Introduction
In January 2005 while abroad at Queen Mary University of London, I played a semester of club rugby, met a ton of friends for life, and immersed myself in Premier League Football. There were two “gentlemen” on the team I got on really well with, Teflon John and Mr. Dyson, whom both happened to be long-time Chelsea F.C. supporters. It is often said you don’t pick your team; it picks you, and in 2005, the Blues picked me.
I will admit one very clear thing: I have had it very easy as a modern-day Chelsea supporter. Unlike most other long-term supporters, I haven’t experienced the dark days of the Chelsea Shed Boys and the Chelsea Headhunters. And I haven’t experienced the ritual sufferings of the pre-Abramovich era with the many lean years in trophies and the utterly inconsistent play. The fact of the matter is I started watching and supporting Chelsea at exactly the right time.
I once read a quote on Vice the summed up supporting Chelsea F.C. as follows:
“Chelsea F.C. in its 21st century incarnation is football support on easy mode: nice pubs, an attractive West London setting, and to top if off a team whose ability to compete for major trophies is guaranteed by the presence of a Russian oligarch with the loosest of purse strings.”
A simple Google search of “most hated English football clubs” or “where were you when we were shit?” will almost certainly return results that include Chelsea F.C. But how did a club with a history of underperformance and inconsistency grow to become one of the most vilified in all of English football?
In search of an answer to this question, I picked up a copy of Rick Glanvill’s Chelsea FC: The Official Biography. This book is a 400+ page comprehensive masterclass on the inner workings of Chelsea F.C., and is the ultimate resource on how Chelsea F.C. became the club that it is today. The following blog post is a write up on all of the things I learned about the football club I so luckily began following back in 2005.
From Gus Mears to Roman Abramovich, Chelsea F.C. Have Benefited from Two Ambitious Moneyed Patriarchs
As Rick Glanvill walks you through, Chelsea F.C. is a football club with a deep history that is sandwiched between two moneyed patriarchs. Gus Mears founded the club in 1905 with great ambitions to make Chelsea F.C. the best club in all of London, and Roman Abramovich bought the club almost 100 years later with ambitions to make Chelsea F.C. the best club in all of Europe.
But from the very beginning of its days, it was clear that Chelsea F.C. would rarely be perceived as a working-class club. From the outset it was seen as the rich man’s play-thing and the team of London’s elite. A big reason for this is simply where Chelsea F.C. is located: on the Fulham Road in the good ole’ SW6 postal club. Chelsea F.C. stand in earthly Fulham with its head pointed towards airy Kensington/Chelsea.
To give you an idea of the type of wealth the lives in and around the club, I pulled together some current pictures of the surrounding area:
From the inception of the club, wealth and hand me down poverty stood side by side. The fact that Gus Mears called his football club Chelsea, shows which side of the class divide he wanted the club and fans of the club to think of. All of the glitz and glam that have surrounded Chelsea F.C from its inception has created a perception in British football that showy Chelsea is not a gritty proper football club. And this is one big reason why Chelsea F.C. are one of the most hated football clubs in all of British football.
Stamford Bridge is the Crown Jewel of Chelsea F.C. but Home Support Lacks Fervor
Gus Mears’s founding of Chelsea F.C. in 1905 was the direct result of a failed negotiation with Fulham F.C. You see, Mears was a business man that was an opportunist at heart. At the time, the local Stamford Bridge Athletic Ground was used by the London Athletic Club. Naturally, Mears believed there was a huge opportunity to develop the Stamford Bridge Athletic Ground into a then world-class football ground, and thus have Fulham F.C. occupy this new ground. Amazingly, Fulham F.C. balked at the idea deciding to stay at Craven Cottage, and thus Chelsea F.C. was born and placed directly in the heart of Fulham Road.
Since the inception of the club, Chelsea F.C. and its home ground have always had a bit of a “curious” relationship. Strange as it may seem, Stamford Bridge has always been regarded as a pleasant place where fair-minded supporters generally applauded the opposition as much as their home team.
And even though Jose Mourinho over his two managerial stints turned Stamford Bridge into a fortress, Stamford Bridge historically has been a place that lacks fervor with passive, quiet, and restrained home support. On an aside speaking of fortress Stamford Bridge, under Jose Mourinho at one point Chelsea were unbeaten in 98 of 99 home games.
It’s really amazing that Jose Mourinho went unbeaten at the Bridge for so long given how tepid and inconsistent the atmosphere is. And it’s this lack of fervor that makes outsiders to the club question Chelsea F.C. as a “gritty and proper” football club.
On top of the lack fervor in home support, the fact that Stamford Bridge remains the most valuable piece of real estate in football, adds to negative views on Chelsea F.C. It’s hard to assure and secure your future as a football club when you play your home games in central London on one of the most value pieces of land. That’s why the Chelsea Pitch Owners exist.
To give you an idea of how valuable Stamford Bridge and its surround lands are and have become, the cost in 1972 to redevelop the ground outright was an estimated £6.25M. The most recent estimate of the Stamford Bridge Redevelopment project ballooned to £1B before it was shelved.
Chelsea F.C. seem resigned to live with the consequences of successive failures to resolve its home ground problem that was first created in 1905 when Gus Mears founded the club. But at least Stamford Bridge is a very attractive home ground (see here):
Chelsea F.C. Players Have Always Been a Tad Over Paid. They Just Achieve More Silverware These Days
One of the biggest things I learned from Rick Glanvill’s book is that even prior to Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have always been a team that has had the money and the large crowds. What’s different now, is the success as measured in trophies. Undoubtedly some of the best footballers of each generation have played for the club (Greaves, Tambling, Bonetti, Osgood, Bridges, Venables), but prior to Abramovich and Jose Mourinho, they have failed dismally to consistently bring home silverware. Historically, Chelsea F.C. have been seen as a club that collects talented players that don’t blend well. But all of this changed after 2003. The following is a visual representation of what Chelsea F.C. has morphed into as a result of Roman Abramovich’s and eventually Jose Mourinho’s impacts:
Chelsea have doubled the total number of major trophies won in its history in the span of just 18 years from 2000 to 2018. Under Abramovich, 15 of the club’s major trophies have been secured, and Jose Mourinho is responsible for 7 of the 15 trophies secured during the Abramovich era.
Where Do We Go from Here? Chelsea F.C. Will Always Be London’s Bohemian Football Club
Chelsea spent 10 of the first 25 years of its existence in the 2nd division. It’s a club that has sustained decades of inconsistency and underachieving and were relegated as recently as 1975 and 1979. Significant periods of a lack of on-field success and hooliganism between 1969 and 1989 blighted the reputation of the club.
But all of that changed when Roman Abramovich and Jose Mourinho came in 2003. Abramovich has spent a staggering amount on player wages (£2.8B) and net transfers (£1.0B) since 2003 to change the image of “lovable-losers Chelsea.”
As Chelsea move into the next decade of its existence it faces a real crossroads moment. There are some serious headwinds that will push the club to ask some hard questions of itself. Similar to its past, there are some themes that are rearing their head once again:
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The club is currently underperforming with Maurizio Sarri as manager, and this underperformance may cause them move on from yet again another manager.
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The pending transfer ban coupled with some consistent misses in the transfer market have left them once again with a miss match of players that don’t all gel together.
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A real concern over whether Roman Abramovich is fatigued at this point as Chelsea F.C. owner. Their model now looks to be outdated
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Stamford Bridge is once again a problem as the club desperately need to figure out how to expand the capacity of its home ground. Looking to their North London rivals and seeing Arsenal’s home ground and Tottenham’s new home ground each with capacities of 60K+ must not feel great, especially as their original redevelopment plans have been shelved given Roman Abramovich’s “issues.”
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The club still doesn’t have a technical director. Historically, Chelsea F.C. have a history of football directors that lack knowledge of football and don’t take a back seat to those with the knowledge. With out a technical director, major decisions seem to fall on the plate of Marina Granovskaia, long-time confidant of Roman Abramovich.
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Chelsea’s fortunes as an English and European power have changed in lockstep with the financing from Roman Abramovich but the days of domination from West London appear to be over. History has shown that Chelsea have never been afraid to burn themselves to the ground and start again. At times over the last decade and a half, that has probably been the smartest move, and may be the move that the need to play once again. Without the benefit of the commercial opportunities enjoyed by Manchester United and Liverpool, privileges earned by historic success and sustained by truly global fan-bases, remaining passive now would condemn Chelsea to become the new Arsenal.