The transformation of Chelsea in the space of two years, from the debt-ridden team that I played my last game for in that crucial Champions’ League place win over Liverpool in May 2003 to today’s Premiership champions has been incredible. But to understand just how incredible that story is you have to know how bad it was at times before Roman Abramovich took over. The strange characters who became part of the club, the disputes over contracts and the awful, sub-standard training ground. In fact, a lot of it came back to that wretched training ground.
