Buying Happiness
by Louis Cooke

When England's Premiership soccer season started recently, fans, as usual, were unsure where to focus their attention. How would newly promoted Leicester, Portsmouth and Wolves fare in the top flight? How would Manchester United reassert its dominance following the sale of David Beckham to Real Madrid? How would Arsenal, which signed few new players in the summer break but secured the important services of existing stars Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira, begin its campaign to win back the title? Will Liverpool finally appease its fans and live up to its promise?

As it turned out, attention rested mostly on a Russian billionaire named Roman Abramovich. When last year's season ended in May, no one had heard of him. Now he's the most talked about man in European soccer; according to Sky Television pundit Andy Gray, he's the most important thing to happen to the game in England since the formation of the Premiership in 1992 and 1995's Bosman ruling, which shaped European soccer's current free-agent market.

On July 2, Abramovich bought a 50.9 percent stake in London club Chelsea. (He has since incrementally increased it to 95.22 percent.) The day after the sale, five newspapers dubbed the club "Chelski." And in the following six weeks before the start of the season the team was linked to just about every major player in Europe, available or not. There was a supposed £71 million ($112 million) bid for Raul of Real Madrid, £35 million ($55 million) for Alessandro Nesta of Parma. Not to mention speculation over Rivaldo, Andrei Shevchenko, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and even Beckham. No player was exempt from the transfer rumor mill. Abramovich tried to tempt former Chelsea star Gianfranco Zola back to Stamford Bridge. When he refused, saying he had given his word to his new club Calgiari and would honor it, Abramovich made inquiries about buying the club for £20 million ($31.5 million) to facilitate the deal.

These deals haven't happened, but several have. By the end of the transfer period Chelsea had spent more than £111 million ($174 million) on new players, including Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron from Manchester United, Irish international Damien Duff from Blackburn Rovers, and Romanian striker Mutu from Parma. And there seems to be no sign this won't happen again next year. "If I feel we need to buy any particular player to get the results we want," Abramovich has said, "I'll just spend more money."

This attitude has prompted criticism. Some see Chelsea's actions as foolish, inflating the transfer market just as it was beginning to settle. A few years ago, all throughout Europe, a flurry of players left their clubs for huge, often ludicrous, sums from other teams. The record transfer fee was broken almost weekly. Since then, things have fortunately slowed down, but with a high roller now in charge of a Premiership club, the fragile market could explode again.

Others go further and claim that Chelsea is cynically trying to "buy" the title — similar to Wayne Huizenga's Florida Marlins, which won the 1997 World Series. But Chelsea isn't a 5-year-old franchise like the Marlins were, and it's more difficult (and vital) in soccer than baseball to create a team that will jell effectively, given that game's more fluid nature. In fact, in recent years, this has been exactly Chelsea's problem. The team has been a cosmopolitan one, with many talented, world-class players, but a contentious squad rotation system has yielded only some cup success and top six finishes. There has been no Premiership title, no big impact on Europe — both of which the fans expect from such high-quality players. A certain something has been lacking.

As is the case with the New York Yankees' George Steinbrenner, many believe Abramovich's millions can bring Chelsea that something. But with more new signings, there is a risk the squad will become even more fragmented. Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri has played down his revamped side's chances of winning the title in one year, but the pressure on him is immense: Bookmakers have him at 8-1 fourth favorite to be the first Premiership manager to be sacked this season.

On opening weekend, Chelsea traveled to play fellow title hopefuls Liverpool. The new-look team's baptism-by-fire was watched from the executive box by its new owner. Chelsea took the lead through new signing Veron, before Liverpool leveled the score with a Michael Owen penalty kick. Then, with less than five minutes remaining, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, a player of the old order, put Chelsea 2-1 ahead. Abramovich reacted to his side's goals with glee, jumping and punching the air, grinning like a 9-year-old at his first game. He greeted Liverpool's goal with a shrug, a smile and appreciative applause. By his own admission, he is not a soccer expert, but judging from his first league match it is clearly a game he will quickly learn to love.

Chelsea won the match — the club's first away league win at Liverpool in more than 10 years and only its second in 68 years. To start the season Chelsea is in fifth place in the league, with two wins and a draw. (Most of the other teams, however, have played one more game.) But it is way too early to say whether Chelsea will win the league. There are many more games to be played between now and May 15. It will do very well to pry the title from Manchester United, which even without Beckham still has a trophy-winning squad (including a new goalkeeper, American Tim Howard). Arsenal too, which led for most of last season, will be keen to win back the title. And, as always, there will be the surprises the beautiful game throws up. One thing is certain though: The revolution at Chelsea means the world's best domestic league is poised to be more thrilling than ever.

E-mail Louis Cooke at louis at mintcake dot com.