Roman Abramovich was key to bringing Branislav Ivanovic to Chelsea last season, it has been revealed.

The Independent says when Chelsea finally got shot of Andrei Shevchenko to Milan last summer, the Italians also offered £8m for Branislav Ivanovic. That a club that was as strapped for transfer funds as Chelsea turned down the offer demonstrated just how much someone at Stamford Bridge rated the Serbian international.

That someone was not the former manager Avram Grant, for whom Ivanovic never played; rather it seems that the man who joined Chelsea from Lokomotiv Moscow had a more influential sponsor. When Ivanovic, 25, arrived in January last year, a mysterious transfer-window signing, he was referred to at the club as "Roman's idea".