ROMAN'S £80M MESSI

thats a smart move. messi will change chelsea's football. they can focus more on attacking rather than defence now .

What a plastic club. I mean no disrespect to Chelsea fans, as they are not responsible for what their owner does, but I think paying 80 million on a player as a "quick-fix" is just laughable. You're meant to build a team, not just buy one from some sort of football catalogue of famous already-established names.

Typical Chelsea, buy Messi for 80 million, and then buy Kaka for 100 million, then Sergio Ramos for 150 million etc etc etc. Until Chelsea win every single competition every year, they will spend hundreds of millions, by the year 2015 they will probably have spent 1 Billion. I think its time to bring in the same system as the NFL and have a wage limit.

Who says "You're meant to build a team"?
All the top teams are spending massive amounts of money on their players to be the best clubs in Europe.
If this is what it takes then so be it...
Of course we would all like to nurture a Lionel Messi or a Ronaldinho in our academy's but that is not possible is it? These players are few and very far between. If these players stayed where they learned to play football, then football would be far worse off for it.
So what I am trying to say is...
you're jealous and you are scared of getting your *** kicked next season!!

Why would Messi want to go to a club with "NO HISTORY"??, He will stay in Barca I have no doubt about that.
Everton and Spurs and even Villa have more history that Chelsea, and then you got the elite Liverpool, Arsenal and then my boys "United".. we have the history, Abramovich's money cant buy that, come on he has spent close to £500m already.. he can spend all he wants for me.. but the only players that will go to Chelsea are the ones that want a big pay day.. not the ones that want to play for one of the "Elite" clubs.. Chelsea make me laugh.. your a joke..Come up to Manchester and see what a real club is all about..

If Messi is that good, why aren't Barcelona in the Champions League final? Or winning their league?

For that kind of money you'd expect success.

It has to be said that Messi looks great on youtube, but in reality midfields and defences will just work out ways to stop him.

Spending this kind of money on a single player doesn't do a lot for the morale of a dressing room, at the slightest signs of trouble, there will be handbags, and it will all end in tears.

You would think that Abramovich would have learnt his lesson from the thirty million quid Shevchenko, who is the world's most expensive fourth-choice striker.

good for chelsea. messi is an outstanding player and would grace the prem league. and if there s any utd fans complaining about the money they spend,well dont.i researched it last weekend and guess what. utd s first team costs similar to chelsea s does

Most of the people who are crying over Chelsea are Man Utd fans who are more plastic than Chelsea

I think football has turned into one big joke! You got england being managed by someone is who is not english, you got english teams where almost all the players are non english?

You actually agree to allow a football player to be paid stupid money per week just to kick a ball around?

You pay silly prices for the ever changing football kits and high ticket prices!

The manager always get sacked if the team does badly yet the so called football players get off scotch free and still get the way over the top wages!

What happened to having a good old football team with home grown talent who are willing to work hard for a decent wage? To play football for a living I would be quite happy with an annual salary that the average working class joe gets.

Time to bring football back to reality again and make it a sport that we were once proud of, at the moment it's full of fairys afraid to get stuck in because they might break thier nails or mess up the hair!

Take a look at the local clubs whose players have to go to work because they cannot afford to play fulltime, now thats what you call football passion and I would much rather watch hard working lads play real football than the over paid catalogue models taking dives and blaming the manager for not winning any trophies.......it should not be about the money, it should be about football and giving the 100% passion and respect to the fans who pay to see you!

its a GAME!!

80 million, this russian is turning football into a joke. It's obscene. Someone has already mentioned they'll spend a billion by 2015 - forget it mate they've already there now. Makes a mockery of football, even chelsea fans in there heart of hearts know they've bought everything they've won recently. History wont judge them kindly. Cheque book football.

I get really tired of people complaining about the fact that Chelsea spend money buying players. What do other clubs do generally? And dont give me that rubbish of history - Man U (fantastic club) had an aircrash that the world had/has sympathy for. We wont forget but thats why everyuone loves ManU. Messi would be fantastic for the premiership at any price. We are all lucky that someone in the UK can afford him.

don't think messi alone will bring the "type of football" which is always talked about.messi is good but he ain't all that, awesome left foot,cuts inside er er er thats about it

Since Roman has come to the club he has spent £300m on foreign talent.

If everyteam, could spend £80m - £100 on players like messi and kaka it would spoil the game. Dont get me wrong, Messi would light up the premiership, but no player is worth £80m, football is passion but its also a buisness, this is just not morally right, what if something tragic happened to a billionaire club owner, then how would the club be able to finance itself and payoff its daily expenses.

If ur spending that kind of money, spend it on more than one player. A better solution would be to go for £25m on Sergio Ageuro of athletico Madrid, ribery £20m, Nani £20m, David villa £18m, and the whole lot would cost u £83m makes better sense to have more than one creative player in ur team.

As far as playing fantasy football goes, it takes time to nurture players, certain managers play more tactical, certain are just more assertive in attacking. Give time with what you have, Dont go spending £100m every season just cos u can, it spoils the way football should be!

Blackburn did it too, remember - but they had an exhaustable amount. Abramovic has more cash, he can do it for longer. He has already spent £500m at least. It's hard to take Chelsea seriously, they have bought everything - all their success. Without the money given to them they'd be nothing. It makes what Wenger does look remarkable.

Too much money for many reasons, but particularly for a player that is so prone to injury.

I agree with the poster about Shevchenko being the most expensive 4th Choice striker, Shevchenko came in as one of the worlds elite, in a blaze of glory, now he is nothing and you wouldnt select him for your pub sunday team.
Messi I have no doubt will be the same, he isnt paying 80mil for his skills its just for the name, Messi will flop big time and be the most expensive mistake in the world, regardless of the fact that Chelsea are in the champions league final there is still unrest at the club, the players hate Avram Grant and still big names like Drogba and Lampard are going to walk, one man doesnt make team and splashing 80mil on Messi is jut throwing money down the pan, besides Spanish football is fairy football they are so gentle over there. Here, one tackle and 80 mil we be sitting on the sidelines for a year!! Not good business, waste of money.
Shevchenko budge up a bit on the subs bench youve got company!.

bRING Messi on - cOME ON Wigan dont roll over like West Ham did. Beat Man u !!

You lot make me chuckle . EVERY sucessful club HAS bought it . Blackburn with Jack Walker / Man Utd have always been big spenders / Liverpool in the 80's with Moores money / Arsenal buying every french kid in sight etc. You all sound a bit bitter to me.

Dont forget this is paper talk but ...Messi would improve the premiership , leading to more investment and all the worlds best playing here .

At the top they are all at it to a greater or lesser degree. Who is the last top class ManU home-grown? Scholes. Where are the new Carragher and Gerrard? Somewhere South of Madrid. Not even sure Abramovich´s money is clean, but that is another story.

The league should be decided on return on investment - points won divided by wages bill plus transfer fees amortised over length of player contract. Extra point every time eight or more of the starting 16 are home-grown.

messi will get lumps kicked out of him in the premier league just like they've tried to do to ronaldo at man utd. i hope he comes be good for the league and good to watch.

Every player in Liverpool's team was bought apart from 2, Arsenal are all bought, Man U yesterday all players apart from Scholes were bought ...... so what's all the comments about Chelsea buying success? The comments from Liverpool and Man U fans here betray a two-faced position ....... or is it jealousy?

Blackpool, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa they got history, Screw Man U supporters, live in the here and now, history is where you will be consigned to if you don't keep spending money. When Alex goes so will your success.

A few questions to ponder!

History is what happened in the past, right?

I think every fan if their honest, is mostly interested in the now, only the ones who aren't being so sucessful now hark on about their history?

The reason why a team has a great history is because they where able to attract the best young players at the time because they where successful?

Anyway, where these players on free transfers:
Rio Ferdinand,Ronaldo,Rooney,Torres,Mascherano,Kuyt
etc etc.

The problem sadly in football is that it has never been and will never be a level playing field.Those who spend the most money in general will win the most trophies!

I've been watching Chelsea get beat since 1976 the last four years its been a different story! every supporter in the country would have loved Roman buying there club including all those northern reds you can all moan about how unfair it is we dont care its fantastic being a Chelsa fan long live Abromavich!