Buck tar bladet från mun (del II)
Chelseas ordförande Bruce Buck fortsätter i andra delen av intervjun att hylla Abramovitj och Mourinho men har inte mycket till övers för Bates.
Vad som säkerligen skrämmer en del rivaler är det fortsatta talet om långtidsplaner för Abramovitjs engagemang i Chelsea. Buck menar att Chelsea i Abramovitj har en fotbollsälskare med åtaganden i SW6 för lång tid framöver.
"If you had seen the tears in his eyes in the dressing-room in Monaco [after the 3-1 defeat in last season's European Cup semi-final first leg], you would know this is a committed supporter. You would know how much he cares about the club. His Russian personality is generally to be reserved, but he is hugely excited. I don't see it stopping. I don't see why Roman would sell. If it was the case that he was going to win the European Cup and disappear, why spend £25 million on a training ground that wouldn't be built for 2½ years? If you knew him, you would quickly realise that he was not in for the short haul. He is going to be at Chelsea for the long term."
Buck menar vidare att Abramovitjs investeringar kommit engelsk fotboll till godo.
"It has been a cataclysmic event but I think it has been very positive for English football. It is not just the same old teams. This is not turning into a Scottish Premier League."
I en logisk kullerbytta pekade många kritiker förra året på Chelsea och menade att det inte går att köpa sig en titel - nu heter det att Chelsea bara köpt en titel. Buck tar lätt på kritiken.
"We appreciate that the £250 million-plus is a lot of money, but we are just playing catch-up," he said. "If you look at what [Manchester] United, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool have spent in the last ten years, and then us more recently, by and large we are all similar. If the tag that we have bought success exists, so be it, but I don't believe it is true. I think that money does help and it gets you a long way there, but it doesn't get you over the goalline by a long shot. The answer is to build our academy and bring up more of these younger players and that is our intention. To bring more John Terrys up the ranks. Mr Abramovich has invested a lot of money, but I emphasise the word investment. And, on top of that, we have changed our business model, brought in the right sponsors, changed the kit company, the management team, the structure. We have done a lot more than Mr Abramovich throwing money at players and I am not sure we get the credit for that."
Trots att årsredovisningen visat illröda siffror ser Buck positivt på de närmaste åren. Målet ligger fast.
"Break-even in five years is quite a target and it is very aggressive, there is no doubt about it. We lost £83 million last year but we intend to achieve that. In ten years, our vision is to the best international club team on all levels. Football-wise, business-wise, contribution to the community, everything. We want to build an institution. We don't have a history of winning the league dozens of times but we do have a long tradition, We are 100 years old and we have glamour. In terms of the location, I would suggest Chelsea has more worldwide allure than a Manchester club. We want to be the best in the world."
Den som styrt skutan till pokalernas hamn får också sin del av berömet.
"José is like an investment banker from the City," Buck said. "Everything is on his computer. He's of a new breed of managers. He hasn't just kicked a ball around for 20 years so let's make him a manager. He has a university degree in sports, he's studied the technology. He knows how the game works, how the body works. His reputation in the early days was that he was arrogant. I haven't seen that at all. Certainly he's confident. What I like about him, which I think is unusual in a Latin, is that he's very structured, very logical. Everything is plotted out well in advance. Another coach we had would go, 'What are we going to do in training today?' With José, he knows today what he's going to be doing on May 14 at 11.45. I think Roman was very impressed with José's vision of what and how he could implement success. Candidly, it wasn't a strategy that had success this quickly. If Roman says to José, 'Why did you sub Cole for Tiago in the 83rd minute?', some coaches would walk away and say 'It's none of your business'. José will stand there and explain it. Roman loves the football. He wants to be in a dialogue with José and the directors about players. He's intimately involved in that. But when someone says he picks the team sheet, you could not be further from the truth."
Buck bekräftar vidare att en kontraktsförlängning med Mourinho är att vänta i sommar. Buck, som är jurist och från USA, kom till England 1983. Han har sedan dess följt Chelsea passionerat, och verkar nöjd med att förre ordföranden Ken Bates flyttat långt norrut.
"It was not long ago that I was sitting in the East Upper Stand shouting, 'Kill Ken Bates'. I'm still getting used to wearing a tie for football and sitting in the directors' box. People ask me if it is a dream come true to be a Chelsea fan who suddenly finds himself as chairman, but it is not a dream that someone would ever have."
