4 april 2011

Även publicerad på ChelseaVital

I Am Ashamed

On behalf of those that claim to be Chelsea supporters but only see our players, our legends as commodities to be sold and traded as Playstation nonenteties, not human beings, I want to have a real go at you!

I am amazed at how some people that comment here on Vital Chelseal want to treat players that have given so much to our club, like they are sacks of soy beans or pork bellies that you can trade on the Chicago Exchange. Or on Playstation games and Fantasy Football that forever seems to have changed how we look upon people and players.

Slavery is still a reality in the world. 27 million people are supposed to be slaves all over the world. The figure might be low. Sexual trafficking and trading in kids have become household things in the Western World, but is surely not exclusive whatsoever to that world as in other parts of the world is actually still common. Most of react badly to slave labour and kid labour in certain sweatshops throughout the world.

I am not ashamed of seeing the Playstation (yes it is intended as a huge insult) generation of fans look on our players and compare them and their view on players as a slave owner mentality.

Form is fresh. Form changes. Players go in and out of form. That does not mean they stop being great players. At worst it just means that they might be rested until they find their form again. It does not mean they should be replaced by someone that still never even performed for our club.

Sure I am pushing the envelope but it seems to be the only way to communicate with people that want to reward years and years of loyal service and thousands of great moments with our team by forcing players to be sold because the passport says a number or because they are displeased by that player`s form recently.

UEFA, FA-rules are actually pushing this as they force clubs to employ and hire younger and younger players to live up to the home-grown rules. Transfer fees are ludicrous, which also pushes things like finding the future star within the own academies.

In Belgium there are ten thousands and thousands of paperless, illegals that were imported mainly from Africa to play football and never made it big. They then were pushed away from the clubs and live illegal lifes there today. Belgium is not exclusive, France is another example of this and more countries are following suit because football fans and executives do not care about the humans, they only look at the football value and resale money.

Humans stop being humans and become commodities. The Bosman verdict changed everything, mostly for the better of the footballer if they are successfull. Just as the abolishing of the football maximum wage in Britain forever changed football in the early 60`s. It has made football to a large extent the player`s market instead of the club`s (or should I say the agent`s?). For the better or worse, but at least players are amply paid for their services and maybe even better than that in many cases.

I will only use one example, though I am afraid there are more cases to be made.

I will talk about Didier Yves Drogba Tébily. He came to us for a big sum, around £25m, from Marseille in the Summer of 2004, He has won two Golden Boots while at Chelsea, he has been pivotal in all of our three Premier League Championships and several Cup triumphs this century. He has had a large impact at Chelsea, despite not really being loved like some other players. He is and always has been a big game player, many times his best (and sometimes his worst) in big games.

And there are people here and out there claiming we should sell him because we can still get money for him! Shame on you, I say.

Didier Drogba has not been the easiest Chelsea player to love. He is not a Gianfranco Zola type personality, one that only the most freakish of people on earth can not love. But he has served Chelsea as well as Gianfranco Zola has, as loyally and for as long. But with much bigger rewards to us fans. And with some pain too.

He was branded a diver and worked very hard on changing that reputation. He dives way less, and I really mean way less, than certain red shirt legends up on Merseyside or in Manchester today, not to mention Arsenal players (the club that earns the most red cards of all…!). He put words to what each and every one of us thought after the Tom Henning Øvrebø-scandal. And he paid the price with an unprecedented long term ban.

Compare that to what will happen to the white hope Wayne Rooney after his behaviour both in the world cup (unpunished!) and the West Ham game when Rooney celebrated his hat-trick by twice telling people to **** off on camera. Drogba claimed that the refeering against us in that so biased display by the Norwegian baldhead, was a ******* disgrace and he suffered the harshest punishment served in international football for any non-violent conduct. Despite being totally right about it. I myself was proud of him for saying that despite, in general, supporting fair play and respect campaigns. But somewhere the line has to be drawn and Drogba drew it for us all. He only said what we all felt, in all honesty.

He is an emotional person , he reacts and he bleeds when hurt. I can not blame him for that. He was ridiculed and treated really poorly by one so called Chelsea supporter among the travelling crowd up at Stoke and reacted. Reacting is not allowed, but I sure understand him when I read some of the Drogba-haters here at Vital Chelsea. Most of them of course deny hating Drogba for whatever reason; still they want nothing more than for Chelsea to throw him away as a wet used towel, because they think Chelsea can make money on him.

The resale value of a "slave"? (Sure, unlike some other incredibly poor deals Chelsea has done, there sure is a market for a player like Drogba. I bet José Mourinho would love to have him at Real Madrid, and how can he be good enough for them but not our Playstation fans?).

Didier Drogba has a contract with Chelsea for another two years I believe. He loves Chelsea and London and wants to stay. He has never said anything else. He admits to having trouble to adjusting to not being the first choice as we today have such an abundance of great forwards, and he has shown it by example. It was his subbing that changed the Manchester United game as one. He is the only forward that has scored in the league since February 1st. He has been the only dangerous, lethal looking attacking player we have had the last couple of months. He is also the only footballer ever to be hailed as a national hero and being on the cover of the most prestigous papers in the world for being what he is.

Sure his season has been fairly poor, by Drogba standards. He started well enough but caught malaria, which was untreated for a long time. Malaria is not like having a cold and staying home from work curing it in the pub, it is a very tricky illness that affects people very differently. It was also Drogba`s second bout of malaria, which might have made it much worse. Especially as I am convinced he played sick several games, risking deadly diseases like heart muscle inflammations. He did that for Chelsea. For his love of football in blue.

Drogba does not want to break his contract with Chelsea. He is adapting to a new situation and I claim by everything I believe that Drogba will give Chelsea great service for another two years at least, that is how unique his physique is and his will to play and perform for Chelsea. Maybe not every game, but do any one of you disloyal so called fans think that a player like Scholes would be pushed away because he can not perform at top level every game still, or Ryan Giggs? No their club and fans treat them as the legends they are and accept that their contribution to their club is more sporadical but stil vital at moments. Scholes dominated the United game at the Bridge in the first half. But I have never heard of Manc fans wanting to cash him in, like some of our fans are saying about Drogba (and Lamps too)!

I also see him as an ideal partner to Torres. Oh yes. They only have had a few minutes to try that out and they have not yet found out how to work with each other. That is not strange, unusual or even unexpected. Both are used to being the centre of attention, the single focal point of the attack. But together they can be one of the most awesome attacking duos ever if we allow them time to gel and figure out how to work together. Drogba`s immense skills and power up at the front should really work like butter on toast with Torres`s speed and working deep on straight to the goal. But it will not just happen, they need to work on it. Then it will happen, but probably not fully until at least next season.

He has soon scored 100 goals for Chelsea, in about 200 games. He has been as pivotal to Chelsea success since Roman (or in his case José) came as John Terry and Frank Lampard (and Lamps is treated in the same disrespectful way as Drogba by individuals that claim to support Chelsea, in my eyes they do not, they only support themselves and what they claim is support is not really Chelsea nor Chelsea players. To me support is to stand behind your team and your players, not trying to flog them on the market because they had a bad spell). He is unique in his physical setup and probably in better physical shape than most players ten years his juniors.

If Drogba wants to leave Chelsea, I will accept that without problem thanking him profusely for his great service to the club I love. But is he is sold, because some fans want to be rid of him for resale value, I will be ashamed of my club as much as Ken Bates a lot of times made me ashamed. To me Drogba deserves the same reverance and respect that we all easily have given to Zola, Osgood, Dixon and so many others of our heroes - and if he wants to stay and play out his contract I feel the club owes it to him. The club gave that contract to him after all, they were not forced to.

(And on the point, please stop lying about how much money he makes in Chelsea. He probably is not paid more than 2/3 of what JT, Lamps and probably Torres is paid, so just stop lying about him making 150-175k as I seen commentators here claim he makes in wages, because he does not).

Shame on you that refuse to see players as human beings instead of figures to be only sold and traded instead of seeing the effort and work they have given our club and still has to offer. Have you learnt nothing of the big deals Chelsea has done when doing your Playstation thing? Players are human beings and like all human beings they respond to support and getting confidence from the club, management and fans. That is what makes them perform, not their resale-value.

Any football club will always buy and sell players, that is part of the game. Some because they never settled, some because the club misjudged them, others because they, like Robben, wanted away. But to sell legends that still want to put their everything into our club and our games just because you as a fickle fan do not like them anymore - shame on you.

To me players like Drogba, Lampard, JT, Cech etc all should be allowed to stay and do their best for Chelsea as long as they feel they can contribute. In which manor they can contribute is up to the manager, not fickle Playstation fans (and yes again, I mean that as a real insult). Their wages while doing that is only up to the club and the management to discuss. No employer ever pays more than the worker is worth to the employer, and in all honesty not one of us has more than an inkling of what Chelsea players really are paid. But I am pretty sure no one earns the sums mentioned in the tabloids or by ignorant fans that want to make a fake point.

Ken Bates treated our legends with contempt and disdain. Roman A brought our legends back and treated them as the legends they have been for the club, ambassadors for Chelsea after they stopped playing. In my eyes you do not stop being a legend and an asset to a football club just because a passport states certain ages or because the gruelling performance demands can not be met every game. Then it is up to the club and manager to utilise players the way they still best can serve the club. I would not be at all surprised if Drogba for example wins the Golden Boot again next year if he stays healthy, despite not playing every game….

But then I am probably wrong and it must surely be better to get £15m for him that can be wasted on an untried talent that popped up on Playstation!? That has been tried many times, and failed even more.

Footballers are human beings too, individuals and they deserve loyalty from us fans as much as we demand loyalty and performance from them.