Trophies, Tears and ‘Psycho’ Phil!

When asked to write an article about ones memories of the 10 years of Roman Abramovich’s tenure of the Club, it seems at first glance either a simple task or an impossible one. There have been so many highs for the team and supporters, and as always with the curve ball that is ‘glorious unpredictability’ (sorry Marco!), there have been a few lows and downright bonkers moments as well.

Having been largely missing in action from the Bridge due to family, financial and work commitments for a lot of the ‘90’s, I moved back to London in 2000. Having acquired a Chelsea supporting brother-in-law, known to some as Dr Martin, an agreement that had stood for several years was honoured in the form of a return to the Bridge, and subsequently a season ticket in the new in-filled area of the ground known as Gate 17!

At the time, the club had just come out of ‘our most successful period ever’ with a collection of domestic and European trophies, fantastic world class players and even a breathtaking ride in the mecca that is the Champions League. But in true Chelsea style, that era was on the wane and Dr Martin and I settled in to the Ranieri years of being happy to sign Quique de Lucas on a free and battling to get in the top six. Little did we know what was round the corner…

To mitigate this apparent return to mediocrity, Dr Martin welcomed me in to the warm bosom of his Chelsea mates, mates he’d been going to the games with as far back as the ‘70’s. Now I had been too young to go in the ‘70’s and had been a random and usually very drunken visitor whilst a student in the ‘80’s, so had largely missed the culture of turning up to the pub to meet the boys for a usually hilarious session, to return some 90 minutes later to carry on proceedings – or a great day out often ruined by 90 minutes of football.

This of course is what football has always been about for many Chelsea supporters, eloquently summed up as “Win or Lose we’re On the Booze!” In addition, there is the feeling of belonging, camaraderie, your own little gang. Our little gang began to evolve with Dr Martin, ChelTel, me, and the Blues Brothers (Stu and Chris – the Celery Terrorist). Several years later they would form the backbone of the Chelsea Football FanCast – offending the ears of Chelsea supporters everywhere since 2008 (apologies!). The indisputable leader of this particular gang was the latter’s old man Phil – whose sobriquet of ‘Psycho’ Phil was acquired during many forays around opposition grounds (and terraces) in the ‘60’s, ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

With the organisational ability of a five star General, Phil would be at the heart of all of the big match day decisions: ticket acquisition; travel; Pub choice; song choice; post match curry venue; who would win at spoof to pay for said curry and other important logistics. But his most important contribution as far as this author is concerned was his role as choirmaster and ‘guardian of the cultural soul of Chelsea’. He would never let you forget about the history and culture of supporting the club (Athens, Rotherham and Shrewsbury away would often feature heavily here for differing reasons); why it was as important to be in the pub before and after as it was to be singing your lungs out in the ground and why we should enjoy any success that came our way. And with the arrival of Roman Abramovich in 2003 that success was about to turn up in bucket loads…

Roman’s arrival was followed soon afterwards by the dramatic arrival of Jose Mourinho – The Special One! I have never been so confident that we would win the title for the first time in my lifetime as I was at the beginning of the 2004 season. We had an owner who was like a kid in a toy shop buying up the best players and we had the Special One – a serial winner. Oh, and it was the 100^th anniversary of the formation of the Club, and 50^th anniversary of our one and only title win in 1955. What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing!

Jose predicted that we would win the title in April, and against Bolton in that very month, Frank Lampard (as he was known then) scored the brace that sealed our first Premier League title. Brilliant…apart from one thing…I wasn’t there to see it; being holed up in some horrible boozer in Victoria for reasons I can’t even remember now. What I do remember though has very little to do with the game. At precisely 2 minutes after the final whistle went, Phil was on the phone saying we are all heading down to the Fulham Road to celebrate – get yer ‘arris down there!

I duly obliged to find at least 3,000 like minded Chelsea supporters dancing in the Fulham Road drinking and singing their appreciation of this life changing moment. Phil was in the middle of it all…blissful celebratory carnage. My other two memories of that surreal night are hugging and dancing with former Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook in the Imperial Pub and at the end of the evening at Kishmish where Phil literally had his fill and drunkenly plummeted head first in to his Chicken Jalfrezi.

After a few years of tears and tantrums (and more trophies) Carlo Ancelotti arrived in 2009 to steady the post Scolari ship. He gave us a beautiful moment when we hammered Wigan 8-0 to wrap up our third Premier League title of the Roman era, but we still had the FA Cup final to play. The FA Cup has always been special to Chelsea supporters, and many of my fond memories over the last 10 years have involved Phil’s choice of the Victoria as pre-match pub, and then massed outbreaks of celery throwing and singing in our post-match pub The Blackbird. Under Roman, We’d already enjoyed two such outings at Wembley (fast becoming our second home) in 2007 and 2009, and now we had a third, but this time the Double was at stake. This one mattered – winning the Double would elevate the Club in to the big league and again would be an achievement that I never believed I would see in my lifetime.

A rather edgy game saw us clinch the double with a statutory Didier Drogba winner, and celebrations endured drunkenly in to the night leaving me with a ‘Double’ hangover the next morning. But my abiding memory was the phone call I received at 10.00 am that morning from none other than Phil demanding my presence in the Southern Cross to witness history and the Double Champions parade down the New Kings Road. To soften the blow I was assured that a few rounds of Guinness had been purchased just in case the pub got too busy. Once again, Phil’s organisational abilities came to the fore, as I was greeted with a table covered with at least 16 pints of Guinness on my arrival. As for the parade, well I am not ashamed to admit that both Phil and I shed a few tears as the team bounced past in the open top double decker bus, as we pondered the enormity of the achievement made by the Club in winning its first double. Particularly poignant for Phil after the misery he had endured for a nigh on 30 year period following the club through thin and thinner. It should be noted that Phil and his mates would meet once a year in the summer to re-watch the 1970 FA Cup final win so starved were the supporters of success during this period!

But if winning the first Premier League title and first Double were incredible moments, there can be only one when it comes to the ‘Daddy’ of memories from the Roman era, and that of course is ‘Munich Munich’.

Having grown up in the ‘70’s I had to endure Liverpool (and others) dominating in the European Cup, an unedifying experience to say the least. But, anyone who grew up in that decade intrinsically knows how important that title is. There are no better bragging rights like being able to say “Champions of Europe, we know what we are”, and whilst it has always been Roman’s Holy Grail, it was genuinely something I never dreamed I’d see Chelsea achieve. After witnessing the sheer iniquity of losing to Man Utd in the 2008 final, and perennially being cheated out of the competition by Liverpool, Uefa and their favourite team Uefalona, I like many other Chelsea supporters and indeed players felt that we would never live to see the Club win the Cup with the Big Ears.

But football is, if nothing else, a funny old game, and the surreal journey from Napoli to the Allianz Arena gave me a feeling that the one year when we appeared to have less chance than ever, would in fact turn out to be the year we finally did it.

One thing that the team that Roman built has in abundance is backs to the wall indomitable spirit and a will to win. This is possibly only matched by the supporters efforts in getting to the match and getting in to the stadium to witness what would hopefully be the “greatest day of our lives”. I very nearly didn’t make it. I had no money having had a rough year on the business front, and even the exhortations of Phil to join the merry Chelsea FanCast pranksters on the Magic Bus could not convince me to turn up without a ticket.

Happily, lady luck looked kindly on me a mere four days before the final (surely another omen) as I landed a couple of weeks work which would provide me with sufficient funds to make the trip out there (albeit for the day only) armed with a ticket. Before the match the Augustiener Bier Keller (just north of Haupt Bahnhoff!) was the embodiment and indeed culmination of all the great pre-match experiences I had enjoyed with Phil and the boys. A few hundred Chelsea in one corner outnumbered by several thousand Bayern Munich supporters but completely out drinking and out singing them. If the team showed this type of commitment, then we would definitely be returning with the trophy that mattered most.

True to form Phil is intertwined with my most memorable moments of the Roman era as he added an almost last hurrah feeling to the proceedings in the Bier Keller as he belted out song after song, and even caught up with a well known and somewhat notorious old Chelsea boy who happened to be flogging a few t-shirts there!

What happened that night is well documented, but I will never forget that moment when Drogba banged that penalty in and me and many others, dare I say it, more deserving Chelsea alumni openly wept at the enormity of it all and a dream finally fulfilled.

You can say what you like about Roman Abramovich, but that man has been responsible for things I would never have believed I’d experience as a Chelsea supporter, and for that I am truly grateful. As for Phil, I owe him a debt of gratitude too for teaching me how to enjoy them all properly!

Thank you both!