NB: I refer to 'football' as soccer from here because there are many competing football codes in my country, Australia, where soccer is far from being the most popular sport. I know this annoys many Englishmen, so there's an explanation for it.

Hey fellow Chelsea supporters,

My name is Rick and I would like to warmly welcome all to this thread. With that in mind, I'd like to document my history with Chelsea and why I decided to support Chelsea all those years ago.

Around 2004, when I first started taking a serious interest in Chelsea via my FIFA 05 game, Arsenal and Manchester United were the most popular teams. Arsenal were popular because of the feats of their (admittedly impressive) Invincibles side whilst Man U were popular simply for being Man U. However, I despise trends, so I grew to dislike those two teams. Many Australian soccer followers support Liverpool instead of those two, but I never much cared for Liverpool despite Harry Kewell's presence in the team at that time (he struggled throughout his time at Liverpool, anyway). Mark Viduka had also left an already-relegated Leeds United while Middlesbrough didn't strike my fancy despite Mark Schwarzer's presence. Championship sides don't get much coverage here, so I knew very little about the likes of Milwall (a big rival of Chelsea's who Tim Cahill was playing for at the time). As for Tottenham/Fulham/West Ham.....pffffffftttttt.

As for the Australian soccer league, I don't think it actually existed at around this time. The A-League had yet to form while the old Australian Soccer League had dissolved completely because of Soccer Australia's troubles - hence why I started supporting an English team. The EPL is also covered far more comprehensively here than the likes of La Liga and Serie A, so I didn't follow those leagues until much later.

So I started to take an interest in Chelsea. I was spellbound by Arjen Robben's pace, Didier Drogba's awesome name, Joe Cole's trickery and Frank Lampard's robotic consistency. However, as my workload piled up over the years and my interest in cricket grew, my relationship with Chelsea waxed and waned over the years. I'm not sure when it waxed again - sometime around early 2010, when Australia's confirmation into the World Cup 2010 was my best guess. Naturally, I picked up interest in Chelsea again. Although that World Cup turned out to be a missed opportunity for Australia (partially due to then-coach Pim Verbeek), my feelings for Chelsea never left. To this day, I still follow Chelsea with some passion. In fact, I was shaking like a leaf last night and couldn't sleep despite it being 4am. Naturally, I was euphoric and relieved when Chelsea held on after a shaky last quarter or so. I'm also very happy for Roberto Di Matteo. His playing career here was ruined by injuries, so I'm glad to see him resurrect his managerial career with us in such style. Surely he deserves a longer run...I mean, we allowed Scolari, AVB and even Grant the chance to put their stamp on this side. None of these guys actually won anything with Chelsea (although Grant was unlucky), so why not give RDM the opportunity?

I also support a couple of other teams somewhat extensively. I support my hometown team Brisbane Roar and Fiorentina in Italy (yeah I heard about the Delio Rossi incident; I'll comment on that in the other thread). I don't care too much for La Liga although I certainly prefer Real Madrid over Barcelona. I'm also not too concerned about the Liga Sagres, Greek Super League, Bundesliga (although there are a couple of talented Australians playing bit-parts at overachieving clubs like Dortmund and Gladbach), Eredivisie (Brett Holman will leave AZ soon anyway) and Ligue 1 (although I'm pleased that Joe Cole is playing well for Lille). My favourite Russian and Turkish premier league teams are probably CSKA Moscow and Galatasaray: the former because I managed them on Football Manager, the latter because Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill played there.

I'm not sure about the Scottish Premier League. I know that Chelsea traditionally has a strong relationship with Rangers, but Celtic has generally given Australians a bigger opportunity to excel (the cases of Mark Viduka and Scott McDonald vs Matt McKay, for example). Nonetheless, Rangers current financial predicament is a real shame, not only for them but for the SPL.

I don't follow the Championship too much, but I'm happy that Reading got promoted because Adam Federici will probably get the chance to prove himself at a higher level. This is especially necessary because Mark Schwarzer will be retiring soon.

I know a little about the South American leagues due to my South American girl friends telling me things, but not enough to hold a passionate interest or anything. Australians are scattered across Asian leagues, so I'm a little more interested in them. As for the CAF leagues, I'm vaguely acquainted with the likes of Al-Ahly and Zamalek, but that's about it.

So anyway, thanks for having me here. :)

Edited May 6, 201214 yr by DaRick

Welcome on Rick!

Thanks man. Much appreciated.

welcome to you Rick, how did you enjoy yesterday?

welcome to you Rick, how did you enjoy yesterday?

Thanks Lauren.

Well I was so on the edge that I could barely watch a lot of it. It was 5 am in my country so I was so tired that I couldn't remember my own name, but I was kept awake by the nervous energy and the game being played out.

It's only just registered in my head that we're European Champions. It's quite a stunning turnaround; who would've thought this in early March?