Since Antonio Conte's first season at Chelsea, where he lifted the Premier League, the club have won just one other domestic trophy. After the Italian left a year later in 2018, taking with him the FA Cup, just three pieces of silverware have been added to the bank.

That is almost seven years ago. In the previous seven before Conte's swansong at Wembley, Chelsea lifted seven trophies. All of those, bar maybe the 2013 Europa League, can be classed as one of the big trophies.

Beggars can't be choosers, though, and the fact that Chelsea are without a major honour since December 2021 makes even the Conference League a more attractive proposition. There is probably a debate to be had here about the Carabao Cup and some will also discuss the merits of the FA Cup when counting up trophies, but to foster a winning mentality it is vital to be victorious when it matters.

Getting into good habits of winning trophies and finals is crucial. Picking and choosing does not quite hold up, especially when things go dry.

The contrast is still stark. Chelsea have won nearly half the amount of trophies between 2018 and 2025 as they did from 2011 to 2018. It paints a picture of the significant drop-off under the Roman Abramovich administration which has only continued.

Abramovich oversaw a period of 10 trophies in seven years from 2004 to 2011. The final 12 of his ownership brought eight trophies, with two Europa Leagues included. There was increased turbulence in that period as league form fluctuated and performances in finals fell off a cliff.

READ MORE: Enzo Maresca faces immediate Chelsea risk and Thomas Tuchel has shown why

READ MORE: Chelsea get first Roman Abramovich message for a year as surprise new signing made

READ MORE: Chelsea silence speaks volumes for Enzo Maresca as shocking unspoken statement made

As Chelsea's rivals introduced a modern sporting structure, relying more on data than advisors and consultants, Abramovich's methods became increasingly outdated. By the time Frank Lampard was sacked during the Covid-19 pandemic, supporters had grown frustrated at the hiring and firing. A banner put outside Stamford Bridge on the morning of Lampard's exit read: "The circus continues."

This is all important to note because despite the Abramovich slide, he is the man now being chanted for once again. Between March and December 2024 his name was largely left off the lips of supporters watching the club up and down the country, but now it is back.

In the away end at Brighton on Saturday night, as Chelsea were dumped out of the FA Cup before the fifth round for the second time in three years under the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly watch, Abramovich's name rung out. It is the first time it has been heard so clearly since a 2-2 draw away to Brentford at the back end of last season under Mauricio Pochettino.

At that stage, the manager was also incredibly unpopular, as much for the results and performances as his ties to Tottenham. Abramovich would never do such a thing, the narrative goes, although he did appoint former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez to replace club legend Roberto Di Matteo in 2012. That came after the failed Andre Villas-Boas experiment in an attempt to take Chelsea forward and away from personality managers. Neither proved to be good decisions.

What this is to say is that Abramovich certainly made mistakes. He still left an incredibly well-thought-of figure despite the waning public interest in the club by the end. He never wanted to sell and was still actively committed to improving things. Yet, Abramovich had shifted from view after running into a brick wall with the great stadium project and wider Visa issues.

When he was connected, allegedly, to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it didn't do much to stop the Chelsea fans expressing their love for him. Most of those who followed the team got behind him even more. What he had done to transform the club could not and will never be forgotten, even if reports around him do get murky.

It is the strong bond with Abramovich, after all that he achieved at the head of the club, which made his eventual exit all the more tough. Nobody was asking for it previously and everything happened so quickly.

Overnight, Chelsea went from something so recognisable and meaningful to an empty shell. It was a shock to the system at the time and although patches of form for Pochettino and now Enzo Maresca have seen things stabilise, the discontent is back.

That explains a lot of the dissent towards Clearlake-Boehly in the two-and-a-half years since. But why now, after a quiet period, has Abramovich become the beacon of light?

The biggest reason is surely results. Chelsea have surrendered a position as solid contenders for the top four and are now fighting to cling on to their spot. Going out of both domestic cup competitions without as much as a whimper does not help.

These are not characteristics associated with the Chelsea that fans still hold so dear. It is not what Abramovich's Chelsea would have done, is the general feeling.

Really, though, it is the lack of vision or clear sight of the new owners which is angering supporters. Results are volatile at the top level and have been for a while. Supporters can put up with that, to an extent, if there is other stuff to get behind.

At the club now, with the remainders of Abramovich's glory days wiped out, there isn't much to cling onto. Fans are no longer content to turn frustration towards managers who they dislike - Graham Potter as an outsider and a risk, a man without the personality to succeed in the fire of Chelsea, and Pochettino as a Spurs man.

Instead, attention turns to those further up. Online, in particular, there are increasing levels of disbelief at the roles played by Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart among others in the recruitment department. Behdad Eghabli, as the controlling owner no longer in the shadows of Boehly, is also coming under fire.

The lack of clarity over key positions, holes in the squad, and eventual appointment of an inexperienced manager to front it all, are so far removed from even Thomas Tuchel's Chelsea of 2022. And that is not to say that Tuchel did not have his problems. Chelsea at that point were approaching a crossroads of how to get back to competing for titles and didn't seem to have a clear way of getting there.

That is what the Abramovich era Chelsea ended as. The current guise is much worse for those watching on. They see nothing of the club they once loved - by design, as the owners ripped it up to implement their own ideas. That is still the case now, as it was in March last year under Pochettino.

It is something that goes beyond the results on the pitch, hence why a dip for two months brings out the underlying concerns and feelings. Whether there is logic to chanting for Abramovich, an owner who was still working in medieval ways in a lot of respects, is not really the point. That Chelsea fans accept and know this but are so keen to enter nostalgia mode rather than get on board with what is right in front of them is telling.

Shouting Abramovich's name is unlikely to help the current team. It won't bring people together and is not a positive sign for the club as a whole. It is entirely understandable why those standing in the rain to watch Chelsea choose to do it, regardless.