The first occasion I heard Roman was taking over Chelsea was when I was away on summer holiday. It was a bolt out of the blue.

The players all knew the club was in financial trouble — we’d all heard that. There was even talk we might go under had we not qualified for the Champions League at the end of the 2002-3 campaign.

I was told afterwards I would have possibly been let go in order to get me off the wage bill. It was the kind of decision the club were going to have to make if Roman hadn’t come in.

I probably wouldn’t have been the only one. Those put up for sale were going to generate funds to keep the club running.

It is frightening to think how my career would have turned out differently if that had been the case — I wouldn’t have been part of such a successful team lucky enough to win so many trophies.

There was a lot of fear before we met him. As a young player early on you’re thinking this is a Russian billionaire, there was a lot of mystique to it.

John Terry, Eidur Gudjohnsen and myself were worried because we thought we might be replaced. We talked about it among ourselves.

I remember the first time Roman came to the old training ground at Harlington, which we all know was in terrible condition. He stood in front of us and told us the facilities weren’t good enough. He said: “We want to go places. We want to be at the top, this will be changed very quickly.”

It was a great first impression, it gave us all such a good feeling, we knew he meant business. The fear we had, turned to excitement. We knew we needed new players to compete for big trophies.

He was true to his word because we moved to a new training ground at Cobham pretty quickly, to fantastic facilities that changed Chelsea as a club, changed our preparation for games and got us to a level we needed to be.

It set down a marker for the future in terms of standards. A training ground is that important, that’s where you spend most of your time as a player.

I know the owner would love to see more of the youngsters come through because the investment of money and time has been massive since he arrived in July 2003.

I used to see him at FA Youth Cup and academy games. He genuinely cares. He has put the club in a great position for years to come. A lot of people look at the academy and only want to find the negative. However, Chelsea have produced a lot of players who have gone on to have good careers elsewhere.

Of course getting in the first team is not easy, but that’s the case at all top clubs. There is a lot to thank Roman for. Chelsea have been fortunate to have this incredible period. The club have appeared in finals pretty regularly and won the League five times.

You can’t have it your own way every year, that is something you have to accept even though you may not want to.

We would certainly have meetings after defeats. Not all of them were positive but this is a man’s game. If you’re falling below standards and at times we did, he would be at the training ground.

Now I look back I understand that. If you want to be successful, you need someone at the top to give a reminder now and then.

He would give words of encouragement, he would give it to us straight but that was good. He gave an honest appraisal of where we were and sometimes you need that.

One example was after we lost to Inter Milan in the last 16 of the Champions League in 2010. We had nine League games left, plus were in the FA Cup semi-final.

We were fighting against Manchester United and Arsenal for the title, we were only third at that point.

He came down to Cobham to speak to everyone and pushed us on. We then went on a run to win both the League and the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

We virtually bashed everybody. We were knocking five, seven, eight goals past sides.

Of course Roman doesn’t get all the credit for that but some things happen for a reason. That’s leadership.

JT and I worried about spraying champagne at Roman but he loved it

After we won the title at Bolton in 2005, John Terry and I were debating can we really pour champagne over his head — would that be crossing the line?

But Roman was right in the middle, getting soaked with the rest of us. That showed what a tight knit group it was. We were all young lads and he bought right into that.

After lifting the Champions League in 2012, we had about two hours in the dressing room and he was right in the mix then too. Didier Drogba was dancing around the cup, doing his typical moves and serenading the trophy. Roman was right there among it.

In the party at the hotel afterwards, he stayed to the side, which I respected. He was just sitting in the corner, perhaps reflecting. We were happy for him, we knew it was his holy grail.

I raved about Ballack and then he signed

It was always a bit of an awkward one for me because I didn’t want Chelsea to buy a brilliant player to replace me I just wanted a good one next to me! But I was asked my opinion on midfielders in world football. One of those was after I’d played against Michael Ballack in the Champions League.

I told Roman ‘I really like Ballack , he’s strong, talented, would do well for us’ and so on. I gave a rundown of what I thought was good about him and he came soon afterwards in 2006.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only factor in Chelsea signing him, everyone knew he was a top player anyway. But it turned out to be a good call because he was a good servant for the club.

He gave me a cuddle, I never got that off Bates

Roman was in the dressing room on a regular basis. I never had a relationship with an owner like that before.

At West Ham the owner was very much up in the boardroom and you hardly saw him. Ken Bates was a bit more approachable when I moved to Chelsea but I’d never seen this personal touch.

But there he was after a game giving me a cuddle and a hug because we’d beaten someone 1-0 at home. It was quite surreal in a way as well as great.

When you have that from the top, it breeds a family atmosphere. He’s also done lots of good work away from the pitch, such as launching a campaign to combat anti‑Semitism in sport.