Mails: So here’s why Chelsea are the most hated…

Daniel Storey

A belting Mailbox, actually. Now keep it coming to theeditor@football365.com…

 

It’s not as easy as ‘think of the long-term, Manchester United’
Sorry but I have to take issue with the various retro fans skewed view of what United should be doing right now. This bizarre “trend” of fans stating that “we shouldn’t have gone for LVG or Mourinho but someone with a long term vision for the club”. This view reached its nadir with the article earlier by Toby S, essentially confirming this view and laying the blame at Woodward’s door.

Are you seriously saying that :-
– The most successful team in the Premiership era
– A club with unlimited cash and a history of buying whomever they pretty much fancy:-
Roy Keane –1993,  Andy Cole –1995, Jaap Stam –1998, Dwight Yorke –1998 (shortly after baldy terminator), Ruud Van Nistlerooy – 2001, Veron – 2001, Ferdinand – 2002, Berbatov -2008, Mata – 2014, Di Maria -2014 and so on
– A business that’s amongst the most profitable in the Footballing world
– One of the world’s largest fanbases
– Playing in front of a sell out crowd every home match

Should simply invest in limited to no success in the short term, instead facing many years in mid table whilst they grow a new manager in the hope that they’ll get lucky and find a new Suralex™? Why? Why should they? And why would this be acceptable to the current players, the fans, the hierarchy etc?

No. Not having it. As a club they should be able to go out and get the best manager available and, if they so choose, do that every year, two years, three years – whatever serves the immediate and sustained success at that club. You don’t reach the levels that United have simply to be let off with a “well it’s not possible to keep it up as we can only afford the best in the game and really should be building from the ground up”.

As a Liverpool fan I’ve faced years (and years and years and years) of having to face United fans only too happy to spluff their success in my direction, telling me they’re the most successful at this, the biggest at that and the best at the other.

So you know what – let as many big, fat, corporate ego’s go there as possible. Let their preening dab centric mega money buys, Special Ones, prawn sandwich watchers and big flouncy haired bambi’s on ice have their mega expensive cake and eat it.

They will be back one day and we’ll all have to listen to it again – so in the meantime don’t excuse them a rebuilding period or grace them a time to find their feet hiatus. These are apparently amongst the best at what they do – the fact they can’t do it together is awesome for everyone else.
Eugene “yes I get the irony of the content given my allegiance” Murray

 

Why I hate Chelsea…
* Well known national front and hooliganism at Chelsea in the 70’s, my Father (we are gooners) had bottles thrown & a narrow escape from a knife there once.

* This continued in the 80’s with a stadium that has fencing, a running track and a car parked between the pitch & fans (look at old game on you tube if you don’t believe me).

*John Terry was born

* Ken Bates – Utterly charmless man whose meddling with tv deals meant that TV recordings were banned & no goals shown from the stadium on the TV for a while in the late 80’s/ early 90’s.

* Rogues gallery of people ‘representing the club’. Kerry Dixon, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Jody Morris, Diego Costa, Jose Mourinho….the list goes on.

* Ruined football forever in 2003 when Abramovich took over & corrupted the game with inflated transfer fees & wages. The only answer to fighting this so far is to find an owner who has even more money to ‘compete’. Has directly harmed football for the working class football fan.

*John Terry & Jose Mourinho

*Jammest champions league win ever funded by corrupt money.

Merry Christmas!
Mark Holmes

 

…1.) “Sugar Daddy” Club – Chelsea were the first of the so called “Sugar Daddy” clubs.  Rich owner buys best players, hires best up and coming manager and then wins league, FA Cup, etc, etc.  Not a point of hatred, as I’m sure most would agree, and we are unlikely to hear any nods of agreement from Man City fans, et all.  But it does create jealousy and resentment from other fans who would see that their club is having to do it the hard way i.e Youth signings, academy systems and basically surviving on a shoe string and good luck.

2.) John Terry – What can be said about this guy that isn’t already in the public domain.  Bottled a bouncer, family member convicted of shop-lifting and of course him sticking one up that French bird “Pochintinno” or whoever that was married/engaged/courting celebrity mags with Wayne Bridge.  My favorite memory is him running onto the pitch after the Champions League final bedecked in his kit and pretty much hogging the lime-light like he had just scored a frigging hat-trick in the final.  P***k!  

When discussing John Terry I often heard the oft media phrase, “He does have the “Warrior Spirit” and encapsulates the British footballer attitude”.  He’s not the son of Braveheart fighting for freedom you knob-heads: he’s a violent, philandering bell-end.  Don’t give him more space in your papers as it’s already full of s***e.    Oh and I nearly forgot the racism towards Anton Ferdinand.  (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/19723020) What a guy, huh? (sic).

Which leads me onto point 3:

3.) Fans – Anyone remember a cold night in Paris when elements of the Chelsea faithful informed their fellow travelers on the Paris Metro what they’re beliefs on multi-culturalism were:  Read more here – (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/22/four-chelsea-fans-banned-football-matches-racist-incident-paris-metro).  As far as I can remember, and thankfully, no other set of football fans have had this association in modern times (although I could and probably be proved wrong on this.  But it did get a lot of attention and stuck in my mind)

4.) The Media – Points 1 and 2 seem to be lauded by the common press (thinking Sun, Mirror, etc).  They loved Mourinho as he gave them excellent sound bites and quotes.  They loved John Terry no matter how many dick-moves he made because it suited their low brow, low intellect reporting.  They also loved creating the BS stories about Abramovich spending 100 billion trillion pounds buying every footballer on the planet (the Red Top paper’s belief being why actually do any journalism when we can have a “Chelsea buying X footballer for £xxx,xxx,xxx – Exclusive”).  They are very pro-Chelsea in my opinion.

Now I’m sure Chelsea fans can take each of these points and dissect them arguing each one to a different conclusion and I am sure there are many, many true supporters that think all of the above represents the worst elements/moments in Chelsea’s history.  But, when taken together and over time they have painted a picture of club which is low on morals and class where the players come across as out of control doing whatever they like whilst the stupider fans seem to revel in the players’ behaviour.
JB – Lun-duuuunnnnnnn

 

… – They were the first aboard the gravy train of money from dubious sources and made no attempt to go about buying their first titles in 50 years with any class.

– They employed the most arrogant and despicable manager they could find in Jose Mourinho.

– They employed the most snide little weasel they could in Peter Kenyon. Who spent his years there boasting how they would be self-sufficient and profitable by 2010. I might be wrong but apart from a couple of small profits they still return losses every year that are paid off by Roman.

– They poached Ashley Cole from their rivals with the most underhand tactics and even had the temerity to try and deny this when they were caught out.

– John Terry – no explanation needed.

– Signing Drogba, Robben, Costa, Luiz….serial cheats and dirty bastards(not that being a bit dirty is all that bad)…

– Re-signing Jose….

– Instantly thinking that because they had a rich benefactor this meant they were a big club when in reality they have competed with the likes of West Ham and Millwall over the years and spent large amounts of time in the 2nd tier of English football.

– John Terry and his hilarious change into his football kit routines when he’s suspended for a final…don’t remember Keane and Scholes doing the same….
Sean

 

And a Chelsea fan gives some too
As a Chelsea fan since the Dixon/Nevin/Speedie days of the 1980s, and someone who likes to think of myself as an enlightened sort (you could even say a card carrying member, albeit working class, of the Metropolitan Liberal Elite) it’s always interested me as to why Chelsea are hated so much. And mark my words, we are.

Here’s my list of reasons / justifications with response:
1. Origins of the club – we are a club that came into existence because there was a ground built that needed a team – thus our “creation myth” is, quite frankly, a bit sh*t. I’m not sure most Liverpool fans, when in a rage so high pitched only dolphins could hear them, would quote this one. But it’s the germination of all of this.

2. We are a small club that’s only raised its profile by foreign players and money (the “no  history argument) – this is nonsense and I’d encourage anyone to google “Chelsea Arsenal 1935, look at the pictures of the Bridge and then come back and tell me we’re a small club. I’d also ask anyone to google a list of Chelsea number 9’s – Gallacher, Bentley, Greaves, Osgood, Dixon before we get to the foreigners and tell me a club that’s had better. The “no history” argument is of course peddled most enthusiastically by Liverpool. Who are halfway to not having won the league for as long as we didn’t. No coincidence there. Chelsea were an underachieving club. They’ve never been a small club.

3. Hooligans – an entirely justified stick with which to beat us. Going over Chelsea in the 1980s could often by very unpleasant and I still labour under the suspicion that we have more nasty pieces of work than many other clubs. More needs to be done to deal with this. Having a different club captain will help.

4. Foreign players – I remember much of the mid to late 90s moaning about our signing of foreigners came from QPR, Spurs and West Ham fans for example. This is no coincidence and was born of the jealousy i.e.  “Why the hell didn’t we do that to push ourselves to the next level” and / or “When we did it, why didn’t it work” . Most fans want a winning team and don’t care where it comes from. What they don’t want is a middling team of foreigners, which is understandable. The moaning over Chelsea’s foreigners was well meaning from some but almost entirely hypocritical from others.

5. Foreign owner – I’d rather someone else owned our club. But I’d also rather a gay men can hold hands in Abu Dhabi, that US Hedge funders weren’t allowed to gear their clubs with debt and that Uzbek oligarchs shared their mineral wealth with the people. The focus on Abramovich isn’t because he’s the worst (he’s not a despotic country as other clubs’ owners can be described as) it’s hypocrisy. Especially when it comes from journalists in the North West who investigate club ownership unless it’s the club closest to their heart. Where in those cases they’d prefer to concentrate on their new training complex.

6. Horrible players – over the last 15 years you can’t deny we’ve had spiky players – Costa, hard to love players (until the end!) – Drogba, and downright rapscallions – Terry. The fact they’ve come in a batch hasn’t helped. But Chelsea fans will tell you that whilst neutrals seemed to love the Petrescu, Vialli, Poyet team (despite them being foreigners!), we loved them too. But we loved winning more. Not a lot more. But more.

7. Jose – wow. Distance has given objectivity on this one – Janice to our Chandler. I’ll leave it at that.

Overall I think it’s understandable, whilst often being flagrantly hypocritical, why other fans often dislike us. Think about it if you’re a Liverpool fan, displaced from a throne you thought was yours forever, or a Spurs fan, displaced from a throne you NEVER sat on despite the media convincing you you did. And displaced by CHELSEA!

That must hurt.

Embrace it my fellow Blues. Be mindful not to be a prick yourself and own your history good and bad. Because boy do we have a past. As well as a present and a future.
Lawrence, London

 

The reference we all needed
Kevin – Why the Chelsea hate? Not completely sure but 1% said Frank Lampard
Old Mate Aus

 

The obvious Arsenal reaction
So we’ve topped the group which is brilliant but we all know we’ll be drawn against Bayern.
Jason (Chorley Gooner)

 

…Anyone else expecting Arsenal to draw Bayern and get knocked out again?

Then depending who wins tomorrow night they could draw Dortmund or Real Madrid, it’s going to be a typical Last 16 Draw for Arsenal fans.
Mike Clewer, CFC

 

…The big question now is, will Arsenal get Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the draw?

As for the match, he may have “only” got one assist but Ozil was utterly sublime. Also, the importance of his winning wonder-goal against Ludogorets takes extra significance. Without it, we would be second.

As for Perez, he is starting to show that he can come into the first team when others are injured or off form and it won’t be a downgrade. He might even be an upgrade on Theo right now.

And on top of all that, November is well and truly over. Overall, I’m a very happy Gooner Right now.
Adonis Stevenson, AFC

 

Not impressed by the behaviour of Celtic fans
I’ve  just got back from the Man City – Celtic game and have an observation whilst I’m still annoyed by what happened. It’s the classic Sky interview dynamic that dictates you should always comment whilst the blood is up for the best copy.

However my ire isn’t directed at anything that happened on the pitch but by the behaviour of the Celtic fans. I’m not particularly annoyed by the pro IRA singing because, like most sane people (and indeed the Irish themselves), I’m over that whole thing now. But what did shock me was the constant outbursts of violence initiated exclusively by Celtic fans in the home stands, who insisted on goading and threatening city fans until fights broke out.

We’ve all seen away fans in the home section and there are rules about how this works. But I would say there were a good 50-100 fans grouped in the east stand tonight and they were hell bent on gaining some badge of honour. I’m old enough to remember the good old- bad old match days of the 80’s but my teenage daughter spent 90 terrified minutes thinking we were about to be involved in a brawl. In short she hated the whole night. It was a game I looked forward to and I’d hoped to experience a great night with the famous hoops from north of the border. Yeah I’m over that as well now.

So next time I hear someone say how good it would be to see Celtic or Rangers in the premier league, just no, not ever. We don’t need them and right now we definitely don’t want them.  And don’t lecture me on isolated incidents. Outside the ground, inside the ground, pissed as farts and the most nauseating vile abuse I’ve heard in a long while.

These weren’t pockets of unpleasantness, they were just the way things are with Celtic it would seem. I was taking to two Celtic fans quite pleasantly outside the ground beforehand, discussing the potential great atmosphere and they both laughed and said “you won’t think that if we score.” They knew and now I know.  If city fans had been so minded it could have been carnage in the east stand tonight.

I don’t know if this happened elsewhere but the greatest irony is that the  Celtic fans grouped in the east stand were there as UEFA guests. (Whatever that means) I’m not suggesting UEFA sat down and decided to invite mindless pissed up Scotsmen to the game en masse,  but it shows how pathetically easy it is for official tickets to end up in the wrong hands.

It happened and it needs calling out for what it was.
Steve, Manchester

 

Credit to Rodgers
So that’s that for another season.

When the Champions League draw was made and Celtic were paired with City, Munchingladrags and Barca I feared the worst. My fears were later compounded with a 7-0 hammering against Barcelona. Considering the mess we almost made in qualifying after a loss in Gibraltar etc – this had the symptoms of a giant clusterfart of a Champions League campaign.

But (and I know F365 doesn’t like him) huge credit to Brendan Rodgers for getting Celtic playing how we have been since the commencement of the group. We’re not only unbeaten against City now – (tonight we probably should have won and DEFINITELY should have had a penalty), we’re actually playing good football. Under Neil Lennon we beat Barcelona, but it was blood and thunder, backs to the wall, get it up to the striker as soon as you can type stuff. Rodgers has us playing in a measured way in Europe, we’re creating chances and for a young side – we’ll grow and learn from these chances we’re passing up (at CL level you’ll be punished if you don’t).

Once again, the support was there, the noise in the stadium (home and away) is there and it’s pretty great to have Celtic competing in Europe again.

Although I fear we’ll struggle to hold on to Tierney, Rogic, Dembele and Simunovic if the richer clubs come calling. It’s still a positive time to support Celtic – which was much needed after Ronny Deila.

Now if we can just convince James McCarthy to come home….
Steve B (Playing in the champions league is like being invited for a smoke behind the sheds)  – Australia.

 

Suggesting an NBA/NFL-style Premier League
I have nothing to do at work right now, so I thought I’d fiddle around with the Premier League and mess with some British sensibilities at the same time. Here’s the thing about the EPL: it’s great, but it tends to be a little predictable. For years it’s been dominated by teams like Man Utd, Arsenal, and now Chelsea and Man City and whoever the next lucky team to get shot full of cash by some ethically challenged billionaire will be.

Sure, every once in a while there’s a Blackburn or a Leicester, but those are incredibly rare exceptions rather than any kind of rule. The excitement usually comes down to which big money team is going to win it/blow it in the last few weeks of league play. Sometimes it’s ridiculously boring, like when Chelsea won the title at a canter a couple of seasons ago. Yawn.

The other problem is that almost no one’s team actually wins anything. Ever. You might play for Champion’s League qualification, but we all know that’s not a trophy, it’s just nice. A warm blanket over your failure to win the league. A smaller team might occasionally nick the league cup or the FA cup, but even then it’s a rarity. Why not give fans something to celebrate besides the never to be realized chance of winning the league?

Time to change all that by adding a little pinch of American major league style play into the EPL, namely creating a system for playoffs to happen. Since writing a letter to F365 is the most effective way of enacting footballing change and having one’s zany ideas implemented, I thought I’d give it a shot.

First, you go NBA style and create two divisions, a Premier League North and a Premier League South. Most seasons you could split things fairly evenly with 10 regional teams in each division, especially if you don’t mind inflaming some Midlanders’ sensibilities (and who really cares?).

Then you have these two mini-leagues, each up for grabs. The season become one in which you play 24 matches against teams within your division, then 10 outside your division (similar to what is done within MLS). Suddenly, those division games have even greater importance and meaning, as do cross division rivalries that only occur once per season.

At the end of the season, you may have won your division, which is great. That’s the first thing up for grabs and the first thing supporters can celebrate (although playoffs mean this isn’t THAT big a deal). Then, it’s playoff time. Frankly, I think the MLS let’s too many teams in the playoffs. Twelve teams from a 20 team league is excessive. In the EPL, we’d go with an eight team seeded playoff. Last year, it would have been the following:

Premier League South:
Arsenal v West Ham United
Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

Premier League North:
Leicester City v Liverpool
Manchester City v Manchester United

Now, supporters can celebrate winning their first playoff match AND winning the division. Imagine, for example, a match between Arsenal and Tottenham to decide who gets to play for the Premier League title. There would be nothing bigger, nothing more emotional, nothing better to win.

Then you still get the chance to celebrate winning the league. Teams that otherwise never have a chance of winning the title suddenly get a shot, teams like Southampton and West Ham United and Tottenham. The possibility of one of Leicesters and Blackburns isn’t so remote, everyone in the league has something to play for other than mid-table survival.

The truth is that, as much as I love the Premier League, the European system of winning a football league is outdated. It doesn’t work for the modern moneyed system and it’s going to keep funneling the richest teams to the top while everyone else has to fight for scraps. Leicester won, but they can’t build on it, and certainly hasn’t inspired any “little guys” to attempt the same feat.

A playoff system creates more to play for, it creates parity, it creates more excitement and drama, and aren’t those all things that we all crave when we watch sports?

Anyhow, I expect an inevitable backlash from stodgy Europhile snobs and progress hating Brexit voters both, but I think that it would actually go a great way to fixing a growing problem in European football and it doesn’t seem like anyone else is proposing anything. I’ll just sit at my computer now, waiting for Michel Platini to read this and email me back saying UEFA is implementing it across Europe. Thank you.
Christopher, Gooner, Trumpville (former known as Washington, DC), USA

 

We are faaamilee
That mail from Conor, Drogheda. Couldn’t have said it better, or in more eloquently put words.

We all feel the same F365. We just don’t say it much. We’re a weird kind of family but we’re a good one.

And congratulations Daniel Storey. Well deserved. Know that we voted, and were proud to.

And to you Conor, thanks mate. Felt real good reading that.
Stig, MUFC