They may have the best team in the country, but I just can't take them seriously as a club. A club with no great history that have bought their way to success with dirty money. If dopey-faced Roman had decided that Spurs was a better place to invest in his anti-arrest scheme, then Chelsea would be nowhere. Their fans seem to be a weird mish-mash of myopic school kids, plastic wannabes, middle-aged bovver boys endlessly prattling on about chopper and the shed, b-list 'celebrities' who think that an association with football will make them adorable to ordinary people and city broker types who think that bellowing at a pub tv once a fortnight qualifies them as working class. They are Millwall with money.
I don't really like Arsenal, Liverpool or Man Utd, but at least when they win (or perhaps won) things there's not any doubt that they are proper clubs. And although Man City bought their success similarly to Chelsea, there's at least a feeling that they have a fan base that is committed and loyal and watches football for the right reasons.
Now I'm sure that if any Chelsea fan were to read this, they'd think it was just sour grapes. They'd probably also sneer at me for supporting Charlton, whilst claiming that they don't have a great history. But it's not all about winning at any price. It's not about nailing your colours to the mast of a winning team. I don't begrudge them their league win, it's just that there's something about them that is 100% genuine fake and it's not for me.
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I know a few Chelsea fans, and to my great surprise all but one of them have supported them since before Abramovich. They're alright guys. Obviously there's a lot of ill feeling from me toward the whole dirty oil money thing, but you can't deny they're a good football team that does happen to play good football at times. Hazard is one of my favourite players to watch.
I agree with your general sentiment Stig, but think you're being a bit too harsh on them.
But they were a decent side for a while back in the 70s at least beating Leeds 4-2(?) in a replayed FA cup final. I think they won the league around that period but I'm not completely certain on that.
You can only speak as you find but have to say I cannot recall many Chelsea fans I've met that I've particularly liked. Some of them have been complete arseholes. But I am sure that is not entirely representative of their fanbase ;-)
Their popularity outside the capital 40 to 50 years ago stemmed from the whole "Swinging London" thing in the sixties. Kings Road and all that - it made them popular among the arty and posh-hippy-kids-rebelling-against-their-parents types. The kind who by '77 were stock brokers with side partings and kipper ties, who then disassociated themselves with the club and all things football during the Thatcher years, only to re-claim their allegiance when football became fashionable again and Chelsea got rich, claiming they have "supported them since the seventies". The club have, as a result, always enjoyed a certain amount of support from people living miles away, a la Liverpool and Manchester United, but disproportionate to actually winning stuff - which is of course what attracts Colin in Basingstoke to Liverpool...
The early gentrification of the area also contributed to a lot more of their fanbase moving out of London sooner than those from other areas supporting other clubs, so there are the grandchildren of those original denizens of SW6 now following the "family tradition" from Swindon. That's not to say that those kids would not now be "supporting" Liverpool or Man Utd had Chelsea not become successful, of course.
I am fairly ambiguous about Chelsea, if I am honest. I ask myself "If it had happened to Charlton, would I have walked away?" The answer is an emphatic no. I would probably take the piss out of the newbies and the resurrected fans, but I would still follow the club.
Like Paddy, all the Chelsea fans I know have supported them a long time, and are very pragmatic about the luck of Abramovich's arrival, and are pretty humble about the success that has brought. I am sure that does not apply to a lot of the others though.
Drogba was one of the best strikers this country has ever seen and Eden Hazard is becoming one of the best ever World class players in his position.
I agree with Algarve, we'd take the money if it was thrown at us and maybe RD is doing that very thing as we speak?
Because Abramovich was the first of the super-rich owners (and the most effective) people like to wash away the successes the club had before his money but it's just factually wrong. They were a superb cup team and as a club they saw the value in signing foreign talent to enhance the league before many others did. Some may see that as a bad thing but I know I'd rather watch Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez tearing up the league than Andy Carroll and Danny Welbeck. Chelsea would not be nowhere if Abramovich hadn't bought them, and even if they weren't winning the league due to that investment not being there they would still be a team who won a decent haul of trophies and had some of the greatest players of the early Premier League era. I honestly find some of the selective memories about them mystifying, but I'm aware that I've probably been exposed to the club more than most. I'm not a Chelsea fan incidentally, they're not even my favourite team in the Premiership, but the claims that they have no history and were nothing before Abramovich just aren't true
We laugh at Liverpool for having history without having contemporary success.
Fair cop on the 'not a proper club' bit, there's no argument to be had there. I wouldn't seriously want to argue that any league club isn't proper, every club is proper to its own fans and in its own way. That was a silly thing to say and a lesson in not posting when pissed ;-)
And no sour grapes involved.
Norman Hunter - Leeds & Rodney Marsh - QPR & Man C, or were there 2 other Chelsea players named Hunter & Marsh. I don't think so ?
Most City fans are aware that their success is purely from foreign money but they don't care because as long as they finish above Utd, that's more important than the knock-on effect on English football.
Chelsea fans = knobs
Even my family and friends that follow them
As long as they are winning at all costs, that's how it will be I suppose.
They have some great players, but haven't yet worked out how to be a likeable club. I think that's why Abramovich buried the hatchet with Mourinho - they have to win things consistently, otherwise their marketability as a football brand is nothing in comparison to Europe's other top teams.
I'm a Charlton Fan, born in Luton but still chose us... You could argue that I have no taste or clue about football too lol