Chelsea fc-my football team! (Chelsea F.C.)

Member Name: ajbluestar

Product:	Chelsea F.C.
Date:	23/06/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great team, great players

Disadvantages: you only won because of the money arguments

I have been a fan of Chelsea FC since 1994 which is over 15 years now. My best friend then at the time when I was at school was a Chelsea fan and was also a season ticket holder with his dad and it was really how I got into Chelsea and following football properly. Chelsea were in the final of the FA Cup at the end of the 93/94 season and were playing Manchester United and I decided I was going to support them. They lost 4-0 in the end but in the first half, Gavin Peacock hit the crossbar and if that shot had gone in it could have maybe been a different story. Anyway I continued to follow the club from this day forward.

I will detail a bit of information about the club itself. It is based in the Hammersmith and Fulham borough of London. The home ground of Chelsea FC is Stamford Bridge which has a capacity of 42,055 making it one of the smaller stadiums amongst the top teams. The club was founded in 1905 at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook), opposite the current main entrance to the ground on Fulham Road.

Chelsea was always quite a fashionable club to be associated with especially during the 1970's. It also has even currently some quite famous fans including Sir Steve Redgrave, Alec Stewart, Laurence Dallagio, John Major, Seb Coe, Bryan Adams and Suggs amongst others. Lord Attenborough who is a film Director is a Life President of the Club.

Even before Roman Abramovich arrived, Chelsea had some quite fantastic players during the time I have supported them but the team were always quite inconsistent so they always tended to fall a bit short in the quest for the top trophies. The obvious player that sticks out for me is Gianfranco Zola who was a magical player and was adored by Chelsea fans and is still adored today even by fans of other clubs. The little Italian delighted with his great skills and goals. Another favourite of mine was captain of the 1997 and 2000 FA cup winning teams , Dennis Wise who was probably not well liked by other teams but was a great captain and had a slightly fiery character and liked to wind up the opposition. Some of my other favourite players before the Abramovich era included Ruud Gullit (manager for the 1997 FA Cup win), Roberto Di Matteo, Gianluca Vialli, Tore Andre Flo, Gustavo Poyet, Marcel Desailly (world cup winner with France) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnse amongst many others as well!

Abramovich bought the club in the summer of 2003 and the club embarked on a major spending spree which many opposition fans cried out was an outrage. They also brought in a new manager at the start of the 2004/05 season, the charismatic and quite controversial figure of Jose Mourinho who announced himself to the English press as the 'special one'. He was special indeed as Chelsea raced to their first league title since 1955 with a record number of points and clean sheets. They repeated the feat and won the league the next season as well. Since then they won the Carling cup and Fa cup in the 2006/07 season. The victory against Manchester United in the 2007 FA cup final was especially great after the loss in 1994.

Mourinho was sacked after apparent disagreements and a fallout with Abramovich and was replaced by Avram Grant at the start of the 2007/08 season. They got to the Champions league final for the first time in their history in that season losing out to Manchester United on penalties. They won the FA cup at the end of the 2008/09 season. The season started with former Brazilian world cup winner Luis Felipe Scolari as coach after Grant was sacked and ended with Guus Hiddink in charge as caretaker manager. To say the manager's position at the club has been unstable over the past few years is a bit of an understatement! Carlo Ancelotti was not my first choice as the new manager for the 09/10 season but have to wish him the best of luck!

The money certainly helped the team towards their success but to build a team and a successful one takes more than just money-just ask Manchester City. Chelsea had already established themselves before Abramovich came, winning the FA cup twice in 1997 and 2000 and also the cup winners cup and league cup in 1998. They also got to the quarter finals of the Champions league in their first season in the tournament (losing to Barcelona in extra time) in 2000. The basis and foundations were set for success but the money helped take them to a new level. Nowadays the money in football is what helps a club to attract the top players and remain competitive at the very top level.

Out of the current crop of players my favourites are Englishmen Frank Lampard and John Terry. They are the real heart and soul of the current squad and much of the reason for the clubs recent success. They are the captain and vice captain of the team. Terry is a great leader and defender. Lampard is the creative spark in midfield and scores a lot of goals for the club in his role (around 20 a season). Michael Essien is another top player who is already a very important part of the team and hopefully will have many more successful years ahead of him.

I was a fan before the Russian revolution and will be a fan when it does end as many opposition fans would like to see sooner rather than later. I am currently a member of the club and try to go to games when I can but it is quite expensive to get to games these days but even if I can't go to the game I will watch most of the games somewhere!

Summary: Blue is the colour, football is the game, Chelsea is the name