“Dictatorship tempered by assassination” has always had its followers as a way to run a country.

Roman Abramovich believes it’s the way to run a football club.

The Chelsea owner is now on his 15th manager (including caretakers) since swapping Siberia for London’s West End in 2003.

In that time, the Blues have won 16 major trophies – more than any other English club – and seven more than they’d won in their previous 98 years.

Comparisons are odious, but it’s a record that suggests Voltaire’s famous dictum at least has merit – if not in life, perhaps in football.

The phrase came to mind this week when Abramovich took out favourite son, Frank Lampard, after Chelsea hit a bad patch.

The Russian’s fondness for the club legend as a player did not stop him from pulling the trigger once results fell below expectations.

And that’s how it’s been since he arrived from nowhere to change the game forever. The only sop to sentiment was a 100-word acknowledgement of Lamps’ services – an unprecedented nod of sympathy, according to experienced Chelsea-watchers.

In turn, Lampard thanked the club – and implicitly the owner – for the “privilege” of having been given the reins, will take his money and life will go on.

New boss, Thomas Tuchel, has already overseen his first game in charge, and will be under no illusion about the rules of engagement.

He, too, will be handsomely paid and given lots of money to buy the very best players, but will be expected to deliver trophies: failure will not be tolerated.

Abramovich runs his club the way he does his businesses, and no one can argue that he hasn’t been an overwhelming success both on and off the field.

His modus operandi has seen him go from selling plastic ducks in a Moscow market to one of the world’s richest men in two decades.

As a result, his impact at Chelsea has come in for forensic scrutiny from both the business and football worlds.

No other major club has had a turnover of managers to match Chelsea and many in the game have slammed the shoot-from-the-hip approach.

It is costly, too, with well over £100 million paid out in compensation to fired bosses and their staff. But that’s a small part of the £1.3 billion total outlay.

Indeed, when you consider the switches in personnel, tactics, and style of play, not to mention new signings, you wonder if the constant upheavals may also derive from his compatriot Leon Trotsky’s theory of constant revolution.

In contrast, rival clubs have shown patience with their managers, realising that a football club is not something that can be turned around overnight.

Most famously, Manchester United waited over three seasons for Alex Ferguson to win anything, before he struck the mother lode over the next 23. With Abramovich, he wouldn’t have had a chance.

The Russian’s approach is possible only if the club is wealthy enough to sustain the huge cost of the upheavals. Other Big Six clubs have given under-pressure managers the benefit of the doubt when they appeared under pressure.

Both United and Arsenal, where Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Mikel Arteta were respectively wobbling just weeks ago, stood by their men, and are now seeing greener pastures.

Waiting has never been an option for Abramovich. As much as he wanted to see youngsters come through the academy he funded, he was not prepared to give them time.

Lampard blooded several, who have already earned international caps, but a £220 million spending splurge in the last window ensured nobody could be guaranteed a run of games to develop.

It is not known how many of the new signings Lampard actually wanted but the extra bodies made it harder for him to decide on either his best XI or an identifiable style of play.

He may make a decent manager one day, but the consensus is that the job came too soon.

But there will always be someone else willing to take on the challenge and so welcome to Germany’s Tuchel for whom – some people have suggested – Lampard was merely keeping the seat warm.

Tuchel, whose English is fluent, either speaks the same language or has worked with no less than five leading members of the squad.

Besides Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, the two big signings of the last window, and Thiago Silva, on a free, Anthony Rudiger and Christian Pulisic were already on the books.

This will help him and, as a vastly more experienced manager than his predecessor, he may yet be able to turn Chelsea’s season around.

But he won’t be given long. Besides the silverware Abramovich’s reign has brought, Chelsea have risen from relative mediocrities (albeit with a few celebrity fans) to become a European super club.

They are in the thick of talks about the Super League and Blues’ fans will be eternally grateful to the unknown Russian who delivered the ultimate football fantasy.

Still, though, there are quibbles. Many are upset at Lampard’s dismissal just as they were when Jose Mourinho (the first time) and Carlo Ancelotti were sacked prematurely.

So, for all the success the dictatorship has brought, you wonder if, with a few less assassinations, it might have done even better.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.