Apparently, according to the BBC website, Roman Abramovich has said that he wants to build a legacy at Chelsea to last 100 years. There were two problems I had with this. Firstly the image that comes to mind when someone talks about a dynasty is the comparison to Hitler says that he had built an empire that would last a thousand years, which in the end barely lasted twelve years. Secondly I thought that just because a team is good now does not mean that will always be the case, for example Wigan are currently in the Premier League but leading up to 1977 they spent 36 seasons outside the football league. Conversely West Auckland who won The World Club Cup in 1909 and 1911 (Beating Juventus 6-1 in the 1911 final) now play in Northern League Division One which is nine divisions below Chelsea who have never even qualified for a place in the World Club Cup.

Having said that I did think that dispute the dominance of Liverpool, Man U, and Arsenal since the 70’s that historically the league had been quite open. This was wrong, only twenty two different clubs won the league. Here they are in order of the last time they won. (number of times they have won it!)

Chelsea – 2, Arsenal – 13, Manchester United – 15, Blackburn Rovers – 3, Leeds United – 3, Liverpool - 18, Everton – 9, Aston Villa – 7, Nottingham Forest – 1, Derby County – 2, Manchester City – 2, Ipswich Town - 1, Tottenham Hotspur - 2, Wolverhampton Wanderers - 3, Portsmouth - 2, Sunderland - 6, Sheffield Wednesday – 4, Newcastle United - 4, Huddersfield Town - 3, West Bromwich Albion - 1, Sheffield United – 1, Preston North End – 2

Nine of these teams no longer play in the top flight, and two of them are in League One. Huddersfield Town are losing 3-0 to Chesterfield as I type.

So we don’t know what the next hundred years will bring maybe Ossett Town will be every present in the champions League. One thing is for certain we wont be seeing a twenty third club winning the league for a while yet.