Having bought the club from Bates, Abramovich cleared the clubs debt and then set about turning it in to a superpower. In the summer of 2003 manager Claudio Ranieri was given almost a blank cheque for the transfer window, after spending very little previously. Its hard to blame Ranieri for spending big, but you can blame him for the list of awful signings he made. The majority contributed little, and left for much less. The likes of Juan Sebastian Veron and Adrian Mutu came in, flopped and left for free. Hernan Crespo was another who left for free, while Damien Duff joined for £17million and left for just £5million two years later. Claude Makelele and Joe Cole were the only two worthwhile buys in a spending spree that hit £111million, which would be close to £160million today with inflation. Ranieri's business that summer looked like a remake of Brewster's Millions, given just how much money he wasted. No wonder he was sacked that season, after a trophy-less campaign.
I'm Aaron, I'm a Journalism graduate from the University of Sunderland, where I spent most of my time watching sports, films and TV. Hoping that can go to good use on here.
