You are my Chelsea, my only Chelsea,
You make me happy when skies are grey,
You’ll never notice how much I love you,
Please don’t take my Chelsea away…
A popular terrace song that seems very appropriate at the moment.
There have been moments in the weeks since Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the Government, when it really has felt that our Chelsea is being taken away.
The threat of the Government sanctions forcing the club into bankruptcy has been very real. Thankfully, they genuinely seem to be keen to avoid damaging the club permanently, but their general incompetence means the club won’t be completely unscathed. Many people we know at the club have been affected by being laid off for example.
While the licence has been changed to allow the sale of tickets to the FA Cup semi-final and Champions’ League quarter-final, members will miss out on Premier League matches because it seems beyond the wit of Nadine Dorries to work out how to sell tickets to them for a match at their own stadium.
All of this pales in to insignificance compared to the appalling and desperate situation for the people of Ukraine, of course, but within the bubble of the football world, not being able to go and watch the team you support really does bring with it its own unique pain. For them, their Chelsea really has been taken away, albeit temporarily.
Not being able to do so on a permanent basis would no doubt be unbearable and as I said, there were moments when this has seemed possible over the last few weeks.
Whichever of the bids are ultimately selected to be the new custodians of Chelsea, yes, custodians, not owners, it is clear that Chelsea will never be the same again.
I simply do not believe that any of the organisations in the shortlist will be prepared to put the amount of money into the club and make the kind of losses that Roman Abramovich did to the tune of £1.5bn over 19 years. And that of course will mean change.
That change is most likely to be seen in increasing ticket prices, a bigger reliance on the corporate pound, an increased commercialisation of the club and no doubt fleecing of supporters together with ever greater expansionism of the ‘fanbase’ abroad. I would venture regular purchases of expensive players may also become a thing of the past. Declan Rice for £150mn? Pilau Rice would be more likely!
Tony Glover of Podding Shed and Chelsea Fancast fame and I used to joke regularly about the Arsenalification of Chelsea, or a descent into mediocrity due to a lack of investment. There is a real danger with American Sports Franchise owners sniffing around the club that this humorous take may become a nightmare reality.
Remember, of course, that Arsenal is owned by Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Los Angeles Rams NFL team, Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, and Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Oh, and lest we forget, half of the English teams who signed up for the ill-conceived European Super League and the last to leave it were owned by American sports franchises: Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group; the Glazer family at Man Utd and Kroenke at Arsenal. So, expect Chelsea owned by an American sports franchise to be at the forefront of any attempt to re-ignite that abomination of a concept.
Leopards do not change their spots. If we get an American owner, I fully expect any or all of the above to happen. They will promise you the earth like the snake oil salesmen they are born to be and then rip all the promises up in the unrelenting pursuit of profit. Think Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. Greed is good. It’s the American way, after all. And the bottom line for Chelsea supporters will be more of the club we knew and love being taken away.
One thing they can’t take away or buy, is our soul. It’s simply not for sale to the highest bidder. Supporters have always been and always will be the soul of the club. No owner or government can kill that.
Most of us will know or call as friends, supporters who have been to every match, home and away, for decades. People who live and breathe the club, for whom the club is almost more important than life itself.
Chelsea and its in-built community give people an identity and a sense of belonging. That’s what it’s always been about really, hasn’t it?
What is played out on the pitch for 90 minutes is important, as Carlo Ancelotti said, “football is the most important of the least important things in life.” (Ancelotti nicked this quote from Arrigo Sacchi and I believe he nicked it from Pope John Paul II, who said “Amongst all unimportant subjects, football is by far the most important.” – thank me later!). But when all is said and done if you put your happiness in life in the hands (or feet) of eleven footballers twice a week, then I would suggest that your mental health will be in a precarious state.
The Newcastle home match epitomised why football really does have an importance beyond the confines of 103.3 m × 67.7 m of grass. A huge turn out on match day from supporters who seemed to understand the deep significance of what was happening to their club and indeed their lives as a result. It was the warmth and the humour and the general ‘happy to be with each other’ that stood out though.
Thomas Tuchel has made much of how he sees his team as a family; one that sticks together in adversity as has been proved by the winning streak the team have been on since the Abramovich news erupted. You could say the same about Chelsea supporters and there was a definite sense of sticking together to defy what is happening to the club.
The older readers will remember this indomitable spirit in the 1970’s and 1980’s where the legend “You Can’t Ban a Chelsea Fan” was born and then the “Save the Bridge” campaign to give life support to a club that looked all but dead.
More recently we had “Say No CPO” when the Chelsea board attempted to buy up the shareholding of the Chelsea Pitch Owners in order to expedite an unobstructed move away from Stamford Bridge. They lost; we won; don’t try it again or else…
And of course, a year ago we had the European Super League protest where thanks to the efforts of Chelsea supporters, many of them in their 20’s it has to be said, took the streets around Stamford Bridge and loudly and vocally persuaded to the club to pull out of the venal project.
Sticking together is what families and communities do and it’s how they survive. They can’t be bought; they can’t be intimidated, and they can’t be bullied. We’ve been doing this at Chelsea for decades and if it’s a cause with protecting, we’ll fight for it.
Any new owner not cognisant of this is in for a rude awakening and an awful lot of trouble. They would do well to remember that or as Gianfranco Zola so eloquently put it: ““All of us – teams, directors, managers – are passing through a football club. Supporters are there always. And they never forget.”
A football club owner can try and steal a club or even destroy it, but they can never really kill it so long as the football club exists in the memories and history it has created. Its soul is represented by the supporters and will live on in them.
We may say “please don’t take my Chelsea away” in the song, but in truth we shouldn’t have to plead. It already belongs to us and can never, ever be taken away.
