Clearlake & The Sporting Directors: Its time for you to listen

Fans have deep, sincere concerns and we want answers.

In my last article I went through all the logical, evidence based reasons fans have strong concerns about how Clearlake and the Sporting Directors are running the club, and how these will remain true regardless of how this season turns out.

There are some more emotive arguments too, which to me, are equally valid.

I’m in several group chats with Chelsea fans and interact with a lot of different types of fan on social media. Different fans, of different ages, including some fans who’ve followed the club for 30-40 years or more, are all saying something similar to me right now.

“Its not Chelsea anymore”

“Chelsea is gone”

“This isn’t my club”

“Chelsea as were were doesn’t exist anymore”

I see cynicism, despair, anger, even resignation. I myself, at times, have felt all of these, and even apathy.

This isn’t about results or performances. It's about how the club is being run. It's about how players are treated. It's about recruitment. It's about the youth-only strategy. Its about the lack of ruthlessness. It's about the perception Clearlake cares way more about profit than winning, and makes no effort to connect with, or listen to the fanbase.

Personally, I have had moments where I’ve felt heartbreak for the club I love. A sadness, a lament for the Chelsea I love - and loved before we won a thing - back. The sense of community, family, collaboration, us against the world, respecting our own academy products, getting legends involved, winning before profit.

It also doesn’t matter whether these perceptions are accurate or not. They may not be. But perception is everything, given their love of PR I expect Clearlake to understand this. And the perception is the owners only care about profit, not about winning, and only care about the fans when it suits them.

Results on the pitch won’t be enough to cover this up, not that we’re even getting those right now. Not for a lot of people, because many felt this whilst we were winning earlier in the season. Even if there’s positive news, people expect it to be a lie to appease fans, not the truth, because trust is non existent.

Sometimes it might actually be true, but what reason have the owners given to trust them?

They forced out one of our best players last season, Conor Gallagher, a Cobham product, for a player in Joao Felix, who has already left. Maybe they needed the money, but again, its not even the sale, its how the whole affair was handled, without respect, or class.

They also disrespected and tried to force out Trevoh Chalobah against his will, when he too had a good season, and then had the gall to crawl back to him in January.

They signed two players we didn’t need in the summer, Joao Felix and Keirnan Dewsbury-Hall. Now, one is gone on loan and the other will be gone in the summer.

They’ve refused to sign a top player at GK or ST in 5 windows despite it being a glaring and obvious need. They ignore the need for about 3-4 proven players/winners despite every winning team in history having those players. They make briefings which frankly insult fans' intelligence on a regular basis.

Why should fans trust the owners?

Because they signed some good players?

Because we’re 4th?

Trust is earned by a lot more than that.

Trust is earned by a consistent pattern of behaviour which is fitting of Chelsea FC and respects the fans.

Trust is earned by respecting Cobham products and treating players properly. It's earned by creating an atmosphere which people want to come to, not want to leave after 6 months.

Trust is earned by backing the manager to whom you gave a 5 year contract and had us 2nd in the league at Christmas. Its earned by listening to fans about music and atmosphere in the stadium, not removing a DJ fans didn’t want, then bringing them back a few months later.

Trust is earned by demonstrating with words and actions on a consistent basis that you’re an ambitious, serious club who are focussed on winning, and act with ruthlessness, decisiveness and class. It’s earned by signing top players to fill gaps in the squad, and doing it efficiently, not taking a month to sign a 17 year old kid, however talented.

Trust is earned by taking responsibility for mistakes and failures, not painting them as successes or scapegoating others. Trust is earned by having the humility to admit you’re not experts, you don’t know the club and by making the effort to learn and listen to world class experts. it's earned by communicating properly and respectfully with fans on a regular basis, taking their concerns seriously and acting on them

And finally, trust is earned by recognising when a large proportion of fans, including the most optimistic, rational fans, don’t recognise their club anymore. It’s earned by paying attention when people have lost hope and trust in the ownership, when people say this isn’t Chelsea, that the Chelsea they love is gone, and asking themselves why.

I’ll end this piece with a short message to Clearlake and the sporting directors:

We don’t want to be enemies, we would rather work with you and colloborate respectfully.

So, go and meet the Chelsea fans who are concerned. Ask fans groups what their concerns are.

Don’t talk, just listen to them. Really listen. Ask them why they feel like they do. Have some humility. Don’t question how they feel. Listen and ask them, and yourselves, how and why you’ve made them feel that way. Have open dialogue on problems ad solutions and then follow up, authentically, with integrity, and promptly.

Be grown adults and take responsibility for your actions and their consequences, instead of cowardly hiding behind PR briefs, and leaks against a co-owner who fans are now getting behind (yes, we know, we’re not stupid).

I suspect you won’t do any of this, because you, Clearlake, Behdad Eghbali especially, give the impression you don't care about our views unless you need us, and think we’re annoying stupid little people. I’d love to be proved wrong on this assumption, but the balls in your court on that one.

Let’s be clear, just because you own the deeds of the company, doesn’t mean you own the club. The fans literally own the name of the club, we own the pitch. You can’t use the name Chelsea or any associated name/acronym without us.

The fans have been here long before you and will be here long after you’re gone. It's our club, not yours. You are just the stewards, as you said when you bought the club.

We’re used to fighting for our club, and we’ll do it again if necessary - with respect, with dignity and decency and class, but we will stand up for our club.

We want to work with you, cooperate with you like adults, to help you understand the club, club culture and to understand what you’re doing and your ambitions, and why you’ve made certain decisions. We don’t want conflict, we want respectful cooperation and an apology.

So work with us, respect us, listen to us, acknowledge your failures and learn from them. We can move forward together if you’re willing to. If you’re not and you continue down this path, the likelihood is the entire fanbase will turn against you for good, and there will be big, peaceful, respectful, protests, at games and outside the stadium.

And Chelsea FC, the players, the manager, the fans don’t need that. We don’t want that.

We just want to ensure our club is in safe hands and going in the right direction, towards success on the pitch, with fans treated respectfully as they deserve, feeling a deep connection to their club again.

Its up to you.

Your move.

The Score