Something's been on my mind for some time that in truth,I've not really had the nerve to say.Mostly because it makes me sound like some fecking weird/ungratefull tosser to be honest.

But,still...what can you do?.

Thing is,since winning the Champions League,Chelsea's last great challenge,I feel like I no longer belong,maybe it's been a while coming.

Honestly,after so many years witnessing the clubs struggles just to keep in exsistance,then the great 'sexy football' years under Ruud & carried on so well by Gianluca,(my favourite CFC supporting period to be honest),I never really expected things could get any better.

Of course they did & how!,fantastic really & in truth, I'm bloody privalliged to have witnessed it & long may it continue.

In truth,I can't afford to go to many games these days,but I was hopeing to go with the bruv to the Wolves match,but due to other comitments,it would have to be a late decision,but of course,you can't just turn up & pay anymore even if the match is in no way a sell out.So I missed out on cheap admission and a chance for a great night at a game (with the older bruv),just like it used to be.

Move stadium,players bitching on twitter, £60 tickets, eyewatering trainfares,fecking weird kick off times,honestly,when I have been lucky to be able to look around Stamford Bridge,I struggle to remember the past,or know it's future.

For all it's faults,at least you felt connected back then,it was easier to go to matches (3pm on saturday) and get in & as a kid with f**k all spare cash,I could afford to go to more games then than now,go figure.

In truth,I'm a dinosaur & in all honesty,I just don't feel part of CFC's future.

Whatever though,come what may,I will always be Chelsea.

Sad but true for a lot of older Chelsea fans.

Its not about football anymore its becoming a vehicle for government mass hypnosis on racism and giving abhorrent people a voice to carry out government policy. Even Chelsea Football Club are at it with their selective race for a star. its turning me off of the game I love.

I am fast becoming fed up with what has become a football circus a platform for mass brainwashing.

There should be a petition demanding that the FA and its cohorts stop using football as a political manipulative tool and stick to providing just football for all and for the idiots involved at the FA to be sacked.

And PS bring back electric fences

Its not about football anymore its becoming a vehicle for government mass hypnosis on racism and giving abhorrent people a voice to carry out government policy. Even Chelsea Football Club are at it with their selective race for a star. its turning me off of the game I love.

I am fast becoming fed up with what has become a football circus a platform for mass brainwashing.

There should be a petition demanding that the FA and its cohorts stop using football as a political manipulative tool and stick to providing just football for all and for the idiots involved at the FA to be sacked.

And PS bring back electric fences

Add this country to your post, we've become a country of apologists, a country of people that weeps at the slightest thing mainly on national tv because they cant sing/dance/cook to name a few "talents"

Then there's the PC brigade who do more harm than good, the very same people who are normally white middle class twerps who like to bang on & on about isms when the very "minorities" they claim to represent on the whole havent got a problem with the issues the twerps harp on about.

Good post alan 82, ive said for a while that it is only the constant success that has kept people comming and the fact that without season tickets their is no chance of tickets for the finals. People really stretch themselves financially to keep going. If like me you only have a reasonably paid job, couple of kids and a mortgage going to chelsea regularly is just off the radar. As someone who went all the time from the end of the seventies untill the end of the 90s, being a chelsea fan is just in the blood. BUT if you are not actually clocking up the hours at the games and feeling the match vibe, you dont quite feel part of it.I definatly felt that way when we won the title for the first time up at bolton. I still cant believe i never made the effort to go to that game, but my mindset had changed. Funnily enough i did feel a part of winning the champions league last season.I would have gone into debt to go to that game but would not travel without a ticket. However i watched it around chelsea with a few old school chelsea pals and have to say that was an absolute pinnacle.

I've only supported Chelsea since 1995 n I love where we are now but there was something special about the days of sexy football under Hoddle, then Guilitt, then Vialli, that period was the best for me as a fan winning the FA cup in 97 felt every bit as good as winning the league, the problem now with us been where we are at there's expectancy we weren't expected to win anything in those days.

When I first started going it was 3 bob to get in (kids rate) thats 15p programme 5p train fare 10p return 15p burger 5p sweets, those where the days all the players where British (not that matters too much, unless you want a good English team), my first away game Leiceser 1973-74 the train fare was £1 return £1.50 adults on the BR special charter control. My first season ticket was £25 now £880 ha those where the days

Add this country to your post, we've become a country of apologists, a country of people that weeps at the slightest thing mainly on national tv because they cant sing/dance/cook to name a few "talents"

Then there's the PC brigade who do more harm than good, the very same people who are normally white middle class twerps who like to bang on & on about isms when the very "minorities" they claim to represent on the whole havent got a problem with the issues the twerps harp on about.

Perfectly said Carshalton Blue. Couldn't have put it better myself.

I have felt like this for a while mate. I have seen Chelsea win the FA cup and League cup i remember the games though the rounds prior to the finals, i remember having the option if i wanted to stand or seat, go home and away this was our time my friend.

This was real life for me.

Now,yeah alright, i have seen Chelsea win the league and become Champions of Europe but i was,nt there. That was all on the box i witnessed that and that i am sorry to say aint the same.So that is why, when we lose i find it a lot easier to get over than when we lost when i was a regular down the Bridge.

But there will always be a part of me that will keep cheering Chelsea on though the good times and especially the bad times if they should ever return.

It's interesting reading through these posts and i can kind of see what people mean. The club has changed incredibly from the club we all grew up supporting. The under achieving 'win at home to the top team get smashed the following week by the relegation favourites' team that we always were. Of course the support seems different especially at home, the raucous and sometimes violent crowd is long gone with just the odd reminder if certain teams visit. But i think that is the case throughout the league with few exceptions, the big money from television and the changing laws and CCTV have altered the atmosphere at football grounds.

I still go a few times a year as i now live abroad and still get the buzz of coming out of Fulham Broadway station into the Fulham Road, having a few beers pre match. But these days the football is of a far better quality but the atmosphere is almost sterile but then England is not the England i grew up in, the upper middle class has stolen the working class game which is a pity. I feel sorry that my kids will never experience the thrill and the danger i experienced growing up watching football in the 70s and 80s.

Very good thread, well done Alan. I can only echo the comments made here both about Chelsea and English life in general. Around about 1990 I stopped going to away games except for the odd one or two, and then in 2001 i made my last visit to the Bridge. The reasons were mostly financial ( just too damn expensive) but also i realised that the atmosphere was virtually non existent, in fact there is more atmosphere in my living room during a match than at the ground! ( my wife is passionate about the game, unfortunately it's for the scousers!). Since 2006 i have lived abroad so going to the games is not an option any more. Have really enjoyed from a distance the success but can honestly say I enjoyed the trophyless years oh so much better.

Traditional football RIP.

There was something bordering on the anarchic in the game in the 60's and 70's, and that added to the whole experience.

You knew when games were being played, and you could call your mates as late as 2.30pm to go to the Bridge and watch a great game of football. When I first went there were no substitutes, so the players stayed on the pitch unless they were carried off unconscious. This lead to a more "robust" manner of play, that was a joy to watch. We stood at every game, sometimes crushed together, and always with a high degree of expectancy. The man standing next to you, (99.999% of the crowd were male in those days), was, for 90 minutes, your brother and comrade in arms. We watched in all weathers and went to every away game we could. I had a Saturday job as I was still at school in the 60's, and I could still afford to go to all the games, pay for my transport, and still have a sneaky beer or two!!

I will always remember our epic FA Cup win in 1970. I was priviledged to go to both matches, and I recall getting 10 Chelsea into Wembley with 2 tickets. 8 of us made a "contribution" to the turn-stile operator, but then we had to show our stubs to get into the main part of the ground, and the old bill were in atttendance to make sure there wasn't any trouble. I showed my ticket and went in with my mate and approached some hardened Shed enders and told them our situation. Without a thought they all got their own ticket stubs out and gave them to me to get everyone else in. I returned the stubs with thanks, and the response was unanimous: " we are all Chelsea, and we all help each other".

Football is not the same game I grew up with, but I will always be Chelsea.

Excellent thread, the blues attending today might have the trophies, but they'll never have what we had. The atmosphere and sheer madness of the terraces will never come back even with 'safe standing', you even knew what to expect from the police if you caught out of order, a beating plain and simple.

The countries changed and not for the better and footballs gone the same way.