BumsteadCFC

Thanks for your reply JJ. Some good info there.

Anyone got experience of these? I've got a 3 and 5 year old and was gonna put them on one next summer probably, can anyone give a little insight into how they found it? Did your kid have a good experience, get to meet the players etc? Cheers.

One of the stranger, more irrational and unneccessarily pessimistic threads I've ever read online.

You beeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carefree where ever you may be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chuffed as!

Yeah, this feels just like penalties, my ticker is beating out of my chest.

Whilst waiting for this godforsaken trial verdict to made I was googling a few Chelsea things here and there (as you do) and came across this quote from Hudson: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the-city-type-who-invested-in-his-dreams-1602540.html Now you might say "big deal, he's entitled to his opinion" but look at the date of the article, September 1995 thats barely a month after Gullit had made his debut with us, Jesus Christ it didn't take him long to be a gloom and doom merchant. So, I googled some more thinking there might be more information to flesh this story out and got another quote of his, this time from just prior to our 1997 FA Cup quarter final with Pompey: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-61121303.html Anyway, the only reason I thought to share this is that it provides incontrivertible evidence that Hudson has always been available (at a price no doubt) for an anti Chelsea, ultra critical soundbite regardless of how successful or unsuccessful we currently are. I wish Chelsea supporters would bear that in mind anytime they think of calling him a Chelsea great or Chelsea legend. He said recently that the club didn't mean anything to him anymore, well fine, but don't kid yourself that he felt any different back in the 90s. I really hate when ex players are scathing and uneccessarily critical of us in the press, its a huge slap in the face to the fans who paid their wages all those years.

Tbh I'm on record as saying that a guilty verdict would have changed the way I viewed JT but tbh this whole case has proven to be a such a load of old bollocks and the prosecution case so flimsy that a guilty verdict wouldn't affect my opinion of him one way or the other. This is just a media driven witchunt, end of. Old Bill must have better things to do with their time and resources than this nonsense. FREE JT.

chelsealovefc, theres no chance your a chelsea fan.

These things will always, in my opinion be somewhat personal. For example, I am 33 and went to primary school in the 80's when all the gloryhunters on the playground were Liverpool fans, so from a young age I had contempt for Liverpool. I remember in our first season back in the 1st division in 1989/90 we got thrashed by Liverpool home and away and I can recall the stick from the Liverpool "supporters". By secondary school and into the mid 90's the United plastics seemed to predominate. I think thats a big part of why I dislike United and Liverpool, too many gloryhunting knobs with southern accents. At least most of the West Ham, Spurs and to a lesser extent Arsenal fans I grew up with were real fans and not gloryboys.

Its complicated in my opinion, I'll give a shot at providing my definition: Rivalries do to an extent boil down to the local derby component, in other words geographical proximity, but locality is not the only means of determining a rival otherwise Brentford would be considered our rivals. Amongst London clubs I would suggest that we have our biggest rivalry with Spurs (due to historical encounters 1967, 1975, 1982 etc.). They are hands down our biggest rivals. Thereafter I would put Arsenal second followed by West Ham. What has always taken the edge off the Arsenal and West Ham rivalries in my eyes is that they also strongly dislike Spurs so their is that element of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" at play, for example I always support Arsenal in the North London derby. Other than that I don't class any other London club as worthy of being considered our rivals, perhaps the likes of QPR and Fulham consider us their biggest rivals but most Chelsea fans would not pay them the same level of respect. Its no coincidence that the aforementioned trio are the biggest 3 clubs in London (ourselves excepted). You are just not likely to consider a club as a rival to you if that club is much smaller. Then you have the national rivalries. Of course Leeds is the historic rival based on our encounters with them in the late 60s, early 70s. We have not played them in a decade and I would suggest that in their absence Liverpool have become the new Leeds so to speak. The mid 00s encounters are more or less the equivalent of the aforementioned Leeds-Chelsea tussles in the 60s/70s. Then you have other history with them such as the 3 Cup knockouts in 78, 82 and 97, them winning the league at Stamford Bridge in 1986, Dean Saunders ending Paul Elliot's career and so on. Also, Liverpool are just a very easy to club to dislike what with their entitled and deluded fanbase, arrogance and the Heysel disaster where they not only killed many Juventus fans but in the process got English clubs banned from Europe and cost us a couple of European campaigns in the process. To add further salt to the wounds our fans were blamed in some quarters for the Heysel disaster. Man United are of course our rivals, its not as if I need to eloborate on that. So, to conclude for me, my rivals, in order: 1. Spurs, 2. Liverpool, 3. United, daylight 4. Arsenal, 5. West Ham, 6. Leeds (lapsed, maybe will enjoy a renaissance if they get promoted).

Thanks for sharing your positive experiences with us. As others have noted we seem to be something of a media whipping boy so its great to hear real life people with experiences that don't match the newspaper anti CFC agenda.

Cech through. Chuffed.

What the comprehensive list of current Chelsea players at the tournament? Terry Cole Malouda Torres Mata Cech Mierles Must be missing someone

Nah. Was never the biggest of England fans anyway but the relentless negativity surrounding the national team sucks the passion out of you as well as the constant slagging of CFC players. Chelsea all day every day for me, not fussed about England anymore tbh.

Agreed, love all them bands. Paul Weller is supposedly Chels as well.

Anyway, my personal classification of rivals: 1. Spurs (always number 1) (daylight) 2. Liverpool 3. Utd (daylight) 4. Arse Only reason Arse are tolerable in any way is that they hate and are hated by Spurs, enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. Leeds, West Ham and Millwall are traditional rivals but honestly we aint played either Leeds or Wall in about a decade and West Ham just aint on the same level as us football wise. I can't summon up 10% of the hate I have for Spurs towards West Ham. Not all Chelsea will agree, but thats my tuppence worth on it.

Yes, I definitely consider them rivals to us, Dean Saunders is as good a reason as any. The 3 Cup semi losses in the mid 00s (CL 05, FA 06, CL 07) were a blot on the Special One's copybook, we knocked em out of the Cup twice in late 70s/early 80s and again in 97. We hate them, they hate us, what more would there need to be for us to have a rivalry?

Enjoy your time in England mate!

Nowhere near as pathetic as blind patriotism. Dont complain when JT is blamed for Englands failures this summer Scott. Ill just say I told you so.

Read the OP from February. I was never much of an England fan to begin with due to the fact that Kerry Dixon got f**k all caps, this business with JT losing the captaincy and the constant slagging of Chelsea players by media and fans sent me over the edge. The England team can do one.

This. 110% this. On another board I read some of the bitter d**khead England fans were saying "good, hope Terry is next". England dont deserve our players mate, better for them to play for us - the ones who love them and pay their wages.

My sentiments entirely. England fans dont appreciate Lamps, or Cole and JT neither so Im glad Frank aint gonna be wasting his energy in a lost cause - result for Chels. If England lost theyd have found a way to scapegoat Frank anyway.

Lamps out. I seen some muppets on other football sites saying "good" One more reason not to follow England. I did this thread back in feb and aint changed my views - not supporting England but I will support ALL Chels players at the tournament irrespective of nationality.

I dont buy the shirt every year but my Mum buys one for my son for his birthday. Ill get one this year though, Ramires is what I'll get.