Steve Sidwell: Roman Abramovich’s Dressing Room Visits The Stuff Of Nightmares

Steve Sidwell has been reminiscing on his time at Chelsea when former owner Roman Abramovich would come in to the dressing room after a bad result and give glaring looks to players.

Sidwell joined Chelsea in 2007 from Reading and managed to make 25 appearances for the Blues. Abramovich won 19 major trophies with Chelsea, eight of those with Jose Mourinho who signed Sidwell. He answered a question on TalkSport regarding Chelsea fans frustration with current co-owner Behdad Eghbali entering the teams dressing room. He responded with times that successful owner Abramovich did the same.

He said: “It depends on what they’re going in and saying or if they’re going in regularly. When I was at Chelsea, Roman Abramovich used to come in after matches at Stamford Bridge.

“It depends what the context is and if they’re coming in to address everyone and then what they’re saying, ultimately. As a player, I never really saw it as a negative or a positive. After a game you knew if you’d played well or not, but with Roman it was different.

“If he came in, he didn’t have to say anything really. It would be a glare. He’d come in after most games and shake everyone’s hands and stand there talking to the coach and that was it – at that time players were getting up and going for showers or getting some food.

“He never really addressed us, but if there was a defeat or a bad performance, he’d come in and it would be ‘oof okay, here we go’. If they’re coming in and giving their opinions of the game – an owner’s opinion is different to someone who has been in football for 20-odd years at the highest level”.

Sidwell was also asked if he’s seen an owner claiming to know more than the manager about tactics.

He said: “Never at all. All of the owners at the clubs I was at owned it as a business where they’ve got departments to look after certain areas and the manager looks after the team.

“At the training ground there were times where we were called in for a meeting with the owner – especially at Chelsea with Roman, but away from the stadium and the emotion.

“We had to go in as a collective. You knew when he [Abramovich] was there because everyone was there! He would just address us to say ‘this is Chelsea Football Club, the standard at the moment is not good enough’. Short, sharp and sweet but just a little punch to go ‘come on’.