Positive to be addressed by Chelsea owners directly – Talk Chelsea

If you missed it today, Chelsea released an official statement on their website as a direct message to the fanbase.

A reminder of what it said here:

‘It’s been just over a year since we completed our purchase of Chelsea. It was and remains a privilege for us to be custodians of our wonderful club. Twelve months on, we want to take the opportunity to speak directly to all of you, our supporters, as we reflect on the season just gone.‘

‘Our promise to you was to make our fans proud. We remain completely committed to the long term and sustainable success of our club and fulfilling that promise we made to you. We know the huge potential we must grow to develop Chelsea FC and it is a role we take seriously. Everybody working here is relentlessly focused on driving us forward.‘

‘Clearly, for our men’s team, it has been a disappointing season and there is a lot we can and will do better. Throughout these difficult periods, our fans have supported our players and our team across the country, and Europe with unfailing loyalty. We could not be more grateful for your incredible support. The atmosphere at the Bridge when we played Dortmund will live long in our memories and serves as an important reminder of where we want to be.‘

‘Our women’s team has celebrated another astonishing season, winning the Double with an unprecedented fourth successive WSL title and third successive FA Cup. Whilst we just fell short in the Champions League, the team played in front of incredible crowds at Stamford Bridge and demonstrated their quality against the best European sides. There are not enough positive things to say about Emma Hayes, her backroom staff, and squad who have dealt with adversity, injury and Emma’s period of absence. Their character and hunger to win is second to none. We were also delighted to see Emma named the LMA’s WSL Manager of the Year and Sam Kerr winning the FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year award back-to-back.‘

‘For all the challenges of the past year, we are optimistic about the future. We are looking forward to welcoming Mauricio Pochettino as the head coach of our men’s team in July. We are building a modern scouting, talent identification, and recruiting infrastructure within our sporting department, led by Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, which will help us to identify and transform the squad around elite talent, a squad capable of consistently competing to win the Premier League, raise domestic cups and compete and win at the highest level in European football. We have also appointed Chris Jurasek as CEO to drive our business forward off the pitch, which in turn will make us more sustainable on the pitch.‘

‘The success we are aiming for is only possible with our supporters behind us. We are proud of the creation of our Fan Advisory Board, which will meet for the first time over this summer, and we are confident its new members will ensure you are at the heart of decision making at our club. We will continue to ensure your voices are heard as we look to the future.

‘For now, on behalf of the board and everyone at the club, thank you for your outstanding support. We hope you all have a good summer and look forward to welcoming you back to the Bridge in August.’

The message was signed off from ‘The Chelsea Ownership Group’ – which was good as it felt collective.

First and foremost, I applaud this move. We have ALL been calling for this, especially after the awful season we have just endured. Of course, Roman Abramovich was never one to communicate to the fans either, especially in the latter years, so why we expect this from the new owners is often debated. But it is something that we all would have liked more of from Roman, and so therefore we asked for more of from the new owners.

It’s so important to read this message as a fan during this time. There is a lot of toxicity amongst the Chelsea fanbase right now, many of whom are drastically losing faith in the ownership, or have already lost faith in the ownership.

My faith is not lost, I still hold the same belief that our owners will be successful here, the same belief I held from day one. Whilst I’ve been calling out mistakes and will continue to do so (I will not blindly follow), I have and will continue to highlight the many good things they have done and will continue to do also. It’s so important for us to give our judgements of this ownership with as much balance as possible.

Whilst it’s important to also offer critique where we see fit, we should also be praising the good things they do – and there has been a lot. It’s not going to help anyone if we start creating agendas or narratives that are massively unbalanced. We are all in this together at the end of the day, and there is not one bone in my body that believes that the owners do not have ambition to get us to the very top – the very same ambition as us fans.

They’ve made mistakes, and they even now publicly acknowledge that in this direct message to us fans. And that’s what we all wanted, right? They’re literally doing that here.

We know there has been some big mistakes. But that doesn’t mean we cannot still go forward. Some of the mistakes in hindsight have been expensive, and the board will know this. But with all new ownerships there is always mistakes, things will always take time. The teething problems might still occur and we might still have to dampen expectations for next season a little at least.

But with Mauricio Pochettino at the helm, we have got our perfect manager to lead us in the unique situation we are in right now, there aren’t any better options than him. He needs to be given the tools and all the help possible, and we must all fully get behind him; the fans, the board, and the players must get behind him. It’s imperative to our success moving forward that we all do this right now.

There will be many more things and situations going forward that will frustrate us, but I wasn’t expecting everything to be wild summer flowers and fresh air – we all have different opinions in football and we all think different. But as always, I will 100% be voicing my concerns when I see fit.

But this direct message to the fans has really pleased me and I fully applaud it. It’s exactly what we needed to see; acknowledgement and them hearing the fans, and reacting to us. This must be praised.

Actions speak louder than words of course, but this is a good ‘start’ as such.

We have a long summer ahead now, one that the board need to get as close to perfect as possible. A lot hangs on the decisions we make in the next couple of months. A lot of fans are on a bit of a knife edge right now with the ownership, and this summer could determine which direction they fall off the knife in. If we get this summer spot on, then I have no doubts at all that we will be up challenging for top four again next season, and then building on that the season after.

It’ll take time, but I’m still adamant that Chelsea will be back at the top again under this ownership. I have many reasons to still be backing them. But I will always call things as I see them. Balance is so important right now.