The Chelsea stuff continues to dominate the headlines.

Roman Abramovich has now officially put the club up for sale, stating that he is “writing of the loan” and “net proceeds with be donated to a charity he is setting up for the people of Ukraine”.

It is all PR guff and raises a lot of questions.

Writing off the loan really does not change much.

Chelsea have been valued at around £3bn, and £1.5bn is owed to Roman.

If Abramovich was not “writing off the loan” then he would get nowhere near his value of the club.

A prospective investor would be looking to buy the club for £1.5bn, whilst also paying off the £1.5bn owed to Abramovich. Their total investment would still be £3bn.

By “writing off the loan” Roman can now ask for £3bn from the club, knowing that an investor will pay that to buy a debt-free asset.

In both scenarios, the Russian Oligarch would receive £3bn for the sale of Chelsea.

He also talked in his statement about donating the net proceeds of the sale to charity.

Now what the “net proceeds” are is also up for debate. Will it include what he is owed for the loan or not?

And in the small print, it transpires that Roman is setting up his own charitable fund to distribute the money; rather than giving the money to one of the many existing charities doing great work in Ukraine.

Why set up your own charity? Well so that you can siphon off in “legal” ways as we have seen recently with the Captain Tom Foundation.

This is all just sprots washing and money laundering.

Roman has taken his dirty money, earned during the break up of the Soviet Union where he was gifted national assets by his friend Vladimir Putin.

He has pumped that money into Chelsea, with no one in authority questioning where it came from.

Now he is selling the club, the money comes out clean.

By the time you take into account what he paid for the club and the loan, Roman would have “cleaned” nearly £2bn in ill-gotten gains.

It will then be put into a trust in somewhere like the British Virgin Isles, destined to be “donated to charity” but we all know it won’t be. The dust will die down and it will all be forgotten about.

The worst thing is, there are fans out there supporting Abramovich.

By buying Chelsea, he bought millions of supporters who will back him to the hilt just because he financed their success for 20 years.

There is clearly a split in their fan base.

The older fans are saying “thanks for the memories, time to say goodbye.”

Those that are younger are addicted to the success he bought and will back Roman no matter what it transpires that he has done.

Not really much Arsenal news floating about, but what is happening up at Chelsea does affect us.

Tomorrow we move onto other topics.

Keenos

Looks like these are safe on the shop for yet another year…..https://t.co/U1TApFQxag

— 🎗 ///SHE WORE/// 🎗 (@SheWore) March 2, 2022

In 12 months time Marseille will sell Matteo Guendouzi for a huge profit.

Having played his 38^th game for the French side, the clause to make the deal permanent for £9million from Arsenal was triggered.

Arsenal are losing a good player for way below his market value, but it is still a deal that is good for the club.

Guendouzi is a troubled soul.

There is a reason why last season there was no club interested in him despite Arsenal happy to take a cut price deal.

After a good first season at Arsenal in 2018/19, he was one of the hottest prospects in European football. Transfermarkt valued him at £45million.

At the time he was comparable to Declan Rice. A 20-year-old midfielder with the physical and technical attributes to make it.

But as Rice’s star has continued to rise, Guendouzi’s has fallen.

A tough second season at Arsenal was marred by childish behaviour and fallings out with different managers and coaching staff.

Whilst he is was physically a man, he was clearly mentally immature.

His behaviour led him to be loaned out to Hertha Berlin for the 2020/21 season. Meanwhile Rice was being made vice-captain of West Ham and establishing himself as an England regular.

Guendouzi did not exactly set the world alight in Germany, and his discipline issues kept raising their head.

Summer 2021 hit and whilst Rice was helping England make the European Championships Final, Guendouzi was searching for a new club – and there were very few takers.

He ended up on the French south-coast; Marseille.

But even they were unwilling to make the deal permanent – agreeing a loan deal that would only go permanent if he played a certain amount of games.

Whilst this summer, Rice will be pursued by some of the biggest teams in Europe for a transfer fee worth in excess of £100million, Guendouzi will be joining a 2^nd rate team in a 2^nd rate league for £9million.

A quick look at Transfermarkt shows they value Guendouzi at £18.6m. Rice £67.5million. A difference of nearly £50million.

Back in December 2019, their value differed just £5million.

Guendouzi and Rice were around the same level in 2019, and the same potential. Rice has kicked on, Guendouzi has not.

Another good year in France for Marseille, keeping his head down and behaving will lead to him getting a big move.

He will be back to being valued over £40million and Marseille will cash in.

Arsenal will then be criticised by some corners for letting a player go so cheap.

But the other side of the coin is that a leopard never changes his spots. That when he gets that big move, he struggles with the increase in pressure and expectation. That he will not like being told what to do and the petulant behaviour rears its head.

Mikel Arteta is clearly building a team of a certain type of character. Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odergaard.

Guendouzi does not fit in with these guys.

Albert Lokonga has replaced Guendouzi as the “bright young midfielder”. We now need to be buying better than Granit Xhaka to improve the squad. Matteo is not that.

Pocket the money, and continue the positive investment.

Keenos

Our Arsenal beer mats are still flying out. Get yours now before they sold out! #Arsenal #ArsenalFC #AFChttps://t.co/zn8hEh76Df pic.twitter.com/MqOmVBTeFs

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) February 25, 2022

As a child of the early 80s, I witnessed some incredible Arsenal success in the first 20 years of my life.

Anfield 89, domestic cup double, 1994, the double, the double double and the invincible season.

Success can be like a drug. You become hooked and crave more.

I was never fully addicted to success. Arsenal were never really undisputed number one during the period (Manchester United). It made the success we gained feel different.

The next 8 years of my life was a mini-rehab, with Arsenal failing to win a trophy. Since then it has been sporadic FA Cup wins.

At no point did I support Arsenal because we won things, or go to games purely for that hit of success. It has always been more than the 90 minutes for me.

That is why when Roman Abramovich and later Sheikh Mansour came in firing their billions from their tanks, I was not bothered.

When Arsenal fans were calling for Alisher Usmanov to come on and match Abramovich, I wanted nothing of it.

I recognised that these sort of billionaires were a short term option – although Abramovich has lasted longer than anyone would have expected in 2003.

The sort of ownership that Chelsea had always felt “boom and bust”. A bubble that could burst at any point.

Often in the 00s you heard fans say “what happens when Roman gets bored / assassinated / sanctioned”; well that is on the verge of happening.

And Chelsea’s business model can not survive without someone pumping in hundreds of millions a year.

Under Abramovich, Chelsea have received over £1.5cm on loans from him to offset losses. £500m has come in the last 5 years.

He has always been happy to bankroll the club to success. But there are not too many others in the world with the sort of disposable income to firstly buy the club off Roman and then continue bankrolling it.

A more realistic scenario is a consortium of rich men come in and the club is broken up into individual shares.

Or a single American (or Jim Ratcliffe) come in and buy the club outright.

But these will all be businessmen. Looking town the club as an investment in the same way Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United are owned.

They worked hard to build up their fortunes and would unlikely bankroll the club. For them it would be an investment, not a play thing.

After being crowned Champions of the World, Chelsea fans are quickly waking up to the reality that the Roman era is over. And that their drug of choice (success) might be in short supply in the very near future.

Some have said “I don’t care if the club folds, I have seen us win everything”. And this is the short sighted viewpoint that I could never side with.

When Roman came in, we all knew it was a bubble and when it burst it could collapse very quickly. I didn’t want a Roman as I wanted an Arsenal for my children. For my grand children. For the next generations. The next 100 years. You do not get that with the boom and bust model of being a rich man’s play thing.

It shows how addicted these fans are to the success that they would rather go cold turkey and walk away then continue supporting their club regardless of what happens.

I have always said about Arsenal that I will be there through thick and thin. Premier League to non-league (if it happened).

You always had the feeling that whilst some Chelsea were the same – the hardcore few thousand that turned up in the early 90s – the majority were hangers on. Would soon unhook themselves from the drug when the success dried up and found another source for their drug.

These fans will begin supporting Manchester City, or take their fandom to a club in another country. They might even step away from football and begin to follow Max Verstappen I t he hope he gives them that rush.

If Roman does sell, Chelsea will struggle to maintain their position and it will be over for all of those fans who only supported them because they won trophies.

RIP Chelsea FC.

Keenos