One week today and we’ll be gearing up for Chelsea to take on Bournemouth in the Premier League! Club football is back!
I really have mixed feelings about the return of club football. I’m excited about it in about half of my brain, the half that loves Chelsea Football Club since the day I got to kick a ball, the half that loves football more than life itself, and the half that makes me rewatching every single minute of Chelsea playing football rain, shine, good times, bad times and even in the old second division, though memories of that are very hazy.
What I mean is that I will continue to watch Chelsea even if we get relegated to non-league status and become just another local club trying to break into the professional league. They would still have my support. Chelsea is a lifestyle and I will 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 has big and ambitious plans to put Chelsea back on top. And I can admit that we’ll need elements of patience this season, at least, as Graham Potter is still finding his place with a bunch of new players.
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I’m also at peace with the fact that my personal expectations of watching Chelsea play have been lowered to a point where I see it as much more realistic at the moment, and that should help my emotions too, at least a bit.
Chelsea loves to send us through the emotions, and we’ve gotten used to the ups and downs. As a fan of any club, you have to accept that there will always be ups and downs. But with Chelsea back soon and facing Bournemouth in the Premier League on December 27, all these emotions are coming back together. I’m excited, but scared.
I have some confidence that this break would have done us all good and that we will start shooting more than before the break. And I’m sure our new owners will have a good January transfer window and pull it off, especially with our new experts within the recruiting department.
So I’m generally positive, at least for now. That could change after 90 minutes on the 27th! But for now, I’m just going to look forward to getting our Chelsea back and watching Chelsea play football.
We’ve all had a reset and I just hope 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 really need results. But we also have to look at the bigger picture here at the moment, and we, myself included, just have to try to show some patience as we negotiate the second half of the season after Christmas.
Things are not rosy right now, we know. We need to be much better. The players, the board, the staff and Graham Potter will know that they need to be much better for the rest of the season. So I’ll keep some faith here for sure.
I’m excited for Chelsea’s return. Please, Chelsea, don’t crush that excitement in an instant next Tuesday!
