I was meant to be posting an article about a potential CEO of football candidate this week - and I’ll try to get that in next week. But this weeks events at Chelsea and the media response has made me feel compelled to write this.
I’ll get to my main point in a moment, but lets address the situation itself first.
It’s pretty clear there’s a strong disconnect between Chelsea supporters, and the owners, directors, and staff of Chelsea right now. I’ve been a supporter for 37 years and I safely say I’ve not seen it quite this bad before. It’s also not just about results. I think if fans knew what the owners were planning and saw some tangible improvements in terms of performance level, consistency and felt some connection with the coach, players and owners, things would - and still could - be very different.
My feeling as a Chelsea Supporters Trust member, reading their statement and seeing their - my, our - representatives on major media this week, is of a community who want to work constructively with the ownership. Not only that, they appear to recognise the ownership have made progress in some areas.
I sensed no desire for further conflict or disagreement, but instead, a desire for collaboration and respectful cooperation and dialogue, to do what is best for Chelsea Football Club. Ultimately, they are merely representing the concerns of real Chelsea fans who have written to them. They are seeing what’s happening at the stadium, and they have concerns about the direction that is going. The CST want to avoid it getting worse, and want to work together to do so.
I personally don’t agree with booing individual players, but I also understand the bigger frustrations fans feel, at the club more than anything.
As I’ve said, and club need to realise, it’s about way more than results or league position, but the lack of trust felt by fans, due to a lack of communication by owners who said they would be pioneers in fan engagement. As I’ve said ad verbatim on this site in the last couple of years, that needs to change urgently.
But here’s my bigger point. The way certain parts of the media is presenting this, is as a boiling conflict, almost a war, between Chelsea fans and the owners.
In fact, to be honest, ever since sanctions began in March 2022, I’ve seen this growing negativity towards Chelsea in parts of the media. It’s like some of them are looking for ways to bring us down.
During sanctions there was constant scaremongering about the club being liquidated, going out of business. Now whilst this could have happened in theory, there was no need to create such anxiety and stress amongst fans whilst a sale was still in process, a sale which ultimately went through. Yet alone, to be almost celebrating or enjoying it as some journalists seemed to be.
Chelsea fans remember the ones who wrote those scaremongering stories - many of which turned out to be hyperbole, or just plain fiction.
We remember Man Utd fan Jim White in the Telegraph who said Chelsea - and even the fans - deserved to suffer relegation for Abramovich’s crimes, because that’s how football works.
Since the takeover, some (not all) of the same people have been constantly on at us. First at Boehly becoming sporting director - something its’ been reported multiple times he was very reluctant to do - presented as an ego trip by a cowboy American.
Since the big spending, all the talk has gone back to Chelsea being caught by PL Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), getting a big fine and huge points deduction.
To be factual, Chelsea have, at time of writing (March 22nd 2024), not been charged with breaking any financial rules and were PSR compliant last year (when many assumed we’d be charged). Not to mention the much maligned Matt Law accurately reported that many clubs in the PL (including his own, Aston Villa, to prove his objectivity), are skating close to the wind on PSR rules, not just Chelsea.
He was the only person to report its not just us who are close to the wind on PSR. Others, like some of the same suspects as sanctions and new ones, focus on Chelsea.
Some media sources have already concluded we will be definitely be charged and found guilty, and even know we’ll get a bigger points deduction than Everton.
You know, those ‘financial experts’ who are journalists with no access to Chelsea’s financial figures, no experience in finance or business, some of whom have records of being liberal with the truth, and who are known to want to stick to Chelsea. Even the financial experts they speak to have no idea what’s on Chelsea’s books.
As opposed to our owners, who have made billions from investing in and growing multiple businesses in different fields, and clearly knew the PL rules on amortisation better than the PL itself. Oh and they have access to Chelsea’s accounts too.
Our owners may still be learning about the football world, but one area they know is finance and business.
Chelsea just get the most attention on the PSR story. But why? Because we’ve spent money? As this article shows, when you subtract fees for players who’ve not yet played for us, and unpaid (and some unlikely) add ons, the actual spend we’ve made is less than £600m, around £150m per transfer window - which for a big club, isn’t unusual. There’s an increasing view - which I myself have suspected for some time - that we’ve spent so much so quickly as we expect a transfer ban soon and want to be prepared.
Funnily enough, most of the media choose to ignore this. Yet the data is all out there for all to read.
Chelsea have been the most divided fanbase in the PL for some time. There was an excellent article on football fandom recently, and although it was inaccurate about Chelsea fans response to the SuperLeague (more on that later), it did accurately state this:
“(Chelsea fans are) perhaps the most fractured and permanently seething fanbase in the Premier League.”
Jonathan Liew
We’ve been through a lot in the last two years as a club and as Chelsea fans, on and off the pitch, and many fans have run out of emotional energy and patience.
It’s not just positive results and progress on the pitch we want, (though those will help a lot), we as fans want to feel a connection to the club again. Feel a connection to the head coach and feel he’s on our side (that will likely never happen with Mauricio Pochettino), to the team, and we also want to understand just what the owners want to achieve and see them respecting fans and listening to them (without doing literally everything fans want, no rational person expects that).
The media are looking for likes, clicks, follows, subscriptions and engagement. I believe many of them - not all it has to be said, to be clear - have been sticking the dagger in deep for Chelsea ever since sanctions. They are taking advantage of vulnerable Chelsea fans, and now it comes across like they want to start some big mass conflict between Chelsea fans and the owners.
There’s a huge a difference between being angry at the owners, or thinking they are doing a bad job, or wanting them to make better decisions and communicate better, and just wanting or engaging in a full scale conflict with them. I don’t believe the CST want this, and most rational fans don’t want this.
For balance, it’s important to note an example of from the CST statement stating they have been “impressed by the willingness of Chelsea to work with us on a number of community and foundation projects to help foster better supporter relationships”.
It’s also important note the work of the Fan Advisory Board, whose influence has meant sponsorship to subsidise coach travel for CFC Women’s games and work to make this happen with the mens team. There’s also been positive responses from the club on the virtual waiting room for tickets, and eliminating ticket touting.
The CST have also mentioned the positive work of Daniel Finklestein, who sits on the board and does a lot of positive work with the Chelsea Foundation and fan engagement. I have personal experience of speaking to Daniel and know he is a genuine fan who really cares about Chelsea, and wants success in the same way we do.
These are all positives from the club. But I believe the fans want and deserve more, and directly from the ownership
We want to feel our voices and concerns are being heard, to be respected by the owners, and for some healthy, positive communication and contrition from the owners about their vision and ambition, and acknowledging fan concerns and mistakes.
We want to know the vision and ambition, and to know they see us as more than just customers (we’re not customers, to be clear, no matter what Chris Jarosek thinks). We also want an explanation behind some what appear to be broken promises. We want to see better decisions being made.
That’s it.
As fans we need to try and not believe or react to every scaremongering story like its fact. Don’t give the media the outrage the reaction they want. Don’t reply or quote tweet these articles when you respond to them. Don’t believe them. Check the source. Don’t let your emotion get away with you.
The best way forward is for both the ownership and fans to sit down together, to honestly and frankly discuss the issues. For the ownership to respectfully communicate with the wider fanbase. For the owners to respect the fans and fans to work with them to make the situation better. And for some better decisions on and off the pitch to be made.
Wild outrage over ever story will just make the issues worse, and give those media guys out for our blood exactly what they want.
We’ve seen what happens when Chelsea fans work together. We stopped the Super League, and no matter what the official line, we definitely contributed to the Ricketts family pulling out of the bidding for our club. That’s what we need to do now. Come together for the good of our club.
Together, united, as fans, we represent Chelsea. We can show people who Chelsea and our fans really are, and how much we care.
I know some directors read this site. So, Chelsea fans invite you to communicate with us better, and work with us for the good of Chelsea. To respect us, listen to us, treat us as mature adults, and be honest with us. To make better decisions in a number of areas.
We all want what’s best for Chelsea.
Lets’ drown out the media noise and scaremongers by making a constructive move forward to get this great club back where it belongs.
The Score
Great article, The Score and thank you for the links which were good reads. The importance of accounting for the income received on sold players and the significant reduction in the salary bill at the club are completely omitted from everyone’s calculations. I like you one thing for sure these are Financial people and I would be pretty surprised if they got this aspect of their ownership wrong.
The one key point that I would like to mention is that whilst I understand the points you highlight from the letter from the Chelsea Supporters Trust there were other aspects that I’ve one felt uncomfortable with and it’s important to state that they do not speak for all of us which they projected they did. I know many others agree that they do not speak for us all.
I like you or a long-term supporter (50+ years) and I think we look back with rose tinted spectacles. It was pretty toxic at various times during Ken Bates is era and before that. I do agree with you at the moment that we are our own worst enemies and we are publicly fighting in the media, but I guess social media is so strong these days in comparison to the past, but it is going to have an affect one way or the other.
One last comment in respect of greater communication. I think you will find this request from pretty much 90% of Premier League clubs and their ownerships and others within the EFL. it’s been long ongoing request from supporters. Let’s be honest Roman really communicating to us, directly, or indirectly and most of Ken Bates communication was not particularly pleasant!
What a great article, sums up my feelings as well, but maybe it’s an age thing (46 years of supporting on my side), and Craige’s comments adds some good points. I never felt more connected with the club than when we had Vialli and Zola in their pomp. The connection was done on the pitch, not in the media.
That said a good director of football, who also had some media duties (as Petr Cech did pretty well) would go a very long way to filling the current void. Can’t wait for your next article …