THE JEALOUSY OF FOOTBALL'S MOST GLAMOROUS CLUB
The Birth of Chelsea FC
The main reason and possibly the only reason which is the root cause of all other reasons that people dislike Chelsea Football Club is that they are the ultimate anti-establishment club in modern football currently. For me, football is all about banter, and what's the fun in it without rival banter.
I came across a tweet on Twitter which inspired this literary work.
However, I had a lengthy phone conversation with my uncle who happens to be a die-hard Chelsea fan for over 4 decades unlike my late dad who was to between supporting Chelsea or Arsenal due to Nigerian forward Kanu Nwankwo who was playing for Arsenal as of then. They were the ones that influenced my love for this prestigious club for the past 2 decades and years. Chelsea has always been part of my fond childhood memories - My dad knew better not to come home without any sport paper or the satellite dish not active. I grew up a radio and TV kid.
Let's begin with a story.
Once upon a time, there was an English businessman, called Gus Mears who had passion for football. Now this guy, was a real opportunist.
So he bought the local Stamford Bridge Athletic Grounds, with the intention of turning it into a world class football stadium. He went to the chairman of an already established local football club, Fulham FC and asked him to relocate their home stadium. He refused. So Sir Gus Mears, ends up establishing his own football team with the Bridge as their home stadium naming the club Chelsea FC. The local community was very passionate about football, but they didn't have the resources and talent to make it big. So they continue playing in the lower divisions and dream of making it big one day.
A century later, Roman Abramovich buys the club. And in a decade, Chelsea FC rises to become one of the strongest teams in Europe.
Everything since Ken Bates's decision to sell the club in 2003 was done in order to upset the establishment in the Premier League and world football. First, the Roman Abramovich takeover.
Note, the era of Dennis Wise, Roberto Di Matteo, Didier Deschamps, Gianfranco Zola, Marcel Desailly, Frank Leboeuf, Celestine Babayaro, etc, had its own highlights.
Continuing, the Roman Abramovich takeover. Okay maybe you could say that was lucky, but then Ken Bates knew that he had to sell the club to a wealthy benefactor otherwise the club could tumble down the leagues.
With Roman Abramovich takeover and financial might, he invested heavily into the club and as much as critics like scorning at him, which undoubtedly produced results. Association football has evolved over time and in the current scenario, no team can achieve substantial success without spending on quality players. Critics often point out how we literally buy titles, but no one batted an eye when Real Madrid flexed their financial muscle in 2000-2003, spending nearly 150 million pounds to sign the likes of Zidane, Beckham, Figo and Ronaldo. Furthermore, Real Madrid have broken the transfer record twice in successive seasons, acquiring Bale and James.
Then came the hiring of Jose Mourinho. His first press conference where he announced himself as the "Special One" signaled the fact that things were going to be different at Chelsea Football Club and they had this plan to overthrow the establishment in football at that time. So they hired this very charismatic Manager who was a Champions League winner the season before he was hired at Chelsea. That turned the heads of football fans.
Jose Mourinho is a flamboyant Manager - There's this popular saying, "You know you're doing it right, when you manage to piss off a lot of people." Jose Mourinho ushered a new era at the club. Money and a ton of stars do not necessarily guarantee success. A world class Manager with a sound understanding of the game, Jose made Chelsea what it is today. He pissed off many people when he was reigning at Chelsea. Be it shushing the home crowd at Anfield, or trashing Arsene Wenger, or getting involved in a brawl with Pep Guardiola, Mourinho has always been involved in controversies. This is why most of the Barcelona, Arsenal and Liverpool fans hate Chelsea. Nevertheless, Mourinho is still one of the best Managers in the game.
People don't have a tendency to like change, in not just football but in general. So when Premier League and football fans in general saw the natural order in the process of being upset, they got annoyed. Chelsea started doing things differently from the 2003–04 season. Firstly investing loads of money, then hiring a Champions League winning Manager, so that is bound to make fans angry.
The main casualty of this upset of the establishment has undoubtedly been Arsenal. Before Jose Mourinho came, Arsene Wenger was labelled a revolutionary and a genius, rightfully so. Jose Mourinho gate crashed the party with his multi-million pound Chelsea side and basically made a statement that, forget about everything that happened in the past, Chelsea Football Club will win in Jose Mourinho's way. Not in Arsene Wenger's way or Sir Alex Ferguson's way. They won the title in record breaking fashion, and Mourinho was treated like a God at Stamford Bridge. He won back to back Premier League titles.
This caused problems for Arsene Wenger and first it started off with comments from Wenger about how much money Chelsea have to spend compared to Arsenal. This led to the infamous "voyeur" press conference by Jose Mourinho, where he called Wenger a voyeur and how he likes to talk about Chelsea all the time.
Image Credit: Mirror UK
That was the first blow. That is where all the negativity started at Arsenal Football Club among the players, the fans and Arsene Wenger. This was the start of Arsene Wenger's steady decline and Mourinho's words had got into his head. Arsenal are still recovering from it even now. Jose Mourinho convinced Arsene Wenger that he is not as great as he is made out to be. And the fact that Chelsea started winning titles in a cynical way that Mourinho did at Chelsea infuriated Arsenal fans. So this caused more negativity at Arsenal Football Club.
The final nail in the coffin was when Ashley Cole signed for Chelsea from Arsenal. That led to his nickname, "Ca$hley Cole" by Arsenal fans. The relationship between Wenger and Mourinho was irreparable by that time.
On the other hand, Home-Grown Players, I'm looking at you, Man Utd and Liverpool fans. This was an issue in the Premier League decades ago. Talented English players in the Premier League have been very rare, with the notable exceptions of Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and Rooney. Therefore to make a world class team, clubs have to bring in foreign players. Look at the top teams in the PL back then, with the exception of Liverpool, almost all teams have a majority of foreign players. Home-grown talent is just not good enough. Teams like Man Utd, who had fielded a primarily English team in those past seasons, have struggled mightily in European competitions. Taking an example, Chelsea bought Matic for approximately 20 million pounds back then, in contrast to Liverpool's 20 million pounds for Jordan Henderson. Matic is far better than Henderson, and given a choice I think any club would opt for him instead of Henderson at the same price. Henderson being a home-grown English player doesn't change the fact that Matic is better than him. Simple as that.
Moving on to Manchester United, fans were annoyed with Chelsea winning titles, claiming that Chelsea bought success when Manchester United have been doing it for years, so much hypocrisy. And then they have this ready made excuse that, "Well we earned the money we spent." It is not the fault of the fans that the club has a wealthy owner. But one thing about Sir Alex Ferguson is that unlike Arsene Wenger, he showed a lot of mental strength and reinvented himself. So I give him credit for that. Getting in new coaches every alternate year for fresh ideas, setting up new kinds of training regimes. That is why Manchester United were so competitive during Ferguson's reign even when Chelsea had the money and that is why Sir Alex Ferguson is a genius.
What does The Shed End mean?
According to Wikipedia: "The Shed End is along the south side of the pitch. In 1930, a new terrace was built on the south side, for more standing spectators. It was originally known as the Fulham Road End, but supporters nicknamed it 'The Shed' and this led the club to officially change its name."
Going forward, then came the time when Jose Mourinho left the club the first time through mutual consent. There were some good Managers hired, Carlo Ancelotti being the notable example. And there were others who were hired, like Luiz Felipe Scolari and Avram Grant to a certain extent. So a new reason was invented for people to hate Chelsea which was the revolving door policy when it came to hiring Managers.
This revolving door of Managers led to Chelsea hiring Roberto Di Matteo eventually, and when Chelsea eventually won the Champions League in 2012, people started labelling us as the worst Champions League winners, just because Chelsea didn't attack Bayern. The strategy worked and Chelsea won the Champions League and Chelsea deserved to win that Champions League trophy especially after Barcelona tried to screw us over in 2012 as well like they did in 2009 but they failed. It was sweet revenge. Sorry Pep, but every year is not 2009, twice beaten, Chelsea repeated same feat in 2021, defeating Pep Man City side with Kai Havertz scoring the only goal of the game late in the first half.
Style of Play: Chelsea players have always been accused of playing boring defense-oriented, "19th century football." I believe whatever fancy tactics/strategies you employ, what matters in the end is the results. No one cares how well you pass the ball or how quick your counter attacks are. The vast majority of football fans across the globe do not understand/appreciate the fine nuances of the game. Carefully planned and executed tactics do not always guarantee results. A good Manager will definitely read your game before an important match and prey on your weaknesses. And to all those who accused us of parking the bus, I'd like to ask you this; If your team lacks a clinical finisher to score at the other end of the pitch, and you're facing a team which primarily relies on counter-attacking football like Bayern Munich/Real Madrid, what would you do if not park the bus?
With all that been said, Chelsea style of play has changed in recent times.
Going back, before all that, was when John Terry's off-field shenanigans took place. The whole issue with Wayne Bridge and the Anton Ferdinand racial abuse saga. As a fan of the club I find that unacceptable as well, a captain must be a better example off the pitch too and John Terry is no saint. I respect the commitment he gave on the field though, that was why he was our captain, leader and legend. (strictly on-field though).
The year was 2013. Jose Mourinho was back at Stamford Bridge. This time he was the "Happy One." And he called Chelsea the little horse who needed some milk.
Part 2 of Wenger vs Mourinho started. Arsenal fans were first pissed because Chelsea beat Arsenal 6–0 and ruined Wenger's 1000th game. That really made Jose Mourinho happy and Arsenal fans started getting negative again.
Then came the press conference where Jose Mourinho finally admitted his true thoughts on Wenger, that he was a specialist in failure. Which based on recent history at the time was justified. So yes he spoke the truth there. That press conference exposed another thing and it is the fact that Wenger was too politically correct and Mourinho did not care about what he said in the media.
In the 2015–16 season, the reason why people did not like Chelsea was schadenfreude. People loved to see Mourinho's Chelsea fail. I have no other explanation for this particular season.
Chelsea won all their trophies in a very anti-establishment way and they have been the ultimate anti-establishment candidate when they have been competing for trophies.
Other miscellaneous reasons include Dennis Wise. He is not liked because he is not a saint either and has done many wrong things while he was at Chelsea and was reasonably responsible for relegations at Leeds and Newcastle United so it is safe to say that he is not well regarded by fans of those clubs at least. And he is only a hero at Chelsea because he helped Chelsea win a FA Cup in 1997 and a League Cup in 1998. Apart from that he is just not a very nice person to be around. Another reason is jealousy. There are some jealous fans of other clubs who are scared of the potential we have and the rate at which Chelsea are winning trophies currently. And last but not the least, glory hunting and bandwagon fans. The answer won't be complete without specifying these types of fans as a reason.
Nowadays Chelsea are becoming a little more likable though, thanks to likes Roberto Di Matteo, Antonio Conte, Thomas Tuchel. I really appreciate how they operated in Chelsea, they did their absolute best to make positive changes to the club's reputation. So yes, that's there.
This is what I think about the whole situation as a fan of the club.
As Kevin Sunny pointed out, we've achieved so much in decades that people are bound to become jealous of our achievements. We've won six league titles, eight FA Cups, five League Cups, and four FA Community Shields. Internationally, they have won the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup twice each, and the FIFA Club World Cup once since their inception. Teams like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have invested heavily in their teams but failed to achieve European glory in the past decades. We might not be best in the world currently, but Chelsea is cooking a massive project deducing from the current crop of young players in our team, we are about to achieve glorious football feats, opposition fans are already trolling as usual but what is football without banter. Everyone thought Chelsea is finished after Roman left, and they were having bankruptcy, but they could only wish because Chelsea pulled through with American Texan billionaire takeover.
Our current owners, Todd Boehly and co are working tirelessly to redeem our past glory especially cracking Enzo Fernandez deal within deadline to January transfer window closure. The biggest deal ever in EPL, worths €121. It's currently the buzz on every social media platforms. Like an opposition rival said; "Bullion Van FC" it's an inside joke, only a Nigerian would understand 😁.
Every Chelsea fan all over the world are brimming with hope right now. Welcome to a new era, eventually we will get right back on top, and people think better before underestimating us. Only Chelsea FC can be hated on 10th mighty position on PL table, which is actually funny. Chelsea will always be recognized as one of the greatest football clubs ever.
Chelsea shinning with players of world class ability, there's no denying that Chelsea are a formidable force in Europe, and they're here to stay.
Big thanks and shout out to die-hard Blues I know . I ensured I am right with all the facts. This article wouldn't have been completed without their inputs. You men are the real VVIPs. Chelsea for life, all out, all game, all season. I LOVE THIS CLUB! 💙🤍
Note: You're free to correct me if I am wrong, I will appreciate. Kindly, use the share buttons. Thanks for reading.
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