As a Chelsea fan, one of the things I look forward to most is transfer time. It’s like a great combination of Christmas and Hanukkah with Black History month thrown in for good measure. You know, because it’s a month long. Most importantly, however, it gives us a chance to look back on the past few months and look at which players have scored game winning/tying goals, as they are most likely to suddenly be linked with a transfer to the London blues. It’s a strange phenomenon, really. Per Bryan, here’s a fun fact: apart from Xabi Alonso’s goal in ‘08 (which was given as an own goal), every Liverpool scorer in the last 8 league games between Liverpool/Chelsea has been signed by Chelsea. Looks like Caligula (as we will hereafter be using to refer to Roman Abramovich) doesn’t like having his pride wounded, and he tries to assuage himself by buying up all of the players who have caused the blues not to win a game.
I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this. Sure, it led to our signing of a ridiculously out of form Fernando Torres (even though he is looking better this season than he did for most of the last few, he still is nowhere near his former self, and until the powers that be figure out how to replace glass legs, he is looking more and more like he will follow in Andrei Shevchenko’s legacy as one of Caligula’s great vanity signings), and it precipitated a lengthy, drawn out transfer saga over Luka Modric this past term.
So, watch out this season, any player who scores against us, especially if they cause us to lose or draw a match, is sure to end up being linked with a transfer to the Bridge.
Hi. I’m Gordon, and I’m a Chelsea fan. Have been since I started following the beautiful game, and haven’t for a minute regretted my decision. Being a dedicated footy fan and living here in the states is a tough gig. It often requires shifting around my weekend schedule, waking up in the wee hours of the morning, finding a reliable stream that more than likely has very continental commentators speaking a language that I can barely understand, skipping class/work to watch Champions League, and getting derided by my peers for supporting a side that isn’t Manchester United, Barcelona, or Real Madrid. When people give me shit for supporting Chelsea, finally I can say “at least we’re not City.” Or for that matter PSG, Malaga, Anzhi Makhachkala, or any of the other nouveau riche clubs that are now owned by barons of all types.
So, to answer the question, why Chelsea FC? The answer is fairly simple – my dad lived in Russia for many of the last few years, and I felt it only right to support my father’s adopted compatriot. Sure, Roman can certainly be a bit crazy (more on that in a later post), but the off the field antics of Chelsea make them as enjoyable a club to follow in the offseason as during the season.
I’m excited for the future under Andre Villas-Boas, and while I know Roman’s track record of patience doesn’t bode too well for the new Special One if he doesn’t deliver some kind of silverware this season, I do feel like he has mellowed out a bit and is willing to let Andre do some growing of this team.
On that note, I’ll leave you for now, as Bryan mentioned, stay tuned for a lot of comical posts in the future from two American lads who know way too much about footy for our own good. And hopefully more photos like the one above.
- Gordon
