Support Chelsea?
Yes – read on.
No – then naff off.
Ok, my beloved Chelsea cost me a fortune. What with both in my season tickets, PL away trips, European Champions’ League away trips (I’m in the away scheme) and pre-match food.
Ahh, yes, pre-match food. Since our favourite tapas closed down in the Kings Road, we now eat a feast of meat in the Brazilian all-you-can-eat at the bottom of the North End Road before each game, at my same table, looking out at those that walk past this vibrant street. It’s a nice pre-match meal, with a few Brahma Brazilian beers to wash it down. Then there’s the half time beer.
Yes, Chelsea is expensive, but I’m lucky enough to be able to enjoy it. And there are other costs, of course. Not to mention the travel, which there is a lot of. Car fuel or trains to the Bridge for all home games as well as many PL away games. And European away game travel is expensive. As I am in the Euro Away Scheme I get tickets for every ECL game, guaranteed. Flights and accomodation can be expensive, and usually is. Plus the excessive food and drink when away. And then there is the money spent in the Mega Store… it goes on. I’m putting myself off! No, not really, it’s worth it.
I grew up at the Bridge and probably doubted we’d ever be where we are today. Yes, I was there when we were s**t (as the away fans keep asking us). I stood there in the Shed by the White Wall watching my club. I remember when putting two wins together meant we thought our season was turning round. Now we drop two points and it’s the end of the world. How times change. Many of the people I see at the Bridge don’t know any different. They don’t remember 12-14k Chelsea fans at the Bridge. Or being minutes away from 3rd tier football. But that aside – whilst we can always harbour those memories, and what it was like, but we’ve now moved on. We’ve moved on to better things. And silverware. Even the big eared one.
We’ve always been the sexy club, and received lots of jealous barracking over the years, certainly recently. But so what. Now we’ve finally won the European Champions League. At long last. We’ve been robbed and cheated out of it, we’ve been plain unlucky, and we’ve made mistakes, but now we finally did it. And what a weekend in Munich we had. We’re where we belong. Back-to-Back titles a few years ago – wonderful. I’m living the dream. We won the double in 2010, so we have been champions for 3 from the last 7 years now. And we hold the FA Cup, yet again (2012). That’s 4 FA Cups in the last 6 years! All those years ago I never thought we’d be up there with the world’s best. And now we’re European Champions!
Read the Flat Eric Chelsea FC Blog here
Read more about the team and how to become a member on the official Chelsea FC website www.chelseafc.com. The Fanzine I like is CFCUK, who have now launched a new website, www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk.
Fans’ sites: www.gate17.co.uk/ | mychelseafc.com/ | fansofchelsea-fc.com | cfc-net.co.uk/ | chelseablog.com/ | chelseafootballclub.net/ | http://chelsea.rivals.net/ | http://www.chelsea-fc.com/csr/ | http://premchamps.blogspot.com/ | http://www.chelsea-mad.co.uk/ | http://www.mychelseafc.com/index.htm | http://www.chelseablog.com/
You can buy a Chelsea shirt online here at: http://chelseashirts.org.uk/ |
Read the words to most of the songs you hear at the Bridge here.