It looks like former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was ready to absolutely shatter the transfer market in 2008.
As owner, Abramovich made some jaw-dropping signings for Chelsea, including Fernando Torres and Andriy Shevchenko.
He had to break Chelsea’s club record fee to land the former and the British record fee for the latter. Neither were bargains for Chelsea, especially after how they performed in blue.
Between making those two transfers, though, Abramovich could have easily eclipsed what he paid for each striker with another big-name signing.
Roman Abramovich was ‘desperate’ to sign Franck Ribery
Most of the time, Abramovich used to get what he wanted. For example, Chelsea and Abramovich won the race for Eden Hazard in 2012.
However, when it came to trying to sign Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich just one season after his 2007 transfer to the German giants, the Russian failed.
Journalist Simon Phillips has claimed on his Substack Si Phillips Talks Chelsea that the Blues made a £70.2m offer for Ribery in 2008 and that Abramovich was “desperate” to land the player.
According to Phillips, Chelsea actually came “very close” to signing the former winger, but Bayern decided not to sell him in the end.
Ribery could have been a game-changing signing for Chelsea, with the Frenchman going on to become one of the best wide men of his era.
Ribery finished his Bayern career with nine Bundesliga titles, six German Cups and one Champions League trophy to his name.
Franck Ribery wanted Bayern Munich to sign Eden Hazard
While Abramovich wanted Ribery at Chelsea, Ribery wanted Hazard at Bayern years later.
Discussing who could replace him and former Chelsea winger Arjen Robben in 2015, Ribery told Sport Bild (via ESPN): “Believe me, in this world, you won’t find players like me or Arjen that easily, with all due respect. Of course, the club needs to contemplate about what happens once we have left, but Arjen and I are not done yet.
“He’s [Kevin De Bruyne] a super player, but when I see him I note that he’s different to Arjen and me. He’s not a player who takes the ball and starts dribbling, and likes to have the opponent in front of him. De Bruyne’s super when he has the space on the counter attack, but at Bayern you usually only have three, four metres — no huge spaces. But he is a good player, and he is still young. He can still learn.
“He [Hazard] attacks all of the time. He loves to run at his opponent. But he plays at Chelsea. This could be very expensive for Bayern.”
Thankfully, the Blues were able to keep hold of Hazard until he eventually moved to Real Madrid in 2019.
What Ribery and Robben were to Bayern, Hazard was to Chelsea. Brentford stars Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa praised Hazard recently, labelling him the best winger in Premier League history. Had Ribery joined the Blues all those years ago, maybe he would have earned that title.
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