Chelsea’s ownership has been in for a lot of criticism this season, in large part for what they’ve done on the pitch. But another strand of criticism has come in response to a lack of communication from the top level.
Not only do we rarely hear from them, what makes it worse is that when we do hear from them, it comes exclusively at big business conferences where players are talked of as assets and fans as just cash cows to be milked for growth, margin and profit.
It’s not the right way to treat a cultural and social institution like a football club, and it’s not the right way to get fans to like you. Still, at least today, in the final game of the season, they’ve put a message in the matchday programme, which is at least one step up from just hearing from them at the GloboMegaCorp Capitalism Conference or whatever they’re been attending recently.
Now that things are looking better on the pitch, it’s a good time for them to speak about the project they’re putting in place. It certainly wouldn’t have been wise to do it when we were in the depths of our despair at the start of this year.
“The men’s team are in their best form of the season and making a late push for European qualification today,” the message read.
“While that has been encouraging, please know our ambitions for the club are higher. We are now approaching the second anniversary since becoming custodians of this incredible club, and it remains an absolute privilege to hold that position. Our promise to you, our loyal supporters, was to make you proud of Chelsea. The desire to achieve that burns stronger every day.”
A unifying message
As we’ve always said, winning will get fans onside no matter who the owners are. So if we can start next season in the same form we’ve finished this one, complaints will soon evaporate. But by the same token, for as long as supporters are treated as just customers, we will always be just a bad season away from angry chants returning to away ends.
