Roman Abramovich had bought Chelsea from Ken Bates for an initial £60 million that would more than double but represented no more than a drop in the Black Sea compared with what he would pour in over the next 10 years, while changing English football.
2003-04 Buys club for eventual £140m
Transfers: £121.3m (net £111.3m).
Main buys: Damien Duff £17m, Hernan Crespo £16.8m, Claude Makélélé £16.6m, Juan Sebastian Veron £15m.
Wages: £114.8m.
Losses: £87.8m.
Team: 2nd in Premier League. Claudio Ranieri replaced as manager by Jose Mourinho.
2004-05
Transfers: £95.8m (net £92.2m)
Main buys: Didier Drogba £24m, Ricardo Carvalho £20m, Paulo Ferreira £13.2m, Arjen Robben £12m.
Wages: £108.9m.
Losses: £140m.
Team: PL Champions, League Cup winners.
2005-06
Transfers: £54.2m (net £27.9m)
Main buys: Michael Essien £24m, Shaun Wright-Phillips £21m.
Wages: £114m.
Losses: £80.2m
Team: PL Champions.
2006-07
Transfers: £66m (net £36.2m).
Main buys: Andriy Shevchenko £30m, John Obi Mikel £16m.
Wages: £132.8m.
Losses: £74.8m.
Team: PL 2nd, FA Cup/League Cup winners.
2007-08
Transfers: £43m (net £18m)
Main buys: Florent Malouda £15m, Nicolas Anelka £15m, Branislav Ivanovic £9m.
Wages: £172.1m.
Losses: £65.7m.
Team: PL 2nd. Champions' League runners-up after Avram Grant replaces Mourinho.
2008-09
Transfers: £28.2m (net profit £12m)
Main buys: Jose Bosingwa £16.2m, Deco £8m.
Wages: £167.2m.
Losses: £44.4m.
Team: PL 3rd. FA Cup winners after Guus Hiddink replaces Luiz Felipe Scolari.
2009-10
Transfers: £21.5m (net £14.7m)
Main buy: Yuri Zhirkov £18m.
Wages: £174.1m
Losses: £70m.
Team: PL Champions and FA Cup winners under Carlo Ancelotti.
2010-11
Transfers: £95.8m (net £81.7m)
Main buys: Fernando Torres £50m, David Luiz £21m, Ramires £19.8m.
Wages: £191.2m.
Losses: £67.7m.
Team: PL 2nd. Ancelotti sacked, replaced by Andre Villas-Boas.
2011-12
Transfers: £72m (net £51.6m)
Main buys: Juan Mata £23.5m, Romelu Lukaku £18m, Raul Meireles £12m.
Wages: £172.9m.
Profit: £1.4m.
Team: PL 6th. Champions' League/FA Cup winners after Villas-Boas replaced by Roberto Di Matteo.
2012-13
Transfers: £84.5m (net £64.5m)
Main buys: Eden Hazard £32m, Oscar £25m, Victor Moses £9m, Demba Ba £7m.
Wages: £140.3m.
Losses: tbc (February 2014).
Team: PL 3rd. Europa League winners after Rafa Benitez replaces Di Matteo.
Which makes a total of....
Wages: £1.49bn
Transfers: £642.3m (net £510.1m)
Training ground: £20m
Losses: £629.2m