Are Chelsea good for the game?

[Zippy]

Good article from the Guardian (Particularly Rogan putting them in their place!)

Is Chelsea's era of domination good for the Premiership?

Wednesday February 15, 2006
The Guardian


Yes - Kenny Sansom; Former England and Arsenal full-back
Everyone will always mention the money but there are many reasons why Chelsea's success has been good for the Premiership.

Anyone involved in football will tell you that you can't buy success. True, Chelsea can spend millions on one player and if he gets injured they can buy another one. But last season when they won the Premiership they did so because they were the best team. I read an interview recently with Arjen Robben in which he said Chelsea are not an arrogant team, just confident. That's good for football - it's like when Arsenal won the league without losing a match and because of their confidence they played some awesome football.


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Chelsea's success has meant the rest of the Premiership has had to improve. It says to the other sides: "You are going to have to be cleverer than us to beat us." Wigan should have done just that on the first day of the season, so if they can match Chelsea that proves that money is not the be-all and end-all.
When I was a player and we used to go to Liverpool and see the "This is Anfield" sign we used to go out on to the pitch and think that if we could lose 1-0 we would be happy. We were up against some great players there and it is the same at Chelsea - just because they cost a lot of money doesn't mean they are not a great team.

The managers have to get shrewder with their tactics, the scouts have to be better. If Chelsea can afford to spend £30m on a player and you can only afford £5m then you have to search out a player for that money and try to turn him into a £30m player. Teams like Liverpool, Tottenham and Bolton have come out and done that and are proving that with the right tactics and by buying well you can still be a force in the Premiership.

I think what Chelsea have done, as well as putting a lot of money into the team, is to have picked the right man as manager. Jose Mourinho is the main reason Chelsea are the team they are.

John Terry summed up for me why Chelsea are such a good side and why England fans should be happy about them doing well. Last season at Norwich Chelsea were 4-0 up and then City scored a goal; Terry went around all his team-mates and gave them a real rollicking. Terry isn't the only England player who seems to have benefited from Mourinho: when you look at Joe Cole you realise that he has been good at bringing on English players.

Mourinho seems to be able to make his players want to keep improving and they are. The whole club has recognised that they have got something special going. We had it at Crystal Palace under Terry Venables when we had seven young players from the FA Youth Cup final come through and there was the feeling that we had something similar.

Chelsea are not going to win the league every year from now on, Mourinho is going to find it harder and harder because the other teams are going to have to continue to get better and that can only be a good thing for the league.

Sure, the money has got a lot to do with them doing well but they are not the first side to have a bit of money. I think everyone's going on about it without looking at what Chelsea have achieved - and obviously I'm saying that as an Arsenal fan.

No - Dr Rogan Taylor; Director, Football Industry Group

I don't think about Chelsea being in the same competition any more really. This is different from the recent domination by Arsenal and Manchester United - or Liverpool before them - because their success was more about astuteness, youth investment and coaching skills than money. This Chelsea project has cost over half a billion euros already and that kind of money puts them in a league of their own.

We're used to the idea of rich clubs holding sway in the past, like Real Madrid, Barcelona, the Milan clubs at different times, but this is wealth of an entirely different order. Chelsea can afford to waste €40m on a player and just leave him on the bench. They can buy forwards with the potential of Shaun Wright-Phillips, who could get into any other Premiership side, and just leave him shining pine. They can take off €50m worth of strikers and replace them with €60m of strikers. It's ridiculous.

And you can't get away from the source of the money. A significant chunk of the wealth of a whole - now largely poverty-stricken - nation has been sunk into a foreign football team and that sticks in the throat. It's even harder to swallow because Chelsea are at heart a "dilettante" club. In the late 60s they were said to spend half-time under hairdryers and that just about summed them up.

In terms of achievement and fan base, they're on the periphery of the English game: two titles and three FA Cups in a hundred years. Last season's triumph was their first title for 50 years, and I heard they only managed to sell around 22,000 DVDs celebrating their season. Liverpool's equivalent DVD sold something close to half a million copies last summer. Even if you halve that for the "Istanbul effect", Liverpool are still 10 times bigger. Either not many Chelsea fans think a first title in 50 years is important, or there aren't really that many of them around. The truth is they're a club with a core support of around 18,000 fans, posing as a "big" club. In passion or dedication, they don't even approach the numbers of United or City fans, Newcastle, Liverpool or Everton for that matter.

This is not to say that Chelsea aren't a good team; they clearly are. And getting players to play as a team is a real achievement - even with (or possibly despite) the silly money available. But to expect us to ignore the sheer size of the investment is unrealistic. I can't watch them any more because they don't inhabit the same world as their so-called competitors.

Before Roman Abramovich turned up, football was finally getting sensible. The clubs had taken a deep breath and were starting to budget more appropriately. But then the billionaire drives the game back towards loony transfer fees and daft wages, destabilising a good attempt to put football back on track. Clubs should stay sensible and let Chelsea go. What does it matter? It doesn't really mean anything significant, and all things must pass, anyway.

A recent When Saturday Comes editorial asked what are the three hardest words to say in the English language. The answer? "Come on Chelsea". I couldn't agree more.

The Football Industry Group conducts academic research into the social, economic and political aspects of football.

[RedinSweden]

Originally Posted by Zippy

Good article from the Guardian (Particularly Rogan putting them in their place!)

Is Chelsea's era of domination good for the Premiership?

Cheers. Good read that. I agree with the bit about football getting sensible. It really was. Chelsea fucked it up. I hate them. I hate them so much.

[GeoffM]

good read that, although one title maybe two so far hardly makes an era but there you go, just being picky.

[Red Nick]

Money itself dosent breed success however when you put one of the best 2 managers in the world with unlimited funds then its impossible for other teams to compete in the short term anyway,

if utd had Sissoko and Gerrard they could compete and if we had Rooney and RVN we could compete but until we get those players we cant and if they know were after a player like Simao they will just buy him to stop us getting him.

So there not good for the game

[Section_31]

I think the whole aura surrounding chelsea is bollocks to be honest.

He talks about 'taking off £50 million worth of players and replacing them with £60 million worth of players' Now are they 'worth' what Chelsea have paid or do they merely get stung by other clubs?

They can no longer attract the hot up and coming prospects in England like Walcott because of the SWP debacle - so they fucked that avenue of domination up.

They are playing and winning with players we could have bought for far less a few years ago, Duff, Lampard etc. They've been augmented by paying over the odds for players who are big fishes in small ponds such as Robben and Drogba, but calling Drogba 24 million 'worth' of striker would be a joke - Chelsea get fucked in the market, simple as...

The media and rival fans attitude toward them disgusts me, lets just all give up and play for second place shall we? Its probably no coincidence that Wenger is the man doing all the moaning, and thats probably just to cover up for the fact he's lost the plot good style, afterall, why the fuck should the fact Chelsea pay 20 milliion over the odds for an Ivory Coast striker force Wenger to sell Vieira and replace him with an 18 year old from Cameroon or wherever the fuck?

The Chelsea 'myth' is a joke...

[xabi the red]

bit of a mismatched fight.

Academic Dr. Rogan Taylor (Intellectual Heavyweight)

vs

Kenny Sansom (Heavyweight)

[Pablo-B]

Excellent read that. Chelsea are a freakshow...and the Russian pimp will soon get bored with his plaything.

Take Chelsea out of the equation and this season's title race would be a cracker.

[real red]

Originally Posted by Zippy

They can buy forwards with the potential of Shaun Wright-Phillips, who could get into any other Premiership side, and just leave him shining pine.

Very well put by Rogan, especially that bit above.

I think Chelsea's little honeymoon period with the press is starting to reach the end. When it does this unconditional support of them and their ways may just start to get the scrutiny it needs.

The fact they aren't in G14 won't help them out much for the future either. That group still has a lot of power in football, and the more they cause trouble the more that group will ensure they are dealt with.

[mattyq]

Wow, i actually agree with you, Pablo. How odd!

[Pablo-B]

Originally Posted by mattyq

Wow, i actually agree with you, Pablo. How odd!

Do I know you?