As I write this Chelsea are losing 1-0 away at Stoke in the League Cup with ten minutes to go. It's at times like these when a football fan needs to reassess exactly what is important about supporting their team.
Listening to the match I begin thinking about ways in which I can rationalise, justify and excuse the disastrous run of results my club has suffered. You can talk about pre-season with its fitness and recruitment implications, you can talk about the Carneiro issue and its moral implications and you can blame the players and manager in equal measure. It's probably a combination of all those things. Never have I known such a dark period.
But so what? What does it matter if Chelsea can barely win a game this Season? What if Chelsea finish mid-table, woefully short of Champions League football? (Just heard Remy equalise!!!!) The only thing that matters to the individual fan is hard-nosed, unquestioning loyalty and unrelenting support. It doesn't matter how low things become I will still support my club. I will still bring hope to every match. Maybe we will have to remedy our expectations and maybe we will have to cope with a few Seasons of mediocrity. It doesn't matter, I will still feel the same emotions whatever happens and take victory and defeat in the same manner, whether stoic or elated.
Let's take some perspective on things. Since 1997 we have won a trophy most years. Nearly every Season we have challenged for the Premier League title. Is a couple of fallow seasons so horrible? It reminds me of David Moyes at Manchester Utd. It was a total disaster for them and numerous records were broken with multiple teams breaking their Old Trafford duck. They finished outside the top four but are inevitably coming back. If there is any logic in the Chelsea Board, we will be able to bounce back with a Chelsea fan, Jose Mourinho, who is probably the best manager since Ferguson. With any luck the promising youngsters will get a full blooding over the course of the season and we will be able to watch them grow into their potential over the next five years. Chelsea fans have become so saturated with success that we have got to the point where we perhaps value the progress of our youths more than we do the space in our trophy cabinet. This miserable period is the best chance our impressive youngsters have of playing regular competitive football. Treasure it because there is no doubting that the relentless ambition for the biggest trophies is detrimental to their prospects. Take the positives and think of the future for once.
As extra-time winds down and penalties loom at Stoke let me finish by reiterating the point I am trying to make in this emotive ramble. Results are important for the League table and Cup competition progress; performances are important for assessing the progress and situation of the team; but for the fans their football club is an emotional investment which gives them either misery or joy on any given matchday. What happens on the pitch is a weekly opportunity, not a holy human right.
When assessing the Season thus far remember the fallow years between 1970 and 1997. Realise that their are Chelsea fans who experienced those years. Recall that history shows that every club goes through peaks and troughs. We are clearly in a trough but understand that troughs are only defined by the peaks which precede and proceed them. Things can always get worse for a football club (ask Leeds) but also know that we are almost at the point where things can only get better. But most of all support Chelsea, support Mourinho and support the tribe - that's all you can do.
