As a Chelsea fan since 1993 when Dennis Wise, Craig Burley, Michael
Duberry,Frank Sinclair and Neil Shipperley were leading our
struggling side I don't like people referring to fans of Chelsea as
glory hunters. I can understand why others dislike or hate us
for the genuine football reasons and the history (watch I.D. ,
Football Factory or Green St Hooligans for a good insight) but
there are supporters of Chelsea in NZ who have endured many hard
times prior to Romans investment. I was in London when Ken
Bates unveiled the plan for Chelsea Village and the redevelopment
of Stamford Bridge and was laughed at for his dream....
I mourned the loss of Matthew Harding, chanted and
screamed in the Shed End as we came back to beat Spurs 4:3 and
lived just 5 minutes walk from Stamford Bridge in North End
Road. Walking past the Bridge each morning I watched the
ground grow and some good times came back to the pitch with Steve
Clarke, Peacock, Spencer, Stein, Sparky Hughes, Hoddle, Gullit,
Vialli, Zola, Lebouf, Di Matteo, Desaiily, Poyet and Flo......I
won't mention Pierluigi Casiraghi however....
I know there are many new fans who others claim are "glory
hunters" or are jumping on the bandwagon but a lot of these people
are only just discovering the EPL as it gains mainstream media
attention and national news coverage. These people are
welcome to support any club they chose and if its Man U, Chelsea,
Arsenal or Pool purely because these clubs have the highest profile
or are the most recently successful then its great to have them on
board......
that is all well and good, but for every decent Chelsea fan
(like yourself) there is 30 who are the complete
band-wagon-jumping. know-nothings who ruin any discussion about the
sport. I don't talk to anyone at work about football, due to
the chelsea fan who said that he supported chelsea through the good
times and the bad, and then mentioned that he has supported them
for 4 years now (2nd, 1st, 1st, 2nd in the league those
years).
I have 'met' many more like that as well, who I will not give
the time of day to. I don't care which team you
support, as long as you are honest about it.
As a side note, I was there when Casiraghi did his knee -
Upton Park.......1998 if I remember right. Grame Le Saux went
sprinting round trying to find a stretcher and the whole crowd
laughed at him. No one realised at the time how bad it
was.