Last week saw a historic moment in the history of Chelsea Football Club – confirmation that the Blues will retain their holy ground in the heart of West London.
It threw up bittersweet emotions for many Chelsea veterans, those of us who miss the edgy days of the 70s, 80s and 90s, where our side may not have achieved much with regards to silverware, but provided a proper footballing day out every Saturday afternoon.
As it’s turned out, I can only be pleased that – where the game is today – my club will live in one of the world’s greatest stadiums.
An architectural masterpiece, finished in “London brick”, resembling a Gothic cathedral in its buttress ribbed stature.
Of course the haters are describing it very differently: “an upside down typewriter, an egg-slicer, a child’s potty, a stand-out monstrosity”.
More importantly, Hammersmith and Fulham councillors variously defined the proposed stadium as “a significant, high-quality design” and “a gorgeous building”.
It’s a feat nobody imagined could happen.
What with the super-rich dwellings that surround the area, as well as transport and thoroughfare issues associated with the larger capacity.
While I was on a stadium tour at Old Trafford, I asked why the k** stand – where the directors sit – hadn’t been developed.
I was told that it was too close to the adjacent railway line and it was “impossible”.
The Stamford Bridge designers have incorporated the design to cover the nearby railway with tunnels and walkways to ferry fans to and from.
Given the complexity, I’m sure Mr Abramovich paid off a few councillors to offer it the thumbs up!
Couple of worrying issues however. Firstly, some experts are predicting that the £500m budget will escalate closer to £700m and of course playing at Wembley for three years is awful.
You only need to see the demise of West Ham to understand the risk.
It’s totally valid, that is, if the club’s owner wasn’t fronting the cash himself.
Come 2021, Chelsea will be primed to complete Roman’s empire.
Talking about empires – and fallen ones – how sad was that Manchester United v Liverpool game on Sunday?
OK, to be fair there was so much riding on the fixture that nerves probably got the better of them.
But it was a catastrophe of mistakes, shoddy passing, poor tactics and lacked any real cohesion.
United did up their performance in the second half, but neither really took control for any meaningful periods of the game.
On a side note, why the hell does Jose walk to the tunnel with three or four minutes left on the clock?
Judging on their improved second half, I guess he went to the dressing room and waited for the team so that he could give each one a big fat dirty look as they came in.
Either way, as is often with these hype games, the anticipation can be met with a cancel out marathon, frenetic bust-up or simple nervy display.
So much at stake, such cut-throat implication.
The truth is, though, if either is genuinely thinking of the title, there’s a bit of a way to go before that critical genuine belief sets in.
It was a great weekend for Chelsea in particular with a decent gap again.
Arsenal were good and Spurs put on a very strong showing such quick, smart football. I reassessed my thoughts regarding their chances this year.
Oh and let us not forget the arrogant Pep.
He’s a complete misery, isn’t he? I never thought of him like that before he came to England?
What I’m loving is the way the Premier League is dealing him a harder card than he anticipated.
He may be pretty suave and sophisticated, but right now he looks like a proper dildoNice one Everton.