Chelsea Don’t Care If You Hate Them

I meant to write again about Chelsea a lot sooner, but most of what’s been written in my favourite paper, metro, hasn’t been at the forefront of my mind of late.

Anyway… I was amused by article about Chelsea with some quotes from Michael Essien. He is quoted as saying, "The perception that we’re not popular because of the way we play or because of the way we conduct ourselves doesn’t bother us." Each to their own on the way Chelsea play; it gets them results with the team that they have.

Manchester United have closed the gap to 12 points and have a game in hand, so Chelsea need to be very concerned about the way they play. Their over-confident attitude could end up being their downfall.

But Chelsea’s popularity won’t return, even if they do fail to win the premiership and go on a downward slide.

This is a very different Chelsea compared to when Zola was there. He was a fantastic player, a joy to watch and I don’t think a fan of any team can say different.

There was a time when Chelsea played exciting football and were a likeable team, but it has all changed since the big money came along. Since 1996, after Glenn Hoddle left Chelsea to manage England, there have been 3 great mangers and 2 of which were also player-managers.

Ruud Gullit took over from Hoddle but unfortunately departed company with them in 1998, despite great success there as both a player and manager. Gianluca Vialli took over as a player-manager too and was very successful, winning 3 cups for Chelsea including a European one (UEFA’s Cup Winners Cup). However, success again wasn’t good enough for Chelsea and another great manage was sacked after 2 successful years in 2000.

I’ve digressed enough, now back to my point…: for about 7-10 years Chelsea were a respected and entertaining team. Now the excitement and flair has gone and there’s now just a team which doesn’t care if it isolates itself from football fans in the UK and abroad. How times change. Sadly, there’s not really anyone left at Chelsea who will remember how it used to be.

Luckily there is an exciting team called Manchester United left to entertain us all.