Bates plans for retirement

The most dramatic and eventful 48 hours in Chelsea’s 98-year history culminated tonight with the news controversial chairman Ken Bates is making plans for his retirement.

The development comes after a whirlwind two days in which Bates pocketed £17.5m from Roman Abramovich’s £200m Chelsea Village takeover and the futures of no fewer than seven players have been resolved.

Bates, 71, has reigned at Stamford Bridge since buying the club for just £1 in 1982.

And now, after 21 often colourful years at the helm, he is preparing to wind down his involvement as Russian billionaire Abramovich bankrolls his bid to establish the Blues as giants of European football.

“I won’t go on forever and, at some stage, I’ll want to slowly sit back and retire,” Bates said. “I have not set a date at the moment.

“I’ll enjoy the fruits of my past labours and Roman’s future labours.

“I’d been looking for 18 months and thinking who do I leave it to? Who would I hand the club over to when I retire?

“Now, in due course, the new owner will nominate the successor to replace me.

“At other clubs, people hand their stake in the club to their children, who might have no interest in football. Roman’s different.

“None of my kids are really interested in football and certainly not interested enough to do it full-time.”

Bates’ revelation comes at the end of an amazing burst of activity at the west London club.

On Tuesday, Russian billionaire Abramovich launched his £59.3m bid to snap up every Chelsea Village share – and committed to paying off the complex’s estimated £90m debt and injecting another £50million.

Then came the player news – midfielder Enrique de Lucas joined Spanish side Alaves, fans’ favourite Gianfranco Zola went home to Cagliari in Italy and goalkeepers Marco Ambrosio and Jurgen Macho arrived from Italian club Chievo and Sunderland respectively.

Centre-back John Terry ended speculation over his future by sealing a new four-year deal, while striker Carlton Cole added five years to his contract.

Chelsea also signed 17-year-old ex-PSV Eindhoven keeper Yves Makaba Makalamby.

Bates also revealed four bidders were plotting a takeover before Abramovich won the race with his colossal cash injection.

The Stamford Bridge chief admitted he took just 45 minutes to be convinced by Abramovich once he discovered the enormous figures in his takeover package.

Bates told talkSPORT: “Roman is putting £200million into the club in total.

“Do you think he’d spend that just to pour it into the Thames?

“That demonstrates this guy means business and have we got a great future now.

“We’d been looking for a partner investor for almost a year.

“We were talking to four suitors and, of them, three actually approached us out of the blue.

“Roman wanted to get involved in Premiership football and looked at four clubs – but thought we were head and shoulders above the others.

“We’re a good team and in the Champions League, which must have influenced him.

“We arranged to meet last Thursday and did the deal in 45 minutes.”

Abramovich today disclosed he was happy with head coach Claudio Ranieri and the rest of the club management – but somewhat worryingly added that that opinion was only temporary.

The 36-year-old, who has a £3.8bn personal fortune, told the London Evening Standard: “We have no plans to change the management – at the moment.

“And it’s too early to give specific (transfer) plans. We will decide when we have a better handle on the situation .

“I don’t look at this as a financial investment, rather as a hobby.

“I’m looking at it as something to have fun with, rather than having to realise a return.”

Bates revealed Abramovich will fund some transfer activity this summer – but not a carte blanche recruitment of big-name stars.

The Chelsea chairman said: “This man is a billionaire and hasn’t become that by making silly, emotional decisions.

“It will be evolution, not revolution. We’re only four or five weeks from the season and it’d be madness to buy players and throw them in willy-nilly.

“But we are looking to strengthen as we’re one or two short after letting a few go at the end of the season.

“We’re looking for quality players and were looking for them before last Thursday.

“You’ll be pleasantly surprised when the first-team selection is announced.”

Bates also disclosed Zola turned down Chelsea’s contract offer and a £4million deal from the Middle East in favour of going home to Italy.

“When Gianfranco signed a two-year extension in 2001, we increased his salary by £1m a year,” added Bates.

“We felt our new offer was all we could afford, given the financial constraints we had until last week.

“Now he’s gone to Cagliari for less than he’d earn here. He could also have gone to Qatar and earned £4million tax free in a year.

“But Sardinia is his home and he wanted to go and play there.

“We’d love him to come back with Cagliari for a charity match, at the end of the season

“I’d like him to wear a Chelsea shirt for 45 minutes and Cagliari shirt for 45 minutes.”