I was at Chelsea when Roman Abramovich took over – the change at the club was disappointing

More than two decades ago, Roman Abramovich shocked English football with his Chelsea takeover. The Russian businessman replaced Ken Bates and his first summer witnessed the Blues splash the cash in the transfer market.

An outlay exceeding £100million was enormous by 2003's standards, with several of the new signings subsequently winning the Premier League crown under Jose Mourinho. Claude Makelele and Joe Cole were amongst those who joined whilst Claudio Ranieri was in charge before flourishing under his Portuguese replacement.

However, what did all of this signify for the players already at Stamford Bridge when Abramovich took charge? Stars like John Terry and Frank Lampard reached even bigger heights, but it proved a contrasting tale for Carlton Cole.

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An academy graduate at Chelsea, Cole made his Blues debut as a teenager, scoring his first Premier League goal during the 2001/02 campaign. The prospect of witnessing some of the planet's finest talents arriving at Stamford Bridge initially thrilled the forward, though that enthusiasm proved short-lived.

"When it happened, for me, I felt that the Roman Abramovich takeover was brilliant," Cole said at the launch of Ladbrokes' Gaffer of all Accas. "I thought they would start to promote from within and try to improve the players that they already had at the club. But soon we realised it was a high-pressure situation.

"Claudio Ranieri didn't have any time to nurture anymore. He was told he had to win the league straight away because Abramovich immediately pumped so much money into the club. I saw things change, and it wasn't in favour of me.

"The youth really took a hit. If you weren't established, you probably wouldn't be in the squad. So I had to go out on loan because if you want to make a statement, you go out and buy the best striker in the world."

Cole had enjoyed a brief spell on loan at Wolves in 2002/03, helping them secure promotion to the Premier League, while also earning minutes - and goals - under Ranieri at Stamford Bridge. The subsequent campaign, however, saw new striker Hernan Crespo spearheading the attack in west London whilst Cole found himself across town on loan at Charlton.

A further loan move came the following season, with Mourinho sending the striker to Aston Villa for a year after strengthening Chelsea's frontline with the acquisition of Didier Drogba. Cole made his way back to his parent club the subsequent season, but was offloaded to West Ham in the summer of 2006 following just 31 Chelsea appearances - many of those coming from the substitutes' bench.

"When I talk to other players from that period, they were uncomfortable too," Cole added. "They didn't know what was going to happen, either. We had the likes of Gianfranco Zola, William Gallas, Marcel Desailly and Manu Petit – great players at the club who didn't know whether they would fit in.

"We knew that Frank Lampard was going to be a stalwart because he was a great player. The same with John Terry. But it was deemed that I needed to go out and get experience, so I was really disappointed about that."

Cole eventually managed to forge a solid career at West Ham, racking up more than 250 league appearances for the Hammers across two separate stints. It was under a former Chelsea teammate that he produced his finest football, scoring 10 goals in consecutive campaigns when Gianfranco Zola was West Ham manager between 2008 and 2010.

Reflecting on his time at Stamford Bridge, Cole put forward a theory on why he never managed to replicate that form in blue.

"I saw my peers... playing regular football, and I was never going to get that because the money hadn't been invested in helping me," he said. "It had been invested outside. So it was always going to be a hard task for me to break into a team like that."