What do you make of the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge this season? Whilst not exactly in the realms of ‘the library’, it’s not really conducive to Champions of Europe style performances either is it?
One person who sounds as if he thinks both of the above apply though is TheChelseaBlog reader Josh Holmes. Have a read of his maiden voyage on the blog and see what you think….
As many Chelsea fans know, on too many occasions the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge has been truly terrible at some points, especially when we’re losing.
Considering Stamford Bridge can hold an eye watering 42 thousand spectators it’s an extremely quiet ground. I went to see Chelsea v Arsenal on the 20th of January this year, I sat in the East stand and prior to the match I read that it’s like a library up there but I brushed away those comments, I thought because it was a London derby the East stand would be incredible and the atmosphere would be one of the best. God how wrong I was! If I said hello at a normal tone everyone would have literally turned round it was that quiet.
The Matthew Harding stand is by far the loudest mainly because that’s where the lifelong supporters and season ticket holders sit and they tend to be very passionate, and also in the East stand you are literally surrounded by Brazilian, Portuguese, Polish, American the whole lot! I’m not poking fingers out at foreign supporters, I’m sure there are some very passionate supporters from different countries but I’ll need some convincing from what I saw up in the east stand. The foreign supporters took more interest in recording videos and taking pictures with their iPads and iPhone’s instead of cheering the team on. At one point the foreign fella in front of me started playing a game in the middle of a high class derby match. I mean who does that?
There was also a video put up on YouTube of our amazing away support at the Chelsea v Leeds game in December. We were truly amazing, we out sung them on numerous occasions and frankly it looked like a classic derby back in the days. At one point there were also flares being lit. It was truly incredible! And again I’m not poking fingers but there was what appeared to be this foreign supporter standing there quiet as a mouse in the middle of one of the most fiercest rivalry matches in England, while every other Chelsea fan was standing on their seats singing their hearts out. He looked as somber as if was attending a funeral.
From my experience at the bridge on numerous occasions I’ve got home and watched the highlights to find out that we sound a lot quieter on T.V. than we actually were at the game. I think they edit the sound to their liking to make the commentary sound better and louder. Also (and Chelsea fans should be very familiar with), when we play at home in the Champions league against a team we barely know, they always seem to bring banners and they always tend to out-sing the home support even if they’re losing 4-1. It makes it look like we don’t care that we’re winning 4-1 and to be honest it’s truly embarrassing being out sung by a team you’re winning against at home. It really does make Stamford Bridge look like a library when AC Milan and Liverpool create a high class atmosphere week in week out.
Is it me or does every single Liverpool fan have a Liverpool scarf? I know it sounds like we’re just copying them but we could take inspiration from Liverpool by putting some banners up at the East stand. It’s big enough to have a few big banners up there and it could start people singing up there.
Fact is if people around you are singing and chanting you’re gonna get carried away and caught up doing the same thing, it’s all about inspiring each other. Also prior to kick off Blue is the colour is played and in contrast to Liverpool’s YNWA Blue is the colour is more a positive and encouraging song, a song which is sung to try and spur your team on to victory. Maybe every Chelsea fan around the stadium should buy a Chelsea scarf and jump up and down like we’re doing the bouncy – but instead singing along to blue is the colour. It’s just a thought and also makes the matches more enjoyable to the fans and players, knowing that the fans actually want them to win.
If you are going to the bridge soon please make some noise and spur the team on. The players need it. Up the Blues!
I Hope you enjoyed this article follow me on twitter @OssieTheKing_ and tweet me ideas to write about for Chelsea talk. KBFFH
By Josh Holmes (ChelseaBoy)
Not sure you’ll ever convince me to draw comparisons with dippers Josh!
Blue is the colour
