A couple of weeks ago, I sent an email (In fact, all-in-all, I sent four emails) to the Football Association with regard to our FA Cup Semi-Final. I was annoyed at the fact that without common sense prevailing, Chelsea had been given Sunday April 15 as the date for our FA Cup Semi-Final against Tottenham Hotspur.

As a background to my original email, which was written prior to our Champions League Quarter-Final first leg game against Benfica, I pointed out that should Chelsea qualify against the Portuguese team, which we did, the club would only get a couple of days to rest and recuperate before playing in a huge match against the possible winners of Milan versus Barcelona in their Quarter Final of the same competition.

I also pointed out in the email that other football federations i.e. Italy, Portugal and Spain looked after their domestic clubs when it came to vital Champions League games. For instance, when Chelsea played Napoli in both legs of the last sixteen of the competition, the Italians were allowed to play their domestic games on a Friday evening and when we played Benfica, they were able to play on the Friday evening before we travelled to Lisbon.

In the email, I alluded to the fact that if the FA wanted English clubs to succeed in Europe they should be more flexible and I asked them to consider Chelsea playing on the Friday evening, rather than the Sunday.

Without me being connected in any way to Chelsea Football Club, apart from a supporter, later in press conferences, all of these points were pretty much backed up by the club in some way or another, which lead me to think that if our FA were going to be flexible, then they would take more notice of the club, than of me.

A few days later after sending my original email, I received a reply:

Dear Mr …

Thank you for contacting The Football Association.

The FA has confirmed the dates for the semi-finals, with Liverpool playing on Saturday and Chelsea on Sunday. All of these dates have been agreed with clubs, who are happy with the format for the weekend of the semi-finals.

The FA believes it is important to respect the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster and is happy with its decision in relation to this weekend.

Kind regards

Alex Burkwood
Customer Relations Officer Customer Relations

Personally, I felt that this didn’t answer the criteria of my original email, it actually made me quite angry and annoyed that as a customer, my original questions had not been answered. Personally, I could have answered that myself, it was total drivel and a load of rubbish. So I replied and asked for the matter to be taken to a higher authority.

I also suggested that I hoped that nobody purchased any merchandise whilst at Wembley and that England do extremely poorly in the European Championships, thus making the FA as little money as possible. (By that point I was very angry!)

For quite a few days I heard nothing, so I wrote again asking if they were ignoring me. Then on April 2, I received my final email from the Football Association, I also got a duplicate from a Tracey Bates too.

Dear Mr …

Thank you for contacting The Football Association.

The FA Cup Semi Final dates have been scheduled to take place on these dates for more than a year and have been fixed and agreed with all stakeholders. The confirmation of kick-off times followed detailed and lengthy discussions, which have involved all the relevant stakeholders, broadcasters and the Metropolitan police. In addition, when considering the scheduling of fixtures, The FA must consider the impact on fairness to all clubs who have equally important fixtures at this congested time of the season.

I realise that the above may not ease your frustrations. However we do appreciate all of the feedback we receive from supporters. This feedback is collated and used to build a picture of public opinion and is subsequently fed back internally within the organisation. Please rest assured your comments will form part of this feedback process.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Kind regards

Gary Stonehouse | Customer Relations
Communications Division

Well, that answer was absolutely bonkers. Take this line for instance – “In addition, when considering the scheduling of fixtures, The FA must consider the impact on fairness to all clubs who have equally important fixtures at this congested time of the season.”

WHAT? What other team in the FA Cup has congested fixtures? Are Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham in the Champions League Semi-Finals masquerading as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich? What other competitions are they in apart from the FA competitions? (FA Cup and Premier League) had this been another English club and I’m thinking, Manchester United, would the FA have accommodated them?

In my opinion these emails from the Football Association show how blind they are to the reality of football. Our club have players who will be playing at 6pm on Sunday, 7.45pm on Wednesday against Barcelona, 12.45pm on April 21 versus Arsenal and then they travel to Barcelona for a game at 7.45pm on April 24.

What other clubs in the FA Cup have such congested fixtures, yet the Football Association states that they must consider ALL clubs. I also believe that the players could be risking their own health by playing these fixtures crammed together, should it not be the responsibility of the Football Association to make sure that these fixtures are spread out so that players have time to rest and recuperate between fixtures?

In most people’s jobs a key word is flexibility, I see no flexibility whatsoever in this scenario. Flexibility here should have meant that our national federation, the FA, being flexible and helping the only ENGLISH team left in Europe by, in my opinion, saying that they could play this coming Friday evening, or arranging a time much more suitable than at 6pm on Sunday evening.

In 2002 we also had problems with the blinkered Football Association when, as venue of choice, they chose Villa Park for our FA Cup Semi-Final against Fulham. It meant that fans of both London clubs had to travel to the Midlands when a far easier choice of venue would have been in London.

The Football Association are the most laughable organisation in world football, whose aim for their customers and more notably, in this instance, Chelsea Football Club, is to stick their heads in the sand and do sweet FA.

1987 wasn’t the best of years for me; the only year I really loved with any kind of memory during the 80’s was 1984.

However, for this nostalgia trip, I’m going to forsake the good and move to the bad. Don’t give up reading just yet, because it gradually gets better.

I honestly wouldn’t want to depress anybody with my torturous scything events of 1987; still, what do they say, better out than in? I suppose it depends upon what we’re really talking about; anyway, this is a family site and above all a Chelsea site. So for now, it’s out and definitely not in.

So, in 1987 I was firstly working at an Insurance company in Romford; for anybody who knows Romford, it’s on the Southend Victoria/Liverpool Street line by train. I was never the best at waking up in the mornings (I’m still not!) let alone getting the train; in fact sometimes I’d cut it so fine that my train would arrive at Shenfield from Billericay at 0837, with the train from Shenfield to Romford leaving at 0837.

I blame British Rail, how could they have a train come in only for one to depart from another platform at the same time? Running from one platform to another was not a happy experience for me and the worst part about it? if I was truly late from Billericay I’d end up on a train going straight through to Liverpool Street, purely by mistake (ahem!) then I’d have to come all the way back again to Romford.

Considering that I was supposed to start at 0900, the mission was implausible, let alone impossible. I don’t think that my boss appreciated, that on occasions, I’d roll in at the earliest, sometimes at 1030. Still, with lunch at 1200, the morning seemed to fly by.

In 1987/88 under the leadership of John Hollins, we were in the First Division as it was back then, the Premier League as it is now. The season had started well with two wins in the first two games against Sheffield Wednesday (H) 3-1 and Portsmouth (A) 3-0. In fact, our record up until the end of October 1987 wasn’t that bad.

However, October and November of 1987 were not good months; firstly there was “The Great Storm” I call it a Hurricane, which caused damage to London and the South-East. There was also the stock market crash, nothing has changed much there. Then later on in October my best-mate, who was at Warwick University had to come rushing back down to Essex as his Dad passed away suddenly. On top of that, there was the Kings Cross Rail disaster in November; not a happy time for anybody concerned.

By the November, I had left my job in Romford; getting on a train to London nearly every morning and coming back to Romford was getting to be a right old pain in the arse, plus my boss had been putting pressure on me to get in earlier “Once is a mistake, twice is an oversight, but Mr Bully, when it gets to seven or eight …” I’ll let you guess the rest.

So, with all of the above problems, Chelsea were the shining beacon of light, as they always have been for me, but wait, what’s that I remember? Let’s take a look at the season from October 31, 1987 to the end of the season; count how many bright, sparkling wins there were:

Oct 31 (H) Oxford United (Won) 2-1 *Sparkle*
Nov 3 (A) Arsenal (Lost) 3-1
Nov 22 (A) Derby County (Lost) 2-1
Nov 28 (H) Wimbledon (Drew) 1-1
Dec 6 (A) Liverpool (Lost) 2-1
Dec 12 (H) West Ham (Drew) 1-1
Dec 20 (A) Charlton Athletic (Drew) 1-1
Dec 26 (H) QPR (Drew) 1-1
Dec 28 (A) Norwich City (Lost) 3-0
Jan 1 (A) Luton Town (Lost) 3-0 (Happy New Year)
Jan 2 (H) Tottenham (Drew) 0-0
Jan 16 (A) Sheffield Wednesday (Lost) 3-0
Jan 23 (H) Portsmouth (Drew) 0-0
Feb 6 (A) Nottingham Forest (Lost) 3-2
Feb 13 (H) Manchester United (Lost) 1-2
Feb 27 (A) Newcastle United (Lost) 3-1
Mar 5 (A) Coventry City (Drew) 3-3
Mar 12 (H) Everton (Drew) 0-0
Mar 19 (A) Oxford United (Drew) 4-4
Mar 26 (H) Southampton (Lost) 0-1
Mar 29 (H) Watford (Drew) 1-1
Apr 2 (H) Arsenal (Drew) 1-1
Apr 9 (H) Derby County (Won) 1-0 *Sparkle*
Apr 23 (A) Wimbledon (Drew) 2-2
Apr 30 (H) Liverpool (Drew) 1-1
May 2 (A) West Ham United (Lost) 4-1
May 7 (H) Charlton (Drew) 1-1

Isn’t it lucky that Social Networks weren’t around at that time? Imagine all of the fools back then who moan about a draw, let alone a defeat these days?

The form guide in the league showed two wins; eleven defeats and fourteen draws, during that period of time, above. The club finished 18th, which you may think was lucky in a league of 21 as we were out of the relegation places. This particular season however, the 18th placed club went into the play-offs, seven points away from Portsmouth who were relegated on 35pts. Had we beaten Charlton on May 7 then we would not have been in the play-offs as both clubs ended on 42pts, unfortunately for Chelsea we ended with a goal difference of -18 while Charlton ended with -14.

The play-offs gave us a small glimmer of hope as we beat Blackburn 0-2 at Ewood Park and then 4-1 at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately because of other circumstances I couldn’t get to the home leg, but thanks to Clubcall, I listened to some of the commentary; when I say some, it was probably for 20 minutes. With the going rate of about 80p per minute over the phone, I was glad that I wasn’t paying the bill!

Our next game, the play-off final was again over two legs: our opponents were Middlesbrough with the first game at Ayresome Park. Hope was high for a result there so that we could bring them back to Stamford Bridge and finish them off. Back in those days, the play-off final was over two legs played both home and away, not over one game at Wembley like these days.

By this time my own life had changed, London was no longer my work venue as I was now working just five minutes away from home. After those days of being late and the journey’s I could leave home at 0755 and start work at 0800, did this work though? I hate to admit this but even being five minutes away from work I would roll in at 0815. Not quite as bad as previous employers, but late all the same.

The new job gave my fellow colleagues room for laughter, after all they supported Spurs and West Ham, oh and one particular chap supported Celtic and Southend, as you do. The away leg at Middlesbrough was tough to take as we lost 2-0. Although I had to work part of the Saturday, the day of our second leg, I was able to get to the game.

After the 1983/84 season, the promotion, the exhilaration and the joy, came the doom and gloom. A solitary Gordon Durie goal gave the 40,000+ crowd hope, but it wasn’t enough as we lost 2-1 on aggregate and we were relegated. The defeat gave way to abuse of the away support with various items thrown at the travelling fans.

The 1987/88 season was definitely bad and ugly, but if relegation had not have happened, would we have enjoyed the 1988/89 season as much?

To be continued…

Sometimes I sit in utter amazement; it’s pretty much like a hypnotic trance, you know when a snake is being serenaded by a snake charmer?

Some people think that I sit there in a hypnotic trance most of the time, but they’re the people I ignore and so I should. After all, the negative people in our lives should be distanced and expelled to somewhere more suitable.

There is a reason as to why I sit there in utter amazement and the fact of the matter is that some people have no logic, or should I go as far as saying that they have no brains, or if they actually do have any grey matter, they don’t use it to the best of their ability?

Life is a patience game, perhaps with age you begin to learn about patience, especially where Chelsea are concerned. Truthfully, supporting Chelsea should carry a health warning. I could start giving the old speech of ‘In my day’ but really, if I gave that speech then I would be here all day rabbiting on about the pre-Roman days, in fact, even the pre-Ken Bates days, but I won’t, not unless someone asks.

Talking of health warnings, I was in the ICU at the Royal Brompton Hospital in 2003, when Chelsea beat Leicester 2-1 at Stamford Bridge; our first home game under Roman. I just blame Spurs, it stems back to 1967, after all I must have known that they had beaten us in the FA Cup Final whilst in my Mum’s womb.

1973 wasn’t that much better, but that is altogether another story, un-Chelsea related, for which to this very day I still blame Spurs for. The first words uttered by me after waking up in the ICU by the way, happened to be “Did we beat Leicester?”

You see, my gripe comes from some irrational Chelsea fans that have very little patience; an example of this irritation comes from the first game of the season against West Bromwich Albion when a section of fans booed at half-time. I personally want to know if these are the same fans who asked on Twitter after three days of the transfer window if we had signed anybody.

To be quite honest, the transfer window drives me mad because all of the intolerable people, in my opinion, appear and say that Roman should spend his money on this player and that player, not giving a hoot about how much would be coming out of Roman’s wallet. These fans should actually think themselves lucky that we have Roman and perhaps could sing his name at games?

If you read the above thinking, that’s not me with regards to the booing and the transfer market ramblings, then great. I am personally not aiming my gripes at every Chelsea fan, but there are some that test my patience and believe me, I have an enormous amount of patience and take everybody on their own merits.

You see, I was in the middle of writing a piece a few months ago, but then aborted it. The piece went along the lines of being a Chelsea fan from 1905-1955. If I had been born in 1890 (Actually, if I had been born in 1890 I might not have survived to see Chelsea formed at all, which I’d blame Spurs for!)

By the time Chelsea were formed I’d have been 15, add on another fifty years and I would have been 65, before I had of seen Chelsea win anything. Personally I had to wait 27 years before I saw Chelsea win anything anyway, but I did say that I’m not going with the ‘In my day’ speech, there are fans the same age as me and older who faced the same length of time and more without seeing a major trophy.

The amazement I suppose cuts both ways, my amazement, apart from the above is that I realise how lucky I am that I was born in an era where I have seen Chelsea win more trophies than I ever thought that the club would, plus I am still alive (at the point of writing this anyway!)

I suppose my message here is for people to think of the past and to enjoy the here and now. Patience my friends, is a virtue, my love affair with Chelsea Football Club will last forever, will their love affair with Chelsea Football Club last forever too?

Prior to our second leg against Copenhagen in the Champions League there were a lot of annoyed people.

After the 0-2 victory in Denmark, people were disenchanted with the pricing policy set out by the club for the second leg at Stamford Bridge.

Personally I agree with their disenchantment, especially in these times of austerity where money is tight enough anyway.

I’m certain that in the long run, the club could have re-evaluated their policy of this Champions League knockout match being Category A, especially as Copenhagen theoretically needed three away goals to go through.

On the Official Chelsea Website it states that “All Champions League knock out matches are priced at Category A prices.” The attendance at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening was 36,454. Unfortunately for the 36,454 the game ended 0-0.

The lowest priced ticket for the evening was £52.00 in the Matthew Harding Lower, with the highest priced ticket being £70.00 in the West Upper. Does the value of money outweigh the score in this instance? I don’t think so.

I agree that the club would not have known prior to the game that the score would have ended 0-0, but what they did know was that we had a two goal advantage and a gap of three weeks before the next leg.

In my opinion, it would be nice to get some kind of statement from the club and an understanding from them knowing if there would be any flexibility for the future in these circumstances. It would also be nice to know what our fans think and if they feel that the prices were fair and justifiable after the 0-0 draw.

For a lot of fans the price of the ticket isn’t just what they spend on the night, travel has to be accounted for along with food, drink and if you go as a family, or take a child then you can spend in excess of £150.00 depending upon where you sit. Sometimes in these situations parity is fair, plus the foresight to evaluate a situation when it arises.

The club may say, all you have to do is to look at the attendance on Wednesday evening, but if there were any new fans coming to Stamford Bridge having to pay those prices to see a 0-0 draw, then I wonder how many would return to pay those prices, under the circumstances?

Three or four years ago when I was writing for another Chelsea website, I was given the honour of being in charge of ticketing issues and enjoyed every minute. I was able to help people with their season ticket issues and any issues that they had, whilst I also liaised with the club for our fans.

So, personally I’d like to hear your views regarding the ticketing issues. Do you feel that the price for Copenhagen was fair, did you go to the game, or due to the prices, did you stay at home, or go to the pub to watch the game? We always want to hear our fans views.

We all love Chelsea, but we also have a point of view. As fans, expressing our views is as important as ever and the big issues are always something we always like to take seriously.

Twenty or so years ago a former workmate would often wind me up about Chelsea, unfortunately, for him, he supported Tottenham.

The best part for me about supporting Chelsea at that time was that we had such a great record against Spurs and as we know, this lasted for a lengthy period.

The tough thing about supporting Chelsea back then was that we were very inconsistent. In fact, I’d tell this particular work mate that the most consistent thing about Chelsea was our inconsistency.

Moving forward twenty years I don’t think that any Chelsea fan from my own era of supporting Chelsea, which happens to be the mid 70’s, would have been able to comprehend that to present day in 2011 we have won three league titles, five FA Cup’s a European Cup Winners’ Cup and three League Cups, not forgetting the Charity/Community Shields as well.

Personally I think that if someone had told me twenty years ago about our current trophy haul, I would have thought that they were a bit cuckoo. Sometimes a bit of history is always required, especially when it does come to Chelsea, because as supporters we all know that we do have a great and proud history.

So, after my own short history lesson I bring you back to present day Chelsea. The last three months have been turbulent compared to the Chelsea since Roman Abramovich took over. Our results and performances have dipped and from being a side that were looking like back-to-back title winners again, our form has dipped and we are now ten points behind Manchester United.

The result against Bolton on Monday night has helped kick-start our season again, but are we becoming a Chelsea of the 1990’s, a team where our most consistent thing is going to be our inconsistency again? The win at Bolton was great, don’t get me wrong, but did Bolton really put up a fight? I believe our season starts now against Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Can Carlo really go through a season of not winning a trophy of any kind? For people that know me, the FA Cup is always a trophy that I want us to win and to win it three years in a row would be something that no club has achieved in about 150 years. Three FA Cup wins in a row would be a huge achievement and an ultimate compliment to our club.

Yes, the Bolton win was great, but with Blackpool losing 2-3 to Manchester United after being 2-0 up it has dented our own title challenge, if ever there was one to challenge for anyway.

So Everton on Saturday is massive and with FC Copenhagen on the horizon in the Champions League there is still a lot to play for, so if we can dispel my ever increasing worry of us becoming consistent about our inconsistency then I will be extremely happy.

Can Carlo change his team for Saturday? Well, if Frank is fit I would play him, but at the cost of who? Michael Essien has been out of form recently, so would he be the man to make way, or would it be Ramires? After reading some articles, it seems that Frank still has his calf injury however.

So, whatever the team on Saturday, I’ll personally be as nervous as I always have been regarding our club, but maybe my nerves will be on edge ever so slightly more than normal.

Chelsea, please prove to me that we are not inconsistent, go to Goodison Park, win and take us to the Fifth Round.

COME ON THE CHELS!

With Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka not firing on all cylinders within the last couple of months, my mind turned to a striker with whom nobody has really mentioned, or in fact has linked with Chelsea to my knowledge.

Both Drogba and Anelka are now at an age where we should start looking for at least one, if not two proven goalscorers. In my opinion, both Sturridge and Kalou are not world-class, but they have age on their side, whereas both Anelka and Drogba are, in my personal opinion, coming to the end of their natural careers at the club, with the latter part of this season proving that fact.

A name sprang to mind a few days ago regarding a striker who has scored many a goal in the last couple of seasons, however, his name has gone unnoticed to large extents. Personally I’m still unsure if this particular player could do what is necessary at Chelsea, but I’ve wanted to put his name forward in any case.

He moved to his current club in 2009 and in 71 appearances for that club, has scored 40 goals. When his next birthday comes around in August, he will be 27, his name? Giampaolo Pazzini.

If you cast your mind back to when the new Wembley was opened, the Italian U21 team came to play England’s U21’s and on that particular afternoon, Pazzini grabbed a hat-trick and the first goal at the new stadium after just 28 seconds.

With an ageing strike force in Drogba and Anelka, could Pazzini be the player to come from Italy to bolster our attacking line for the 2011/12 season?

My perceptions of Pazzini are that he is more of a poacher than a striker who will score from outside of the box, but every goal counts. However, could Pazzini adjust to the Premiership and to Chelsea? I’m sure that the lifestyle would suit the Italian. From what I’ve seen, Pazzini is quite flamboyant, but would that suit the club and ultimately the fans?

Whilst on Twitter recently, I asked a well-known Journalist what he thought of Pazzini, my reply was that the Italian could play in the Premiership, but it would depend upon the level. He also went on to say that he didn’t like Pazzini as much as some others and wasn’t too sure about his personality, either.

Could Chelsea take a risk on such a player and in reality, how much would Sampdoria ask for Pazzini? Without knowing a great deal about the Italian club, I do believe that their financial situation is quite good.

So, would Pazzini really fit the bill in SW6? Names always crop up when we research strikers and their abilities, but Pazzini is someone that has gone undetected to a degree, perhaps he’s one to keep a close eye on, or should we leave him well alone?