Chelsea FC, The Pendulum Is Swinging
By Lee Fraser
Is there a power swing towards Chelsea FC?
In less than 7 days the power base landscape of England will have changed.
I’m not referring to the General Election result which is as unpredictable as Manchester United’s formation but the more important issue of Chelsea FC confirming their domination of this season’s English football.
Is it possible that the northern teams are being left behind by a team with a smaller stadium and “no history” you may ask?
Well if you live north of Watford Gap that is a question you would only ask from behind your closed pastel flowered curtains for fear of being lynched by an indignant neighbour sporting a whitish string vest with a can of stout in one hand and a copy of The Racing Post in the other!
The rest of the country may ask the question safely and even ponder on its truthfulness.
Over recent decades the north of England has traditionally provided the footballing power base in the country, from the Liverpool and Leeds teams of the 70s, through to the Manchester clubs of the 80s and onwards into the 90s when Manchester United started to come into their own. Obviously there were blips during these decades from the Midlands clubs, Nottingham Forest and Derby for instance, and even one or two from the “Southern Softies” including our very own Chelsea FC’s FA Cup and European Cup victories, but by and large football was owned by the northern teams for far too long!
And then in 2003 a Russian Roman arrived and as opposing fans like to taunt Chelsea FC was born!
The Russian revolution involved lots of money and a ruthless determination to be the best, something that as Jose Mourinho recently said is the envy of all the other clubs.
Ruthless was the key word in the early days as most revolutions are, with both player and manager culling on a regular basis but which produced almost instant results in the shape of our first top tier title for exactly 50 years (no history!).
As with all revolutions though, after the euphoria of instant success there was a slight dip in results and again the culling started but without instant results.
This is not a history lesson on international revolutions by the way, but the initial comparisons are spookily similar! The difference between revolutions in war torn countries and Chelsea FC’s revolution soon became obvious. Our Roman leader then reassessed his options and started planning for the future, a stable long term successful future without billions of roubles being thrown at it.
The newly built and worldwide acclaimed training academy at Cobham started producing new talent and started to win things.
Roman and a certain fairly successful ex manager decided that they could agree on a mutual “we are” and not “I am” the most important assets in Chelsea FC and Jose Mourinho returned home, and with egos intact the shift in the balance of power from the north to Stamford Bridge began.
Jose Mourinho recently said that domination of the Premier League is not possible because the other big clubs will spend big again this summer to try and catch Chelsea FC.
Whilst total domination may not be possible I do however believe that the pendulum has swung in Chelsea FC’s favour and is still swinging, and therefore I actually disagree with Jose for once in that I believe Chelsea FC will be dominating the domestic scene for at least the next decade!
The new revised and improved Russian revolution has started and is showing the fruits of its labours already in every Chelsea FC squad:
Chelsea FC U18s FA Youth Cup Winners 2015, 2014, 2012, 2010.
Chelsea FC U19s EUFA Youth League Winners 2015
Chelsea FC U21s Under 21 Premier League Champions 2014
If we win our 2 games in hand we go top of the league with 3 games to go.
Chelsea Ladies FC have gone fully professional this season in the FA Women’s Super League 1 and are showing the rest of Women’s football how it should be done too with an impressive opening record of:
Top of the league after 5 matches with a 2 point lead and a playing record of P5 W4 D1 L0, and are in the semi final of the Women’s FA Cup competition.
They are also into the EUFA Women’s Champions League for the first time this season.
Add into the mix the fact that Chelsea FC are about to win the 2nd trophy of the 3 available domestically and you can see why I disagree with Jose and do sincerely believe that Chelsea FC will dominate the domestic scene for the next decade or so!
So with Chelsea FC dominating the Youth, Ladies and Men’s domestic scenes maybe it is time for the “northern monkeys” to admit defeat, and acknowledge that the “southern softies” of Chelsea FC are here to stay, and that they’d better get used to future generations looking back and saying London and England was blue after all!
Not all revolutions are a good thing but a Blue Russian Revolution…………..