Chelsea reminds me of another team I have an affection for (the Yankees, which everyone here seems to hate…yes I would never root against the Padres on pain of death, but you try living in New York and want to watch some baseball. Be glad I don’t like craptastical Mets lol)

But as I was saying, Chelsea is a lot like the Yanks in the sense that they overpay for a lot of stars who are getting older (Shevchenko post-Milan, anyone?). How I’m almost positive that before the next decade is over our payroll will be not-infinite. Either that or more sheiks will buy EPL teams (like Man City) and be able to spend gajillions of dollars as well. However if they decide to do some more developing and get some more John Terrys and the like from their youth system or get some transfers from the lower leagues, they won’t be off too badly then. To use some more baseball metaphors, they can turn from the Yankees to the Rays with a higher-payroll.

Oh and what Ashley Cole does is Ashley Cole’s problem. The man can play, they pay him to do so, I just leave it at that. And again, Terry is a damn fine defender, so if he wants to sleep with a lot of women and act like a hooligan off the pitch, that’s fine. Again all I care about is the product on the field. I’m not the pope or someone trying to send people to hell for bad behavior, I’m just a fan.

And that’s my (rather terrible, if I say so myself) view on my EPL team. I can do Yankees opinions too, haha.

Football fans of the European leagues are probably going to be bandwagon fans, like you say, and that’s okay. Considering the geographical circumstances and such, I wouldn’t expect much else.

But if you’re going to jump into the bandwagons of one of the Big Four clubs of any league, then be a fan. Educate yourself. Obviously not every fan has the capacity to do this, but it disappoints me knowing that some fans don’t know who Sir Bobby Charlton, Alfredo di Stefano, are, or who Fergie’s Fledglings are, or have no sense of the history of the club— people who don’t understand or trivialize the Munich Air Disaster, Hillsborough, etc. Or don’t even know that there are 38 games in a season, or what Boxing Day fixtures are, etc.

Or if you think Ronaldinho still plays for Barca.

I can respect you as a fan if you use words like “squad”, “fixture”, “tie”, “tied”, “draw”, “campaign”, “punt”, “gaffer”, “manager” vs. “coach”, etc. in the right context. These things would reveal your understanding of the football culture— otherwise, be willing to learn and let football embrace you and you embrace football.

Many are just trying to be fans of the game. If you don’t want new fans of the sport then give crap to everyone who tries. But, if you do respect the growth of the game, then don’t be a dick about it.