Chelsea FC, The Banter Kings

It’s a funny old game.

The legend that is Jimmy Greaves, ex Chelsea FC goal scorer extraordinaire and football pundit, said that when describing the game of football.

He was referring to the way football is so unpredictable in terms of results, an example of this could well be Chelsea FC losing 4-2 to Bradford City after beating Everton 6-3 earlier in the same season. If we apply logic to these results does it mean that Bradford would beat Everton 10-5 if they played each other? Goodbye logic and hello “funny old game”!

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I am also going to apply the same phrase however to the level of banter between rival sets of fans.

According to Dictionary.com the definition of the word “Banter” is “an exchange of light, playful, teasing remarks; good-natured raillery.”

Football fans are renowned for their sense of humour, none more so than our very own Chelsea FC fans and nowadays with the rise of social media it is more prevalent than at any time in history, cue the Liverpool “you’ve got no history” jibes!

At this point I would beg to differ with our “friends” from the Merseyside area of the country and recall this piece of historical banter from Chelsea FC’s match day programme of 3^rd January 1914 against Oldham Athletic when the front cover celebrated the victory over Tottenham Hotspur the week before!

Credit: Lee at http://carefreelee62.wix.com/chelsealee#!Taunting Spurs in 1914.JPG/zoom/cw8p/image_10bc

Even over 100 years ago the rivalry was there between neighbours, albeit more subtle but can you imagine being a Tottenham fan on the day that programme was published!

Old School Chelsea FC fans developed a gallow type humour in the 1980’s and that stood us in good stead throughout the yoyo times of those days, when if you didn’t laugh you would cry at our results and performances both on and off the pitch.

As a club Chelsea FC and the fans survived and blossomed and can now enjoy the banter on an even keel with the “northern monkeys”, and believe me , we give as good as we get nowadays on the likes of Facebook and Twitter (other social network sites available).

Even the official Twitter accounts join in with the banter these days. Chelsea FC’s very own official twitter account was involved in a banter exchange with Paris St. Germain’s official account last year (we’ll gloss over this year’s attempts!)

Even professional players and ex players are jumping on the bandwagon of social banter, the latest example is Alan Shearer, the ex Newcastle legend and the subject of a recent advertising campaign by Barclays giving away football tickets. He only joined Twitter in the last week and his 2^nd tweet caused great mirth and went viral!

Who said Geordies are all dour and miserable then? Oh that would have been me, DOHHHHH

Not all so called banter is light hearted however, some people become keyboard warriors hiding behind their screens knowing that they’re never likely to be held accountable for their words, and those sort of comments I will not be including but are too easily found and repeated.

One of the best forms of banter these days is through memes and edited pictures (of which I freely admit to doing) and always cause a reaction from rival fans, which of course is the main point of doing them!

Having reviewed a lot of the memes I’ve done and shared it would appear that Liverpool seem to be the main recipient of my banter, I can’t think why! Could it be that they constantly snipe on about history? Or is it because of our great European rivalries of recent years? Or is it just because they’re Scouse? Who knows but it sure does provoke a reaction!

And then there’s Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham …………………..

London clubs, all in the same Premier League and all within a 10 mile radius, the banter opportunities are endless, as are the memes.

Arsenal, managed by “The Professor” Monsieur Wenger are widely viewed as a well run club who play attractive football. The Chelsea FC’s fans view of Arsenal is slightly different however …..

It would appear as though Google have a similar view of Arsenal fans that Chelsea FC do!

Tottenham Hotspur, another team with a history apparently who, provided the year ended with the number“1” could win a trophy or two (maybe).

And that leaves West Ham.

Football pundits can’t even get the name of their ground correct, it’s that well known! For the record West Ham attempt to play their football at The Boleyn Ground, not Upton Park, and are set to move their campsite with all their gypsy wagons to pastures new so their horses can graze on new turf (plenty of references to their “pikey” routes there for those in the know).

Of course Chelsea FC fans can poke fun at our own apparent failings, this season being no exception to that rule with Chelsea’s own match going fans often taking up the chant of “Boring Boring Chelsea” when the opposition fans get bored with it.

Didier Drogba took to Instagram to post a video of how boring Chelsea players are too!

Even our Captain Leader Legend John Terry and the “Chelsea Bus” hasn’t escaped my meme attention over recent times!

The ability to give and take it is what separates true banter connoisseurs in my opinion. Chelsea FC fans have been on the end of jibes and banter attacks over the years, so therefore fully deserve the opportunity our success now provides us with to banter back!

On behalf of all of us at Pride Of London I want to take this opportunity to wish Jimmy Greaves all the best in his fight to regain his health after his recent stroke and to say thank you for the infamous line

“It’s a funny old game”