Why I Seriously Considered Being A Chelsea Fan
There was a fascinating article in Yahoo Sports the other day that talked about New York Yankees and their rich, fan-owner, George SteinBrenner.
Reading it made me realise that for Chelsea fans, the last 3 years have been a magnificent joyride and for all the mud that’s been thrown at them for “buying titles” and playing in a different league than everyone else is, to an extent, unfair.
The fact that Roman Abramovich has shitloads of money to throw at Chelsea does not take away from the following:
- They have a very good tactician as manager (despite being an egomaniac)
- They have assembled an excellent squad and while it’s not a ‘fantasy team’, it is still capable of winning all competitions that it enters.
In fact, you could even claim that because of Chelsea, the standard and quality of football in the Premiership has risen as the top teams (and pyramidically, everyone else) are pushed to play much more consistently over a season in order to win the title.
To Chelsea fans – congratulations on having an owner who has the money to make your club’s dreams come true.
For the rest of us, tell me this – would you be complaining this much if your own club was bought by a multi-billionaire? If your club bought the best players and won titles, would you be mad at the ‘disparity’ between your club’s buying power and that of others?
Looking forward to your answers 
About the title of this article – it’s tempting to support a team that is doing so well, but I’m not going to switch allegiences. I’m still a Man Utd fan, although with some of our old team playing at Madrid it’s hard not to want to support them as well.
Topics: Chelsea
Football News 24/7
i agree that most fans would not complain if roman was their chairman – he is certainly better than the ginger gimp. And yes chelsea have raised the bar.
the concerns are other things outside football ie death threats to players, mafia involvement, strange ownership of foreign clubs etc
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:08As a Man United fan, of course you considered supporting whichever team was the bestest right now – that’s most likely how you started supporting them on the playground in Surrey when you were nine.
Personally, I’d hate to have one person, no matter how rich, with the power to do whatever he wants with my team.
I’d rather have a team that feels like it’s mine, than a cupboard full of trophies.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:08mjc – the time I started supporting United, we hadn’t kicked everyone’s ass in the Premiership or even seen United play. My reasons for supporting United are different from ‘having watched them when they were winning’, because I had been watching them (and supporting them) from way before that.
I’m a United fan because it feels like my own club.
And you would do well to think twice before tossing baseless accusations towards others. Then again, I wouldn’t expect anything better from most football fans.
An interesting viewpoint (by a Chelsea fan) on old and new fans:
http://www.all3points.co.uk/cat/chelsea/old010806.php
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:13I don’t understand how anyone could ever consider switching football teams.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:17It wouldn’t even cross my mind to switch teams even if utd went down several leagues. Bizarre
That’s exactly why I didnt switch mate.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:19An ounce of sense at last…
The fact that you even considered switching allegiances says a lot about you… No true fan of a team would even entertain such thoughts. Either it says a lot about Man United fans, or a lot about you, a dilettante.
I would guess that you’re not based in England? Maybe one of those fans United are so proud of – out in the Far East?
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:22Good points well made in your article. As a Chelsea fan of thirty plus years, I didn’t ask Abramovich to buy the club, like all fans we are victims to the whims of the people who can afford to buy Premiership clubs. Sometimes you get lucky and get bought buy a rich man who wants to treat your club as a rich man’s toy and invest in it until it is the best that it can be. At other times you get unlucky and get bought buy a man such as Glazer who looks upon Man U as simply a money making machine, he could have bought Man U or company making biscuits, to him it’s just business.
One final comment, people have been saying some ridiculous things to me and I guess all Chelsea fans, particularly ‘it must be so boring being a Chelsea fan.’ Why don’t people think before they utter such rubbish, to be in a position where your team can buy pretty much any player and is likely to win silverware most years is a dream come true; trust me that is not in any way boring !
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:26Dan – thank you for ‘getting’ the article.
To the rest:
One, I think it’s possible to support more than one team at the same time, although no, I’m not supporting Chelsea anytime soon. They just don’t have any excite me the way United does. It’s a personal thing.
Two, and this one is for everyone who is going to jump on the “you’re a bad fan” bandwagon:
Does being a fan mean that you have to mindlessly, fanatically and idiotically bound to your own club? Are you seriously telling me that a ‘true fan’ cannot think about anything else but defending his club’s honour?
Tell you what – open your eyes (I’d ask you to open your mind but that would be too much) and read this site. A week ago I was getting jibes for being too United-centric on this site. I’m one of the most faithful United fans you can find mate, but that does not mean that I’m blind to the success and the good qualities of other clubs.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:33don’t think anyone bothered to read the Yahoo! article – if you see what it says, you’ll get the idea that there are MANY billionaire owners in football who treat it as a business and cut a good ol’ profit line – I can see Dave Whelan at Wigan giving that kind of support, but Steinbrenner’s being doing that for 30 odd years – if you own a football team man, you are RICH. If you are willing to risk some of that cash, you can have some of the best bloody teams in the world. Knowing Ahmed, he wouldn’t switch teams the way he wouldn’t switch his brain with someone – I think the point he’s trying to make is hypothetical, and really valid. I’d love to see a list of billionaire owners and club margins in the EPL.
August 2nd, 2006 @ 18:45Surely this article is some kind of joke?
What kind of fan can “change” their allegiance? Surely this is some sort of post-modern satire on the transience of the contemporary football supporter?
August 2nd, 2006 @ 19:45After supported Chelsea since 1969 it is liking winning the lottery to have afilthy rich and incredible interested fan-owner after people like Ken Bates and others have done their best to destroy the club I loved through bad and bad and worse and now, it is simply lovely. It is trully much more fun being the best than not being the best. (Still I would have supported Chelsea even had Bates managed to destroy even more than he did, he did some good too but hiring Ranieri was not one of those things). That is what being a supporter is all about, loving your club through the bad and really bad hoping to experience what we are living today, a dream come true. Thanks for a non-biased article on Chelsea. They are rare today.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 01:27i find it hard 2 belive that grown men such as yourself are still fighting over some persons decision to admire another club such as chelsea.He has already stated that he only supports Manchester Untd(although they are useless) and not any other team.You are all gay and chelsea is the best team in the world.Have a good day
.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 05:49I’m a Chelsea fan and have been all my life. It’s fantastic to have a bit of sucess after years of disapointments and fairly tough times, especially during the 80′s. It really gets to me how people hate Chelsea so much for winning. Let us have our moment and i’m sure in a few years it’ll be time for another club to have there moment. All the best
August 3rd, 2006 @ 13:57Can’nt change support from one team to another??? Tell that to the masses of ‘new’ blue shirt wearing, glory hunters we all now see walking down the high streets of Britain everyday. 4 years ago you’d be lucky to see 2 chelsea shirts in a day, it was all Man Utd & Arsenal shirts being worn, now, those same trophy hunters are wearing Blue AND everyone of them claim to be ‘lifelong supporters’of the Chelsea.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 21:31Then again,I’m not just having a dig, at the Chelski, how many Liverpool supporters suddenly appeared on the streets after their brilliant Euro Champ win?? How many more Arse*** shirts where on display after their unbeaten season??
To be honest, there are true club supporters & then the majority of people who just ‘claim’ to be.
Come on you Spurs….:)
The fact is in my mind chelsea fans reputation will never stretch beytond the chelsea head hunters, or cocky little chelsea chavs, but thats for another day.
I am a loyal spurs fan, but have had a soft spot for chelsea in the days of Hullit, Viali and Ranieri. I liked the way they played football, and the ethos of the club.
However that is now a distant memory.
Both on and off the field the club is moving futher away from the roots of the game.
My hatred of Chelsea now is not jealousy as when i liked them they where a lot more succsessful than my team (spurs) and had a 10 year hoodoo over us. My hatred is purley based on Mourinho, Kenyon and Abrhamovic and there phylosiphy that they have the right to do pretty much what they want to.
Like all empires it will one-day crumble, i just hope for the good of the game its sooner rather than later.
August 10th, 2006 @ 22:50As one who only recently became interested in this sport, I had to decide who I wanted to support. (Not that I can actually support any real clubs over here in the US.) I watched the 2006 World Cup and fell in love with this game. I looked through all the players on the “big” EPL clubs to see how many I recognized. I seriously considered supporting Chelsea because I’d watched so many of their players in the World Cup.
In the end, I selected the team with the player that I most enjoyed watching – Arsenal for Henry. I just love watching that man play (even though he couldn’t stay onside at the World Cup to save his life). He’s brilliant and seems to genuinely enjoy the game. Nothing better than that. I guess the biggest question for me is whether or not I will continue to “support” Arsenal if he ever transfers. Since I can’t watch the games over here, I can’t get to know the other Arsenal players. That is a really bad thing…
October 11th, 2006 @ 05:52I know I sound like an old fart but i remember going to the horrible places when Chelsea played in the old Second division, every dog has its day and we are just having ours ! Tell me no other club buys players ? They only say we buy the cups and Euro places cos we can afford the finest players tell me a team that wouldnt buy the best for themselves if they could afford it ?
February 12th, 2007 @ 00:25No mate, I’m a Chelsea fan of over 15 years and I hate what Chelsea has become. Chelsea are ruining football and ruining the club. Roman, Kenyon, Ancelotti and Arnesen all need to fuck off and we need to bring back Vialli or get Zola back as manager.
July 29th, 2009 @ 14:45