I should really stop wondering just how much lower the Chelsea hierarchy can stoop really – because every time I do, it’s as if they go into limbo-mode, bending over backwards to demonstrate their unswerving ability to create car crash PR. I suppose after the appointment of FSW, nothing should ever surprise us again really but to say I’m disgusted with their latest stunt is putting it as mildly as I can without launching into my extensive vocabulary of expletives.
I’m talking about their attempts to airbrush Roberto Di Matteo from Chelsea history. A man who, as a player, helped us to the 1997 FA Cup final and within 42 seconds of being there, scored the opener from 30 yards. A man whose career was prematurely ended whilst playing for us in a Uefa cup tie against St Gallen. And a man who, as a manager, brought us the trophy no other Chelsea manager has been able to get their hands on, making us the current Champions of Europe.
As if sacking him when we were a mere 4 points away from Manchester United wasn’t harsh enough and even more disrespectfully, replacing him with Manuel (who incidentally has turned that minor gap between us and the top of the table into a gaping chasm), the club are trying to erase every trace of him from their memory. Well, I can only assume their airbrushing him out of the Champions League murals and editing him out of the big screen’s video footage is for their benefit because they’d be even more stupid than I thought if the expectation is for us to forget everything Roberto Di Matteo did for us.
I mean, surely the hope wouldn’t be that when it gets to the 16th minute of a game, no-one can bring to mind the number 16 whose contribution they want to honour, would it? Or that we’d play along with the idea that the Spanish Waiter on the touchline with his pad has been strolling up and down there taking orders all along? Maybe they’d just prefer it if we forgot we’d won the Champions League altogether? It certainly seems as if them and Manuel have anyway.
Maybe we should be the one’s bending over actually. We could go in for friendship scarves with a lion on one side, a liverbird on the other and develop a liking for sifting through wheelie bins whilst burning the shirt of any player who threatens to leave? I know, I know its a disgusting concept – but so is the club’s preference for a manager whose aspiration for mid-table mire is looking all too achievable this season – and so are their attempts to enforce the acceptance of the current set-up no matter what or who they wipe out in the process.
Blue is the colour
