Why Abramovich wants Chelsea to have a heart of English oak

The champions’ pursuit of Alex Oxladechamberlain, Ross Barkley and Danny Drinkwater is part of the owner’s long-term plan for the club to have a core of home-grown players – for sentimental as well as practical reasons

Chelsea have agreed a £35million fee for Alex Oxlade-chamberlain and also want to sign Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley in this final week of the transfer window. It is not just about strengthening the squad, although that is something they certainly have to do. There is a bigger picture here.

Despite being owned by a Russian billionaire, despite never hiring a British manager under Roman Abramovich, the club want to have an English backbone. It is a plan that has been shared with manager Antonio Conte and with his predecessors, including Jose Mourinho.

Why? Because they are an English club, and it is a long-term dream of Abramovich to flood the first team with talent from the club’s academy – and, primarily, English talent. Homegrown talent.

It may appear unlikely but it is what Abramovich wants, and Chelsea have craved it since John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole were in their prime and the club had that clear identity of strong, English players who dominated the first team.

Terry, Lampard and Cole have not been replaced. Chelsea have an Englishman as their captain, in Gary Cahill, but he is the only regular in a team which is populated by Belgians, Brazilians and Spaniards. There is Victor Moses, who represented England all the way up to Under-21s, but he was born in Nigeria and opted to play for them. He is homegrown but defined as Nigerian.

Chelsea had the opportunity a couple of years ago to create a new English spine and, interestingly, tried to do so by buying one.

With Cole and Lampard leaving, and with Terry’s influence diminishing as he got older, there was a move to replace them like for like. This involved Barkley, again, but also his then Everton team-mate John Stones, and Luke Shaw, who was at Southampton.

In the end, no deal was agreed for Stones, who eventually joined Manchester City, while Shaw opted for Manchester United and Chelsea decided against going all-out for Barkley.

Oxlade-chamberlain and Drinkwater are obviously not direct replacements for Cole or Terry but the pair, plus Barkley, are the three Englishmen that Chelsea want and hope they can get now, even though it could cost them up to £100million.

Chelsea have met Arsenal’s asking price for Oxlade-chamberlain while Leicester City are holding out for £40million for Drinkwater.

Everton are unlikely to get more than £25million for Barkley – they had hoped for twice that

– who is out injured.

Spurs also want him.

He, and Oxladechamberlain, are also both in the final years of their contracts.

But why does this matter to Chelsea and to Abramovich? It is because despite the cosmopolitan nature of football, they are an English club. Pure and simple. And there is an argument that if you take to the field with 11 foreign players, then it is more difficult for them to adjust to the atmosphere inside an English stadium, to attune to the supporters and, crucially, for the supporters to identify with them.

It would be the same if it was a French club without French players. Or so the argument goes. The club need to have a local soul, a local spirit. It is also something of a sentimental thing.

Of course, the obvious way to do this is to promote from within the academy – that old chestnut at Chelsea – and that might still happen. Eventually. It is actually, finally, starting to feel closer.

There was hope it already would have happened and there is the understandable argument that if an English backbone really is the aim, then why did Chelsea not do more to persuade Nathaniel Chalobah and Dominic Solanke to stay and not send Ruben Loftus-cheek, Lewis Baker or Tammy Abraham out on loan? Some would surely fit the bill.

And maybe they will make it. Next year. Baker has gone on loan to Middlesbrough but Loftus-cheek, with Crystal Palace, and Abraham, with Swansea City, have been sent to Premier League clubs. Kasey Palmer, at Huddersfield Town, and Izzy Brown, at Brighton, are also in the Premier League.

That would indicate that Chelsea regard their academy products as of a higher quality than in recent years and, therefore, closer to being ready to challenge for their first team.

In fairness, it is probable that had Chelsea not sacked Carlo Ancelotti as manager, this would already have happened. Josh Mceachran, finding himself back at Brentford after being farmed out on loan, would have been persevered with. Similarly with Roberto Di Matteo. If he had stayed then so would Ryan Bertrand, now at Southampton.

But that did not happen and Chelsea have run through managers as regularly as they have won trophies, while Conte’s own problems at the club have been welldocumented. Chelsea also have to boost their quota of players who are homegrown to comply with Premier League rules.

But the pursuit of Oxlade-chamberlain, Drinkwater and Barkley has a wider, deeper aim for Chelsea and maybe a surprising one given the remoteness of Abramovich and the foreignness of the recruitment over his years of ownership.

The club do appear to want to have an English heartbeat, an English spine, an English core. Eventually.