4 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Like we do that anyway looool

Yet we have given them the chance - Chalobah England squad, RLC and Barkley.

Others that have recently gone on to play for other EPL clubs like Ake, Abraham and Kenedy.

We are not perfect by an means yet we have given them a start.

On 06/11/2018 at 15:57, yorkleyblue said:

To be honest, for me, it's nothing to do with Chelsea being British, and not even the Pride of London.  It's  my club, it has been all my life, and that's all there is to it, and I can't understand a true supporter saying they would or could change allegiance.

That's part of why I get grumpy in here with other posters and their approving posts about other clubs and players.  I've said in here before that a lot of posters in here seem to be football fans who follow Chelsea, rather than Chelsea fans as such.  Nothing wrong with that at all, and a lot of them appear to be decent sorts.  We have a lot of comment about other matches on the telly or on streams, both premier League and matches abroad and that's great for people who just love football but I don't care about other teams, I don't watch other teams, and I have no interest in watching and commenting in a Chelsea forum about what some sh*te-hawk city player has done or how the Real-Barca match is playing out.  No interest at all.

I can vouch for the veracity of @yorkleyblue's assertions. He is as loyal to Chelsea as he is to his wife Ermyntrude. How many times have myself and my young friend Valerie tried to tempt him from the paths of righteousness? Val with her direct approach of "Fancy a shag, me old mucker?" And me with my slightly more  circumspect " Well, young man, care to indulge in a game of houghmagandie? "

Does he respond with enthusiasm? Does he nick! He says "f**k off, you dopey Dutch trollop.  Get knotted, you soppy Scotch harlot. "   And he races back to the arms of his beloved Ermyntrude. Such is also his devotion to Chelsea.

I don't normally like the man but this sums it up.

 

If our greedy, pampered clubs want to join a super league, call their bluff

• The Premier League should offer nothing to prevent a European Super League
• A breakaway league would fail because the competition is artificial and boring 
• Match-going fans can stop the talk before the idea gathers any momentum 

By MARTIN SAMUEL - SPORT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:34, 5 November 2018 | UPDATED: 01:32, 6 November 2018

 

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Here is what the Premier League should offer to ward off the threat of a European super league. Nothing. Actually, not quite nothing. Less than nothing. A pay cut, in fact.

Industry experts say the threat of a breakaway is only a means of negotiation for Europe's elite clubs, seeking a larger share of football's riches. Well, if it's negotiation they want, let's negotiate.

Here's our position. If you want to be part of a European super league, go. Just don't think you can be part of our league, too; or the FA Cup; or any other domestic competition. 

 

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The Premier League should offer nothing to stop teams leaving for a European Super League

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When your league fails, as it will because it is artificial and boring, in essence non-competitive and the fans will hate it, don't think you can come back to us on the same deal as before.

Junior partners. That is what you will be. Half a vote at the meetings, half the money when we divide the spoils up at the end of the season.

You'll have to take it, because the alternative will be to go back to your empty, meaningless league, or to tour the world like the Harlem Globetrotters playing exhibition matches for Charlie Stillitano against all the other clubs too greedy to know they were on to a good thing.

It shows the absence of imagination at the top of football's pyramid that these threats are not put to bed in 24 hours.

One concerted effort from FIFA, UEFA, the national associations and domestic leagues, and this could be over by tomorrow afternoon. The reason it won't be is that the people at the helm of those organisations are too busy figuring out what's in it for them to come up with a coherent initiative that makes the problem go away.

 

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Any continental league would fail because it will quickly become artificial and boring to fans

If FIFA said any players participating in a breakaway league would be banned from competing in international football, that would make the stars of the show think again.

If UEFA announced that the club members of a breakaway league would be banned from all European competition for 10 years, starting from the date they reapply to join — as they will when their league fails — the risk would need to be re-evaluated.

And if the collective associations and leagues made plain the punitive measures that would greet the rebels, stripping them of their influence, their most significant revenue streams and their status in the game — surely a club that resigns from the Premier League does not return at the top, but the bottom of the league pyramid — it would serve as a reminder where the power really lies. In the collective, and that includes the fans.

For you, the people, could stop this before any momentum has a chance to build. Not the armchair fans who invest nothing more than subscription fees and the click of a remote control handset, but the ones who fill stadiums with noise and colour and who can be relied upon to stay loyal, even when their team is mid-table or failing.

The 74,525 who made it to Old Trafford for the match against Everton on October 28; the 60,000 who regularly consume the most expensive tickets in Britain at Arsenal, a club that hasn't won a league title in 14 years.

If the supporters make it plain that they are not buying the European super league, then the European super league cannot fly. And just in case anyone is foolish enough to have their interest piqued by the prospect of a breakaway, here is what will happen: you will lose your club.

You will lose your Saturday afternoons, you will lose your away days, you will lose community and companionship, and all the positives you currently take for granted as part of football's package.

 

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European Super League matches would take the clubs away from their loyal supporters

This is because the league is in part the work of Stillitano and he already runs a football tournament for Europe's elite clubs, the International Champions Cup.

Where does it take place? Not near you. Chicago, Klagenfurt, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, East Rutherford, San Diego, Carson, Singapore, Harrison, Nice, Ann Arbor, Miami, Pasadena, Minneapolis, Arlington, Dublin, Faro, Lecce, Landover, Santa Clara and Madrid. These were the venues for the International Champions Cup in 2018. Chelsea got to draw 0-0 at home to Lyon, the only game played on English soil.

And you think any breakaway league is going to be different? Old Trafford might host a derby or a game against a club making up the numbers, but when Manchester United play Real Madrid it will be classed as a global event, and could turn up anywhere across five continents.

This is a made-for-TV league and requires a made-for-TV global audience. It will be sold at a premium, like boxing. It will be hawked to the highest bidding cities, too.

When Milan played United in Carson, just 21,742 turned up, so that is the type of match that will be laid before a home audience, preying on their loyalty to fill the hall. But 101,254 watched Manchester United and Liverpool in Ann Arbor, so what are the chances of that staying removed from East Coast prime time?

When the deal is done it will be too late to protest. By then, your club will be just another American franchise in a league without relegation — for some — and if the crowds aren't turning up, they can move the matches to somewhere that they will.

Why does Manchester need two clubs anyway? If the Jacksonville Jaguars can come here, why can't a Premier League club go there? Certainly one whose fans are not buying into our brave new world.

Any season-ticket holder who thinks the European super league will be like our own, but more exotic, hasn't thought it through. Just as the clubs haven't if they think fans will not feel betrayed by the loss of some of their most treasured matches in a season.

 

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Real Madrid would be the team to beat after winning the last three Champions League titles

This would be a Liverpool campaign that will not feature a game against Everton, for the first time since 1961-62; an Arsenal schedule that would not include a North London derby against Tottenham, a fixture that has missed one season since 1950-51.

These are huge matches with the anticipation of next season's game beginning almost at the blowing of the final whistle on this season's encounter.

What of meetings with rivals from around the country? Manchester United would never play Leeds again. Nobody with any feeling for football's soul would sanction a change that ends visits to St James' Park, Elland Road or the home of Leicester's miracle.

And no relegation for the chosen few. The leaked version of the super league proposal contains the idea that the 11 founding clubs — all the usual suspects from across Europe, plus Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, who should all be ashamed of themselves — would be immune from relegation for the first 20 years.

In other words, it is a licence to be ordinary. United could be as mediocre as they have been this season, with no fear of consequence. The same for AC Milan and Real Madrid.

It is football with a giant safety net, and therefore not real football at all. It is a blueprint drawn up by careerists, executives with no feeling for the sport, or those who play and love it. They think you are suckers, that you will pay for any old cabbage as long as there are star names attached.

Heaven knows why they keep having meetings because this is a simply avaricious plan that could be jotted down on the back of a fag packet. It is football with all the danger and unpredictability taken out, and therefore football that is of no interest at all.

Fittingly, the prime movers here are a cabal of greedy clubs who have already destroyed competition in their own leagues and, for that reason, now seek a way out.

 

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Juventus have turned Serie A into a bore for fans and they would not win a continental league

Their broadcast revenues are drying up because no-one wants to watch a procession, and they think a European league will shake the money tree again.

In reality, they are trapped. Juventus have turned Serie A into a crashing bore, but would not be good enough to win a continental league — they haven't won a trophy in Europe since 1996.

How long, then, would their fans tolerate also-ran status in a new European league, bearing in mind only first place will count as success, with no Champions League consolation prizes for those coming between second and fourth?

How will fans brought up on trophies react when it transpires there is just one cup to go around between Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG, Juventus, and five Premier League clubs.

Even if they have the end-of-season play-offs found in American sport — just because you win the league, it doesn't mean you win the trophy — there is still only one prize. These clubs are allied by nothing beyond their pursuit of money. Once pitted against each other with a single prize at stake, they would be weasels in a sack.

The myth then, is that the change is inevitable, or that the pilots of such an empty vessel need appeasing. Call their bluff. Bid them farewell with the reminder of what life is like on the outside.

It's tough out there. Far tougher than the charlatans of this greedy, pampered elite know. Offer them a taste of it and you won't hear a peep from them again.

 

Load of pish.  Worse than today's politics of the rich getting richer and the rest can just do one 

Although i think he is a bit of a tw@t that is actually a great article from Martin Samuel. Spot on.

Funny isn't it Man Utd outside the top 6 and Real Madrid also outside the top 6 and all of a sudden this push comes up where they can't be relegated in a super league. Interesting and just a coincidence for sure yet doesn't it show on ability alone they have no God given right to be included in this Super league at this moment in time.

It would end up like the failed european NFL franchise that was setup.

Matchday fixtures of:

Barcelona Matadors vs Juventus Senators

Chelsea Monarchs vs PSG Cockerels

Press the red button, pay your €40 game pass to watch.

Urgh. What a load of sh*t

8 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

I'm not sure how much clearer I can make it. Yes, Chelsea is my club.  It doesn't really matter to me where we play, though staying at the Bridge would be great, or who we play.  If either Spuds or us got relegated, we wouldn't play them.  That surely doesn't mean you'd stop supporting us.  Never cared about Fulham anyway.  If I ended up standing all alone on an empty Shed, so be it, it's my club.

I truly cannot conceive of the mentality that says "I can change my allegiance, because I have gone off that club, so I'll be a fan of sh*tsville United or something".

Then that falls into the WTF sort of supporter are you?  You gave a long list of all the headline events of the past that you attended, and then say you would f**k off and support another team unless Chelsea conform to exactly what you think the club should  be.   "If you don't do exactly what I want, I'm never going to speak to you again and I'm going to find a new best friend, so there."

 

Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that.  I personally don't think this super-league will ever happen, but, if it does, I'll still be here.  All of you who feel you won't can slither off to Fulham or QPR or the Pikies, and go join your new forum, and enjoy your new club until they upset you about something, then you can choose another club.  It will all be wonderful.

Essentially my point is - and you agree - that you would have been the 1% of Wimbledon fans who supported mk Dons. You are not the majority.

I think you just don't conceive of how much of our soul would be ripped from the club if we went into a European super League. At least how others feel.

This isn't a minor change to the club 

Anyway I agree, it won't happen. But it's important for me to make clear how much I wouldn't want it to happen. I see it as similar to ripping the club out from its fabric and rebranding it as something else.

I think most fans stop going ( other than financial reasons or bringing up a young family), through disconnection with their club.

Once they get out the habit of attending games and become accustomed to spending Saturdays getting dragged to Sainsbury’s by the wife, they rarely return to the Bridge in my experience.

This European Super League would lead to an off the scale disconnection between fans and their clubs in my opinion.

A bit like the World Cup, it would become almost totally a televisional experience, with spectators in the ground merely there to add a bit of background colour.

Edit: I realise that the EFL and the Champions League are already TV based concepts ( doncha just miss Sat 3’O’Clock KO’s, and London Derbys on Boxing Day), this would be just another step.

 

Edited November 8, 20187 yr by Ewell CFC

Wow, are you planning on sharing this Chelsea Football Club with anybody else @yorkleyblue

1 hour ago, Alicja said:

Wow, are you planning on sharing this Chelsea Football Club with anybody else @yorkleyblue

Alicja, first time our posts have crossed. Thought for a minute with your photo you were Alvaro's squeeze.

Why don't you drop a line on the Newbies thread to tell us why a young Polish girl supports the best team in London?

4 hours ago, Ewell CFC said:

I think most fans stop going ( other than financial reasons or bringing up a young family), through disconnection with their club.

Once they get out the habit of attending games and become accustomed to spending Saturdays getting dragged to Sainsbury’s by the wife, they rarely return to the Bridge in my experience.

This European Super League would lead to an off the scale disconnection between fans and their clubs in my opinion.

A bit like the World Cup, it would become almost totally a televisional experience, with spectators in the ground merely there to add a bit of background colour.

Edit: I realise that the EFL and the Champions League are already TV based concepts ( doncha just miss Sat 3’O’Clock KO’s, and London Derbys on Boxing Day), this would be just another step.

 

 

I think it's football in general that the disconnection would happen. I sometimes wonder if the people who now run the game actually realise it's the passionate fans who drive the game forward. Each change though chips a little bit away from the experience, the game is now a pale shell of what it was. I honestly though couldn't imagine supporting any other club,  though have attended other grounds in the past to just watch a match without any emotional attachment. As you correctly say though once you get out of the habit of attending many don't return.

I've been around here for sometime now @Strider6003

40 minutes ago, Alicja said:

I've been around here for sometime now @Strider6003

So you have, 2013. Have they let you out for good behaviour? 

https://www.football365.com/news/the-truth-we-have-gained-nothing-from-the-premier-league

 

Decent article on the Premier League.

https://chelseasupporterstrust.com/4529-cst-statement-on-european-super-league-discussions/?fbclid=IwAR0RbDDbcu-xMMalg-kK4TKKeELzxNcwdh3WbiR27pkPOPmPOJVInriGNOI

CST STATEMENT ON EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE DISCUSSIONS

Chelsea Supporters Trust, in common with other Premier League Trusts and supporter organisations, have deep concerns about stories of a possible UEFA European Super League which have received media coverage in recent weeks.  

As a result the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust sent a letter (click here to read the letter) to Chelsea FC expressing our opposition to the idea of a European Super League being discussed by the European Club Association. The full statement by the United Football Supporters Organisation can be read here (http://www.fsf.org.uk/blog/view/six-reasons-to-oppose-a-european-super-league), outlining our opposition in detail.

CST board members met with Chelsea executives Bruce Buck and Graham Smith to discuss the matter. They confirmed the club position, and that of the Premier League, which is one of opposition to the idea, as reported in the media.  The club is working with other Premier League clubs to counter the idea, which they see as detrimental to both Premier League and European domestic football in a wider context.  

The parties will continue dialogue on the issue going forward.

Its never going to happen. Talks and rumours about a breakaway super league have been mooted for 25 years, and while it may be better financially, especially for those teams that are in non competitive leagues, there is far too much opposition for it to ever come to fruition.