Chelsea fans must come to accept the inevitability of incompleteness

As we approach a month without football, we know that one month will become two. Chelsea fans must accept the inevitability of incompleteness.

There’s an air of inevitability as to how the Premier League season will now conclude, although many will find it hard to accept. Whilst the clubs, stakeholders and media push for a way to satisfactorily crown champions-elect Liverpool, it would now appear to be a pointless quest. The sudden arrival of COVID-19 has destroyed life as we know it.

Chelsea last kicked a ball in anger on 8 March when they defeated Everton 4-0. Just a few days prior, Liverpool left Stamford Bridge having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Frank Lampard’s team.

The stomach of the people, who are the life-blood of the game, to wind-up this season’s fixtures will diminish as the days pass.

Whilst social distancing measures are still in place there can be no team training sessions and, although the players can remain fit, it will be almost impossible to pick-up from where they left off when they regroup. Once social distancing is relaxed, Cobham will spring back into life and there will then begin, you’d imagine, a mid-season pre-season.

We know this summer’s international Euro’s tournament has been postponed for a year. The domestic European competitions have been put on hold indefinitely. Across the globe mass gathering events have been cancelled throughout the summer. The Olympics in Japan, Wimbledon, and the Glastonbury Music Festival in the UK, all give indication that the “lock-down” currently in place is set to continue further than anyone would like. However, it’s vital that it continues to prevent the spread of this awful virus further.

We can only guess at how this will all pan out. Assuming the players are able to train together by mid-May, a resumption of games could be pencilled in for the start of June.

Given the fact that all those big events have been cancelled through to the end of August, it seems very likely that they would have to be played with no supporters present.

This will all come down to money in the end. The league and clubs will lose millions in TV rights money if the games don’t get played. We know that Liverpool deserve their first Premier League title, with a 25 point lead and nine games remaining they are almost champions. However, even if the season is completed, that title will always be tainted.

Liverpool’s most revered manager Bill Shankly once said:

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

That was obviously said with his tongue firmly in his cheek. The current events prove that not to be the case. However, football is important to many.

All we can do is wait and hope for life to return to normal, then we can begin to think about the things that really matter.