One week today and we will be getting ready for Chelsea to take on Bournemouth back in the Premier League! Club football is back!
I really do have mixed feelings about club football being back. I’m excited for it in about half of my brain, the half that has loved Chelsea Football Club since the day I could kick a ball, the half that loves football more than life itself, and the half that draws me back to watching every single minute of Chelsea play football through rain, shine, good times, bad times, and even in the old second division, albeit very hazy memories of that.
My point is, I’ll continue watching Chelsea even if we got relegated to the non-league and became just another local club trying to get into the professional league. They’d still have my support. Chelsea is a lifestyle, and I’ll remain Chelsea until the day I die.
But the other half of my brain is filled with fear, dread, and uncertainty. Of course, I can fully acknowledge that we are in a transition period under new ownership, an ownership that have big and ambitious plans to get Chelsea back to the very top again. And I can acknowledge that we will need elements of patience this season at least as Graham Potter still finds his feet with a whole bunch of new players.
I’m also at peace with the fact that my personal expectations whilst watching Chelsea play have now lowered to a point where I see to be much more realistic right now, and that should help my emotions too, at least a bit.
Chelsea love to send us through the emotions, and we have grown used to the ups and downs. As a fan of any club you need to accept that there will always be ups and downs. But with Chelsea soon to be back and facing Bournemouth in the Premier League on December the 27th, all these emotions are coming crashing back together. I’m excited, but fearful.
I have some confidence that this break would have done us all good and that we will start to fire more than we did before the break. And I am confident that our new owners will have a good January transfer window and get it spot on, especially with our newly added experts within the recruitment department.
So I am positive overall, for now at least. That might change after 90 minutes on the 27th! But for now, I am going to just look forward to having our Chelsea back and look forward to watching Chelsea play football.
We’ve all had a reset and I just hope that many of you, like me, have also reset your expectations for this season. Of course, we are Chelsea, and we demand the best, we need the best, and we need results.
We truly do need results. But we have to look at the bigger picture here as well right now, and we, myself included, just need to try and show some form of patience as we negotiate the second half of the season after Christmas.
Things are not rosy right now, we know this. We need to be much better. The players, the board, the staff, and Graham Potter, will all know that they need to be much better going into the rest of the season. So I will keep some faith here, for sure.
I’m excited for Chelsea being back. Please Chelsea, do not crush that excitement in an instant next Tuesday!