw the score of 5 to 0, his face became gloomy again.

"Let's go!"

Abramovich stood up feeling disheartened, took another look at the game that had resumed in the stadium, and walked towards the exit of the presidential stand without looking back.

Granovskia also quickly stood up and followed his boss, leaving the chairman's stand.

There is a passage from the Chairman's Stand at Stamford Bridge that leads directly to Chelsea's administrative offices.

After Abramovich walked through the corridor, he went straight to his office with a gloomy face all the way. All the employees who saw him only dared to greet him from a distance, but no one dared to approach him.

Granovsky followed him closely and entered the office.

As soon as he sat down, the Russian sighed deeply.

"Marina, with this lineup, I'm afraid it will be hard to hold on!"

Obviously, this 0-5 match forced Abramovich to face up to the team's current situation.

Granovskia also nodded. "Yes, during the summer transfer, we spent too much energy on the transfer of the center forward, so much so that we missed the signings for several other positions."

Who says it’s not?

First it was Suarez, but the Uruguayan striker had already confirmed his move to Southampton.

Later, they set their sights on Cavani, but in the end Cavani was snatched away by Tottenham Hotspur, their arch-rival in London.

Later, Chelsea set its sights on Dortmund, but unexpectedly, even though Chelsea offered a high price and was willing to use De Bruyne as a bargaining chip in exchange, Dortmund still refused to let Lewandowski go.

In the end, after going around in the transfer market, it all came back to Mandzukic, and he was even slaughtered by Atletico Madrid. It’s depressing just thinking about it!

"What is the current financial situation of the team?" Abramovich asked again.

Granovskia certainly understood what the boss meant, but she still thought about it and said, "I'm afraid we can't spare more funds to operate the transfer."

"Why?" Abramovich was a little surprised.

"We are currently in debt of over £1.2 billion."

Abramovich was not too surprised by this number and seemed very calm.

Because he himself is Chelsea’s biggest creditor!

"The team's revenue last season was about 260 million pounds, but this year, it is likely to be reduced to less than 200 million, or even around 180 million pounds, because we lost the European competition!"

Without European competitions, commercial income has been reduced, as have ticket and match-day income. Add to that the heaviest income from TV broadcasts, and all added up, it will definitely be tens of millions of pounds.

"However, our salary expenditure this season will exceed 250 million pounds, ranking first in the Premier League!"

If Abramovich was still calm just now, now he is very scared.

"Why?"

"We sold Oscar, Adam Lallana and Romeu, all of whom had low salaries. When you add them all up, they're not as good as Mandzukic's. But we brought in other players like Schurrle, so..."

"That can't possibly be higher than Manchester City!" Abramovich was puzzled.

"You forget the salaries of Drogba, Matic, Sturridge and Toni Kroos!"

Hearing this, Abramovich wanted to curse.

It was only at this time that he remembered that he had been supporting these players for that bastard Yang Huan.

"Just adding up the salaries of these players, we will have to spend an extra 40 million euros a year."

When Abramovich heard this, he couldn't help but want to curse the word starting with F.

The salaries of Matic and Sturridge are not high, but Drogba's annual salary is as high as 12 million euros, and that is after tax. That is to say, Chelsea will have to pay almost 25 million euros just to support Drogba.

There is also Toni Kroos. When Southampton wanted to sign him, it cost 60 million pounds, but his annual salary is not cheap either.

In this case, the extra 40 million euros is not too outrageous.

"Damn it, it's been two or three years, and Southampton has performed so well, but Yang Huan doesn't give them a pay raise or renew their contract?" Abramovich was a little annoyed. Is Yang Huan really that stingy?

But on second thought, since there are suckers who are paying the salaries for the team, how could Yang Huan be so stupid as to renew the players' contracts and increase their salaries?

Even if there is a real salary increase, it will definitely be done in other ways, such as bonuses, to increase players' salaries.

Granovskia shook his head, "No, Boss, Mendes told me that Yang Huan registered a company in Monaco. The salaries and bonuses of many Southampton players are all handled through this company. I don't know how much tax this has helped him avoid!"

"Although he didn't give the players a salary increase or contract extension, he gave them quite generous bonuses!"

When Abramovich heard this, he almost burst into flames and cursed.

This is to circumvent taxes through operations, which is what any club would do, but Monaco is a tax-free zone. Operating through a company here, isn't that a huge advantage?

No wonder Yang Huan wanted to acquire Monaco!

Besides, the bonus is generous, of course!

Damn it, I support your players for you, and you don’t have to spend a penny, how can you not be generous?

"Given our current team situation, we will lose at least another 100 million pounds this season, so..."

Granovskaia's meaning is already quite clear. Given Chelsea's current debt situation, it is probably not suitable for any more big-money signings, even if Abramovich is willing to invest more money to operate it.

The reason is simple: the more Abramovich invests, the higher the team's debt.

"That bastard, it seems like he plans to keep Drogba!" Abramovich cursed angrily.

For Southampton, keeping Drogba is just taking up a first-team spot.

But Chelsea will have to spend more than 20 million pounds a year. How can they not feel bad?

"Boss, maybe we should talk to him," Granovskia suggested.

"Talk?" Abramovich's face darkened.

He knew Yang Huan very well. This bastard was ruthless and merciless, and would only take advantage of others. Would anything good come of it if he took the initiative to talk to him?

"The sooner this burden is thrown away, the better!" Granovskia saw this very clearly.

Ultimately, it’s a question of choosing between long-term pain and short-term pain!

Abramovich is not a fool, and he knows exactly what this plan is. But does he really need to talk to Yang Huan?

Just as he was hesitating, someone knocked on the office door.

Then I heard the secretary push open the door and come in, "Boss, Mr. Yang Huan, the boss of Southampton, is here!"

"Him?" Abramovich glanced at Granovskaia, who shook his head, indicating that he had not made an appointment with Yang Huan.

"What is he doing here?"

It’s true that you can’t talk about people during the day, because if you mention the devil, he will appear!

"He said, come to dig people!"

When Abramovich heard this, he couldn't sit still.

"Come to poach my players? Damn it, they just beat us 5-0 on the court, and now they come back to poach my players?"

Win the game first and then poach players. How can we swallow this?

I can tolerate my uncle but I can’t tolerate my aunt!

If the tiger doesn't show its power, you think I'm a sick cat!