Last updated 11:39, Wednesday, 28 May 2008

The danger of throwing money at a football club with wild abandon is that it can end up causing more problems than it solves.

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Flying away to a new club? Chelsea’s Didier Drogba

Once the excitement, drama and success have died down, cracks all too often start to manifest themselves quicker than it takes the gilt to wear off the championship trophies and medals.

You only have to look at Gretna’s current plight to see that money doesn’t guarantee you will live happily-ever-after.

Rich sugar daddy Brooks Mileson’s millions allowed the former non-league nobodies to live the dream but it soon turned into a nightmare once he ended his bankrolling.

They’ve ended up in a far worse position than if he had never spent a single penny on them, never mind the £8m he claims to have lavished on them.

Last week the administrator, who has been running the stricken club’s affairs since Mileson withdrew his funding following an illness, was forced to lay off their remaining 40 coaches, players and staff.

Now the club faces the prospect of disappearing off the football map completely unless a takeover by football agent Paul Davies is successful.

Even then, Davies will be inheriting a football club in a far worse state than it was when Mileson began his love affair with Gretna in 2003 – no floodlights, decaying stand, pitch in a terrible state, no manager or coaches and not a single player on the books.

It’s only four years since Mileson was dubbed the Roman Abramovich of Scottish football and his club, which was living the high life, was nicknamed Gretski.

Like Chelski, they were being bankrolled by a super-rich owner and Mileson quickly found himself likened to Chelsea’s Russian oil billionaire owner.

And like Gretna, the Chelsea fairytale is currently making uncomfortable reading, thanks to their indulgent owner.

Chelsea are managerless after the sacking of Avram Grant and they ended the season trophy-less despite boasting a lavish squad which includes names like Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba.

Abramovich is currently doing a very good impression of an owner who is meddling too much, and if I was a Chelsea fan I’d be feeling pretty worried right now about the club being in the hands of a man who is so rich and powerful he can do whatever he likes without being held to account.

The alternative would be even more worrying if Abramovich decided to walk away... he’d be leaving them owing £736m to all their creditors, including a £578m interest-free loan to himself.

Grant has every right to feel he has been betrayed as leading them to their first-ever Champions League final and taking the Premiership title race to the last days of the season would not be viewed as a disaster to most fair-minded people.

The problem seems to be that his face never fitted at Chelsea, players did not respect his authority and fans never took to the doleful-looking Israeli who lacks the charisma and stature of the man he replaced, Jose Mourinho.

By sacking him after less than a year, Abramovich is effectively conceding he should never have appointed him in the first place.

His club is lurching from crisis to crisis and, without him, Chelsea are far from financially stable. It’s about time Abramovich accepted wealth should not allow him to abandon responsibility for his decisions and the club’s future welfare.