Fan concerns are real and deep, and owners need to respect them and listen

Its' not just reactionary fans who have concerns - its long time, rational fans

I’m generally a patient, rational fan. In favour of stability, looking at the positives, trying to objectively analysing the data and forming opinions based on that.

Yet the other night and several times this year, my emotions have got the better of me. I felt this deep frustration, anger and despair inside. It passed in a couple of hours, but it was real.

I’d just seen news of rival clubs in talks or interested in two top managers, one a previous CL winning Chelsea manager, the other a young manager from Portugal heavily linked with Chelsea. Furthermore, said ex-Chelsea manager was reported to be open to a return but was linked with Manchester United.

For some reason this broke me. Seeing coaches I believe superior to ours going to rivals whilst we silently back our manager in 9th place in the PL annoyed me.

I mean it passed. To be absolutely clear, I’ll back Mauricio Pochettino if he is our manager next year, and he’s not done a bad job here. There’s lots of things he deserves credit for. It could be a lot better too, and he hasn’t been backed properly, but I have seen some progress.

The point was I don’t normally form opinions based on such little information and such raw emotion, or react so dramatically. I certainly don’t normally get that negative about things. It then occurred to me there’s a lot of long time, rational, calm, patient Chelsea fans who I’ve also seen act out of character this season.

I’ve seen many positive Chelsea fans become cynics. I’ve seen passionate fans become lethargic and even apathetic about Chelsea. I’ve seen patient fans demanding a change of manager.

These aren’t the usual reactionary, impatient Chelsea fan crowd. These are patient, smart, rational, fans who care deeply about the club. Many of them I know literally despise constant managerial changes but still want a change of manager. This is the point, they’re not acting the way they normally do - so it has to be bad for them to act this way.

On top of this, most of these people have at one time or another this year said the same thing, they don’t feel as much of a connection to the club or squad anymore.

As stewards of the club, the ownership need to be aware of how bad this problem is, and take some responsibility for it - and rectifying it.

First, my own position.

I know the owners plan and see their vision, I know there’s people at the club who do care. I know their intentions are honourable and they have big ambitions. I am of the view the way the owners believe fundamentally they will make the most money out of Chelsea by us being a winning club, dominating the Premier League and competing every year in the Champions League. I see the long term plan and believe in it, with a few tweaks needed to make it successful. I just believe the execution hasn’t been perfect, and some of the decision making, and communication with regular fans, has been poor.

But even then, sometimes I feel despair at where we are. Which is out of character for me. So what does that say?

In terms of fans I know and see, well I know several smart, educated fans now believe the ownership simply sees the club as a way to make a profit and steady income, and don’t care about success. Others believe they’ll be content as long as we’re “competing” for a CL spot and getting to some finals. Still others are convinced they don’t care about Chelsea winning at all, and are happy with mid-table mediocrity, with yet others concerned about the underlying motives of private equity investors investing in a football club. Some are even afraid we’ll get relegated if we keep on our current path (I know, that’s ridiculous in the extreme but it shows you how bad it is).

I don’t agree with many of these people to be honest. I try to reassure them sometimes. The point is though, it doesn’t matter what I believe or say to them to reassure them, these are genuine fans who feel the club they loved is gone, and is now being run by people who don’t care about us being successful.

These fans see us mid table for most of this season and believe keeping the manager beyond this season in those circumstances is in essence condoning failure. They feel they have no voice.

Fan groups are great and do a lot of good work, and the ownership deserve credit for the way they’ve tried to work with fan groups. But even they have said there’s a ton of fans outside those groups who feel ignored and not listened to. Who feel the owners only see them as customers to help them make money, something which our CEO even joked about publicly (which was an utter disgrace).

I know the directors and owners read this, and they really need to grasp and respect the depth of feeling amongst a lot of fans. Not dismiss, ignore or patronise it, because the people who feel this genuinely love the club, many for decades. They are deeply concerned about the future of Chelsea, have no idea where we’re going, no idea what the plan is, see silence from the owners, and in silence, doomsday conspiracies and theories can grow unchecked.

There’s plenty of reactionary childish fans out there who I tend to block and ignore, but that’s not who I’m talking about here. I’m interested in the concerned fans I know aren’t those kinds of fans. They are just long term fans who care, and want some respect, clarity and reassurance from the ownership.

I anticipate this concern will just get deeper and deeper the longer things go on without communication from the ownership. By communication, I do not mean some press statement or PR briefing, I mean a proper, honest interview in a respectful, sincere tone, acknowledging the mistakes, and showing a determination and plan to rectify them.

Fans want a clear statement of ambition, and the basics of the plan to get there. They also want this followed up in actions, not just empty promises. Some fans are sick of promises with no delivery as yet. They see no action on the manager and continued unwillingness to sign good experience or proven established players as a sign of weakness and lack of ambition, and need these things explained to them.

These guys don’t just pay for tickets or buy merchandise. They have emotional investment in the club, some for years, some (like me), for decades.

When you see patient, rational, passionate fans apathetic and frustrated, there’s something very wrong.

Some better, honest communication from the club including recognition of mistakes, maybe some decisive action to demonstrate ambition (which could mean a lot of things - including types of signings, a CEO of football, maybe but not necessarily the manager) could allay the fears of a lot of fans.

Fans want to know the owners care about Chelsea FC, and about them. Fans want to know the ownership have the same big ambitions as them from the horse's mouth, and see it demonstrated in actions they understand. Fans want to see smart decisions paying off. Fans want to see their manager - whoever it is - understand and articulate those ambitions and not downplay them with every setback.

Fans need a reason to be hopeful again, to believe again, because right now, many have lost hope and don’t believe anymore.

This CAN be solved because I believe the owners intentions are good, and they have ambition. It just needs some positive action from the owners, this coming summer.

The Score

Note from Si - I am actually one of those fans that Score refers to in this. I can’t explain it though, I’ve just seen and felt myself be a lot more negative this season, and I think I have been driven to that by many of the happenings at the club. I generally feel positive about the direction that the club is going right now, but I’ve felt myself become more of a cynic, but is that actually just me being more realistic and opening my eyes much wider? We will get there, but the bumps in the road have been destructive for my general outlook and me as a person, and I suspect the bumps will continue for now too. Strap in. I will continue to try and be as balanced as possible, calling out the good as well as the bad.