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Kieran Maguire shreds Roman Abramovich after source's £177m Chelsea reveal - 'executive toy'
Chelsea need to improve their commercial output after being treated as Roman Abramovich’s ‘executive toy’ for years.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about Chelsea’s commercial struggles.
Football Insider sources revealed on Friady (12 May) that Chelsea identified commercial growth as a key area of improvement in an internal review held earlier this year.
The Londoners are desperate to improve the £177million commercial revenue recorded at the club in 2021/22 – a figure which was much lower than the club-record totals of £200m and £191m they earned in 2018/19 and 2019/20.
A front-of-shirt sponsor and shirt sleeve sponsor deal are both at the top of Chelsea’s agenda this summer ahead of the new campaign.
Their current commercial revenue ranks them behind Tottenham, Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs in terms of the money they earned from sponsorship and merchandise last season.
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Maguire believes Abramovich ‘held back’ Chelsea on a commercial standing, with the Blues struggling to compete with their London rivals.
“I don’t necessarily think Chelsea should be doing better in the commercial department as they’ve been seen as Abramovich’s executive toy for so long,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“Before Abramovich Chelsea had won the title once in their history.
“I think it has held them back, and also they have to compete with a large number of clubs in London.
“Liverpool are the dominant team in Merseyside, Man United are historically the dominant team in Manchester and so those clubs generate far more eyeballs than Chelsea.
“Unfortunately for Chelsea, they have to compete with Tottenham and Arsenal for attention in London.“
In other news, Chelsea target Lautaro Martinez wants Premier League move