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Do Chelsea have a player loyalty, atmosphere and even class that other clubs are lacking?

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superdan

superdan

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So the football transfer news has been stuck on repeat...

Suarez / Bale / Rooney...  to hand in transfer request ... will be booed by fans... should stay says ex-player... should go says other player ...should respect their contract etc

The "debate" on the BBC website on the last 2 days has been are players no longer loyal to their clubs and contracts (I say debate but it's the question BBC have put out there). And it's the same with a number of transfers every year, a player wants to go to another club, the club don't want them to go or want more money.

Except I don't remember this happening at Chelsea recently. Maybe we pay our players too well, maybe the club is ambitious as they can hope for. But most players who leave Chelsea do so because their time is up, often Chelsea often let them go for below market value (eg Hasselbaink) to get first team football elsewhere or retire at their boyhood club. Other times the player has left reluctantly as their contract has run out (eg Ballack). Again maybe we can afford to be kinder to our players than other clubs. We have had the likes of Winston Bogarde and Florent Malouda being paid to train and not play, but they were exceptions and preferred the salary rather to train rather than a lower salary at another club.

I think though it's beyond money - despite the rumours over the years of dressing room discontent the crazy gang spirit that ex-captain Dennis Wise brought to the club and the traditions, atmosphere and drive seem to have survived and thrived. There seems to be a high standard of professionalism and mutual respect of both players and the club and it seems to just work. This despite the newspaper criticism that would lead you to think the Chelsea dressing room is lead by hooligans.

So my question - are Chelsea different from other clubs, at least the other clubs of a similar level or are my blue specs just too dark?

 
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We pay our players well, one of the best locations in the world to live in for high paid celebrity and constantly winning trophies. Combination of these things leads to little malcontent. 

 
Well if you believe that idiot spurs fan on talk sport they are all to scared of Roman abarmvich, if that where the case he should think twice before saying such things... I mean what the f**k are they scared of.

In my time, players that we lost that I was pretty sad to see go:

Gordon Durie - probably at his peak

Clive Alan - Was on his london tour

Kerry Dixon - stupid portefield moves

Andy Townsend, at the time they used to talk about him in the same light as a gazza, considered one of the best midfielder in the old first division and then he turned out to be a prize prick

Then perhaps because a lack of quality no one left for a while, then came the hoddle/rude revolution and with them the big names and I don't remember any one leaving for a bigger club. In fact you look at Marcel, vialli, Robbie D, Zola, Petrescue even gus... all pretty much Chelsea fans now as much as a former player can be.

Then the Roman Era - Gallas and Roben are the only two I can think of that left in there peaks. Robben doing it the right way.

I'm not sure what it is but players get connected to this club

 
Kun Aguero said:
We pay our players well, one of the best locations in the world to live in for high paid celebrity and constantly winning trophies. Combination of these things leads to little malcontent. 
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Yup, was going to post the same sentiments.

If we weren't challenging for the major honours and paying top dollar on wages, they'd soon want to clear off. That is just football....something Gooners and Scousers don't seem to understand.

 
I've always thought this. For some reason Chelsea players seem to me that they actually care about the club and they all come across as very happy at Chelsea, which is something I have not seen as much of at other established clubs.

 
superdan said:
So the football transfer news has been stuck on repeat...

Suarez / Bale / Rooney...  to hand in transfer request ... will be booed by fans... should stay says ex-player... should go says other player ...should respect their contract etc

The "debate" on the BBC website on the last 2 days has been are players no longer loyal to their clubs and contracts (I say debate but it's the question BBC have put out there). And it's the same with a number of transfers every year, a player wants to go to another club, the club don't want them to go or want more money.

Except I don't remember this happening at Chelsea recently. Maybe we pay our players too well, maybe the club is ambitious as they can hope for. But most players who leave Chelsea do so because their time is up, often Chelsea often let them go for below market value (eg Hasselbaink) to get first team football elsewhere or retire at their boyhood club. Other times the player has left reluctantly as their contract has run out (eg Ballack). Again maybe we can afford to be kinder to our players than other clubs. We have had the likes of Winston Bogarde and Florent Malouda being paid to train and not play, but they were exceptions and preferred the salary rather to train rather than a lower salary at another club.

I think though it's beyond money - despite the rumours over the years of dressing room discontent the crazy gang spirit that ex-captain Dennis Wise brought to the club and the traditions, atmosphere and drive seem to have survived and thrived. There seems to be a high standard of professionalism and mutual respect of both players and the club and it seems to just work. This despite the newspaper criticism that would lead you to think the Chelsea dressing room is lead by hooligans.

So my question - are Chelsea different from other clubs, at least the other clubs of a similar level or are my blue specs just too dark?
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I suppose players don't want to leave us because we are consistently fighting for top honours, mostly always in the Champions League and can pay them extortionate wages. Why on earth would you want to leave all that?

 
When Schurrle was being interviewed after signing, he talked about Ballack extolling the club's virtues to him. He said Ballack described it as "one big family". While that sounds like some throw-away line a player would give in an interview, you do see quite a few cases of Chelsea players hanging out together on the weekends or in their freetime. It might just be bias, but when you see "behind the scenes" or Chelsea uncovered videos online, the players genuinely seem to have an affinity for each other, and are relaxed and happy away from the pitch. When Jose first got here, he grouped players by nationality so they would bond initially, and that seemed to work. And the England boys, especially Frank and JT, seemed to keep together.

Now there are weekly examples (thanks to twitter, vine, etc) of the players spending their free time with each other, like Luiz and Oscar with their video games, the Belgian boys. Maybe its a product of younger players who are still finding their way as human beings. Being a fish out of water lends itself to reaching out to your coworkers in an attempt to fill your social calendar. Still, when I see pictures of Mata touring around London it makes me think being young, talented, rich, and in London is something the younger crop of players now at the club handles very well. Maybe it just speaks to the personal character of the guys they have brought in.

Just a guess, but I would say alot of the managerial instability since 2007 has contributed to the unity of the squad. When the mid-season managerial sackings happened (2008, 2009, 2012, later 2012) the players closed ranks, and managed to push on to win silverware, in all but one occasion. Rather than go down in flames, things always seemed to get better, and there was very little residual damage to the squad after the fact. There has to be a lot of respect and mutual accountability in that dressing room, not just leadership.

But maybe that is just stating the obvious.

 
We have a very good turnover rate, but then again we do pay our players some of the highest wages in the league.

We've been lucky that we haven't had many players throwing a strop and making us look stupid.

Gallas, who's best days were with us, created an almighty fuss, but when he left he went on to nothing and I am confident he regrets doing what he did..

The only player (in recent times), who has went on to better things [and that's arguable] is Robben...

 
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I agree with most of the comments so far. A combination of us being a successful and ambitious club, we pay our players well and offer them some of the best facilities in world football and are based in one of the best area's in one of the best cities in the world.

On a slightly different point as fans I think we are a lot more respectful to past players and managers than most. You have to have done something pretty bad to the club to get a bad reception when you return to the bridge but compare that to the treatment say someone like Lampard receives everytime we play the hammers. 

Considering he gave his all for them, his Dad and Uncle were club legends and his transfer fee reportedly dug them out of a massive hole you think they might show some respect.

Although i've always compared that scenario to a bitter jilted ex who never appreciated what they had till it was gone.  

 
c3blu2 said:
On a slightly different point as fans I think we are a lot more respectful to past players and managers than most. You have to have done something pretty bad to the club to get a bad reception when you return to the bridge but compare that to the treatment say someone like Lampard receives everytime we play the hammers. 
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I was going to mention this as well - I don't like booing of ex-players, even Gallas and Bridge left us all with loads of great memories, most ex-players get a fantastic reception though booing seems more common now than it once was. 

Aside from that it seems Gallas is the only recent player who wanted out and the club tried to keep against his will despite the club having an influx of foreigners who we were all told, only came for the money and had no loyalty.

 
I'm quite cynical at times and think that there are some bitter players out there.

It probably comes down to personality.

When we had a strong Italian contingent, they seemed to conduct themselves very well. Zola being the ultimate gentleman.

Perhaps the modern day footballer is a little more educated and if they can leave a legacy at this club (Take Lampard's example) they will have done well.

I always wonder if they read any Chelsea history books and what it all means to us as fans.

Seems there is some sort of good feeling at the moment, due to Mourinho's influence.

 
TheWestwayWonder said:
When Schurrle was being interviewed after signing, he talked about Ballack extolling the club's virtues to him. He said Ballack described it as "one big family". While that sounds like some throw-away line a player would give in an interview, you do see quite a few cases of Chelsea players hanging out together on the weekends or in their freetime. It might just be bias, but when you see "behind the scenes" or Chelsea uncovered videos online, the players genuinely seem to have an affinity for each other, and are relaxed and happy away from the pitch. When Jose first got here, he grouped players by nationality so they would bond initially, and that seemed to work. And the England boys, especially Frank and JT, seemed to keep together.

Now there are weekly examples (thanks to twitter, vine, etc) of the players spending their free time with each other, like Luiz and Oscar with their video games, the Belgian boys. Maybe its a product of younger players who are still finding their way as human beings. Being a fish out of water lends itself to reaching out to your coworkers in an attempt to fill your social calendar. Still, when I see pictures of Mata touring around London it makes me think being young, talented, rich, and in London is something the younger crop of players now at the club handles very well. Maybe it just speaks to the personal character of the guys they have brought in.

Just a guess, but I would say alot of the managerial instability since 2007 has contributed to the unity of the squad. When the mid-season managerial sackings happened (2008, 2009, 2012, later 2012) the players closed ranks, and managed to push on to win silverware, in all but one occasion. Rather than go down in flames, things always seemed to get better, and there was very little residual damage to the squad after the fact. There has to be a lot of respect and mutual accountability in that dressing room, not just leadership.

But maybe that is just stating the obvious.
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Great Post.

Being the cynic I am though, I think that winning trophies every year, the big salaries, CL Football and both living and playing in the best areas that London and it's surround counties have to offer are the main reasons that players don't want to leave us.

But that said, there is clearly a lot of camaraderie in that dressing room.

 
Karateowl said:
Gallas was bonkers! Remember his reaction to Birmingham getting a late penalty in the Eduardo game?
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That reaction cost arsenal the league in my opinion. They fell apart after that. Gallas was one of my all time favourite players I remember seeing him in one of he's first games against Boro he played all across the back he was awesome. Then he joined arsenal and he got found out as a big baby. What a tit.

 
beautiful thread. Havent really lent my voice to many discussions on here but i find this one an intelligent observation and so have to comment. Judging from the club's history, one could see it was the Roman revolution that brought the global popularity and success to CFC. The team was supposed to be an 'average' team - not sounding rude. So you see, fortunately the club is just a cool club that just does his things calmly, quietly and perfectly. Players love the calm atmosphere and so are enjoying it 'cause they get success and yet in a cool atmosphere. Morestil, the manegement treats them well. Thats why you see much stability in terms of players in the club.

 
bluegraham said:
That reaction cost arsenal the league in my opinion. They fell apart after that. Gallas was one of my all time favourite players I remember seeing him in one of he's first games against Boro he played all across the back he was awesome. Then he joined arsenal and he got found out as a big baby. What a tit.
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Completely agree with every sentence!

 
CFC is pretty much stable for me with loyal players. All players act accordingly and equally well in terms of their positions。I guess Chelsea is good because all of them are great, good coach, good players (really good in terms of the position they handle), and a good manager. Plus, they have a pretty stable in and outs in terms of money. This is better than other teams, because I've noticed that only Chelsea have this atmosphere. Unlike some other teams that they have this 'special good players' they relied on like Suarez for Liverpool, something like that, which is a pain if this 'special players' of them will want to leave. haha.

 
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