Hi. To introduce myself, I’m Daniel and I’ve followed the original author of this blog for years on Twitter. I’m used to blogging having my own movie blog so I thought why not write about the biggest passion in my life, Chelsea football club.
I wanted to write a piece on why I love Chelsea so much and why it is and will always be, one of the most important things in my life. It all started when I was living with my mum and Dad down in Hayes, Middlesex. Dad had been a lifelong Chelsea fan, as had his Dad. I always loved sitting down with Dad watching Chelsea on tv when we were live on BBC1 or ITV. This was in the days before Sky’s domination of top league football.
One of my earliest childhood memories is watching games on tv with dad. I remember the shouting, the worry, the absolute screams of joy everytime we scored. Then I remember the first time Dad took me and my younger brother to a Chelsea game. If memory serves me correctly, it was Chelsea v Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. I can’t even remember the score I’m ashamed to say but I remember the excitement, the crowd all jumping up together at every attack.
See, I’ve been a Chelsea fan a lot longer than Roman Abramovich. I remember when I was a teenager at school and we were fighting relegation at one stage and we beat spurs, I think it was 4-3 and that started the push back up the table. One of my biggest memories was being so desperate for a trophy for Chelsea, any trophy, and the best trophy at that stage was the pre season friendly, the Makita tournament. That was it. But still my passion for the club never wavered.
Then, pure joy as we amazingly reached the fa cup final in I think it was 1994. We were playing Manchester United. I was quite confident as we had beaten them twice that season, winning 1-0 both times. But, disaster a 4-0 defeat. In my mind at that stage I thought I wouldn’t see Chelsea win a decent trophy in my lifetime but I never for one minute ever lost my love for the club.
Then came the era of Ruud Gullit and the 1997 cup final. Di Matteos 30 second wonder goal and we beat Middlesbrough 2-0. Cue tears of joy, absolute dreamland. My mum actually bought us the subbuteo fa cup which we left on top of the television in the living room for a year almost.
To me, that was the start of Chelseas journey to be the team we are today. But then, disaster. Ken Bates was chairman and the club was in millions of pounds of debt. Would we survive? Would we have to sell our best players? Then, along comes Roman and well, then along comes our first Premier League title. I’m actually welling up writing this because of how happy I was. It was a day I never thought I’d see. We had triumphed over teams I absolutely hated, namely Arsenal and United and become champions. Then, the following year we did it again! I literally was in a happy dream but it was real.
Then, as we all know Jose got sacked and we lost in the 2008 Champions League final to United on penalties. Absolute tears of despair. I literally took about a week to get over it. But then along comes Ancelotti and we win the Premier league again! And along comes Di Matteo in 2012 and somehow, against all odds, including playing Barcelona and then Bayern Munich in the final on their own patch we become European Champions! We were champions not just of England but of the entire continent.
Since then of course Jose came back and we won the Premier league again but then he was sacked and went to United. That took some of the gloss of his era off in my eyes but he was sacked so it was our own fault.
Now we move onto the current era. Only Chelsea could just about scrape a 10th place finish one season and win the title the next. My view on Conte? I think he’s a fantastic manager and if, as seems likely he goes at the end of the season he will be a huge loss. I know a lot of people will disagree with me but I blame the board I really do. I want a new stadium as much as the next Chelsea fan, but is it really worth selling the best and buying average in return? I don’t think so.
In my opinion I think Roman should get his cheque book out and have one big top player spending spree. I hear Ronaldo is available, for example. However I fear that Roman is only bothered about having a world class stadium but not necessarily world class players to fill it. I hope I’m wrong I really do but I do worry about our future. Saying that, we’re all Chelsea fans here. When have we ever not worried? To be continued is the best we can say I guess. I just don’t want City and possibly United and Liverpool to move far ahead of us due to our ineptitude in the transfer market. But, we can only wait and see what the next chapter is to come in our crazy but exciting history. I love this club.
I hope you enjoyed reading about why Chelsea means so much to me. Because it really does. Chelsea lose and I’m down, Chelsea win and I’m so happy. Right now I’m down after our defeat to Arsenal in the League Cup and praying we beat Newcastle in the FA cup as I fear that’s our most realistic chance of a trophy this season. I also cheered like mad when we beat Norwich on penalties the other week. That’s what each victory means to me.
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