By David Lee Wheatley @davewh1980Paris Saint-Germain have another opportunity to glimpse into their potential future when taking on Chelsea for the second year running, a club who represent the blueprint for their own long-term plans.
Chelsea were purchased by Russian Roman Abramovich from long-time owner Ken Bates almost 12 years ago in a deal reportedly worth £140million.
At the time, the Blues had mounting debts of around £80million to contend with and still no Premier League title to show for consistently heavy investment in the playing staff.
That all changed under Abramovich, with Italian manager Claudio Ranieri jettisoned in favour of bright young FC Porto head coach Jose Mourinho after he’d just delivered the UEFA Champions League trophy to the Portuguese giants in 2004 against all odds.
A first top-flight championship in 50 years was secured a year after his arrival at Stamford Bridge, as local mainstays Frank Lampard and John Terry led the Blues to new heights alongside an array of foreign stars.
Mourinho and co defended their title, while two League Cups and an FA Cup were secured before the headstrong boss left amid great acrimony between him and his paymaster.
Even after the Portuguese moved on to Inter, the honours cabinet continued to fill up in the shape of three more FA Cups and a league crown, which completed a celebrated double under Carlo Ancelotti in 2010.
They’d agonisingly missed out on the holy grail of the Champions League under much-maligned Avram Grant in 2008 on penalties under the rainy skies of Moscow, but didn’t deviate from that stated aim and finally became kings of the continent under Roberto Di Matteo in 2012.
A Europa League followed under Rafa Benitez, whose lifting of that cup occurred in spite of public opinion railing against him due to his once-searing rivalry with the west London outfit when in charge of Liverpool.
Up to the present day - with Mourinho back in harness - it appears another Premier League title could be on the horizon, plus a realistic tilt at a second Champions League success should they swipe pretenders PSG aside.
The French capital club wish to emulate those illustrious achievements which define Chelsea’s recent history, while they often cast a keen eye over a selection of the Blues’ best talent including Eden Hazard to go along with their purchase of Brazilian David Luiz last summer.
In fact, they offered the head coaching role at Parc des Princes to current Chelsea supremo Mourinho on two separate occasions in the past, while they have been repeatedly linked to skilful Belgian Hazard and several others in the Chelsea ranks.
They aspire to be just like Abramovich’s beloved Chelsea, but this tie may prove a tad too soon for their burgeoning ambitions to flourish, which is a myth they will do their damnedest to dispel.
Should they falter this time around, they will undoubtedly continue recruiting a plethora of the greatest players on the planet, meaning it won’t be too long before they finally grab glory at the top table of European football to go with a solitary Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996 - won only two years before London upstarts Chelsea emerged victorious in the very same competition.
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