Chelsea’s Championship neighbours have more spending power

Just a few short years ago, Roman Abramovich could have afforded to pay Cristiano Ronaldo to clean his cars and Robinho to massage his feet all day, but the true extent of the changing balance of power in the Premier League has been revealed. According to figures released in this month’s Four Four Two, Manchester City’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayan is worth more than double his Russian counterpart, while QPR part-owner and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has also overtaken him in the wealth stakes.

Abramovich has been particularly hit hard by the global crunchy credit thing (he has reportedly dropped £4.7bn and sacked all his yacht staff), and as a result has limited Chelsea January spending budget to somewhere around zero pounds.

The huge shortening in in Big Phil’s odds in the sack race this week is rumoured to be due the Brazilian’s anger with the cash flow halt, and the club’s decision that he cannot spend the Wayne Bridge transfer money.

Spoiler bonus: Can you guess which player tops the rich league?