Hello and welcome to straight out of Cobham, the Chelsea FC podcast from The Athletic.

This week we're reacting to the tepid draw against Tottenham, looking ahead to the midweek Champions League game in Seville and next weekend's matchup with Leeds.

We'll answer your questions and look back on a great win in the Youth Cup.

Available for free, wherever you get your pods and add free on the Athletic.

This is straight out of Cobham.

Yes, hello listener Matt Davis Adams here, ready to talk you through another week in the life of Chelsea Football Club. I can't slash won't do it alone though. So lucky for me, I'm joined by the Athletics, three wise men as regards Chelsea at least. Dominic Fyield is here. Hi, Donk. Hey, Matt, how you doing? Liam Toomey, of course, is with us. Hi, Liam. Hello. And it wouldn't be a straight out of Cobham without Simon Johnson. How you doing? Liam Toomey, of course, is with us. Hi, Liam. Hello.

And it wouldn't be a straight out of Cobham without Simon. Johnson, how are you doing, Simon? I'm well. How are you? I'm all right, yeah, not too bad. Before we get to the Spurs match itself, it was, of course, Roman Abramovich's 1,000th game as Chelsea owner, and over the weekend, the guy's released a fascinating long read on Romans rule.

Don, tell us a little bit about the piece and what went into it. game as Chelsea owner. And over the weekend, the guys released a fascinating long read on Roman's rule.

Dom, tell us a little bit about the piece and what went into it.

Well, it's about the effect that Roman Abramovich, who's input at Chelsea and purchase of Chelsea had on the English footballing landscape, really, wider implications than Chelsea

alone.

But, you know, the disruption it caused to Arsenal,

who were champions and unbeaten in his first season, in Abramwich's first season in English football,

to how Manchester United, the dominant force of the era really reacted. And to how it, how Abraham

which his ownership really changed the nature of football ownership in this country

and sort of hurried the more traditional owners like Sir John Hall and Doug Ellis, etc.

Out of the game simply could not compete financially with the might of the Russian oligarch

and the type of people that came in, subsequently foreign owners,

recognising there was an opportunity here largely because Abramich had shown him there was

an opportunity there. Abramich was the first and he set the tone and others followed.

Yeah, even by the athletic standards, this is must-read stuff,

so do check it out if you hadn't yet.

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