Well lets face it, we have constantly been informed over the last 5 years that Chelsea are gonna implode "any day now". We have heard from many sources how difficult it will prove to keep so many top class players happy at the club. How when they grow tired of being rotated or subbed or being left out of the starting 11, that Chelsea will have a full scale players revolt on their hands. We are told that players will demand to be released as they see their chances of playing regularly will be limited.
In the last 5 years I can only remember 2 players who have left us for that reason, Damien Duff and Scott Parker. Now considering how many players we have aquired over the last 5 years, that's not a bad ratio in my opinion. We have had players leave for other reasons of course, but transfers related to playing time have been minimal.
Thats not to say that the situation might not arise in the future though. When players sign for Chelsea, they do so in the knowledge that their place in the team is not guaranteed week in and week out. They sign KNOWING that fact. If they find later on that it's a situation they cannot handle, then they move on, another player of similar ability steps up a place and Chelsea move forward. So in that regard, I think we can live with the occassional player throwing a wobbly, thanks to the luxury of having such a big, talented and dedicated squad.
Wayne Bridge, SWP, Obi, Maka, Ballack, Cudicini, Alex and even Sheva have been constantly been reported to be on the move because of the lack of playing time at Chelsea. Yet they continue to re-sign their contracts and they choose to stay.
Players at Chelsea understand fully that the Club comes first. No room for ego's or bigheads, it's all about the collective effort from everyone in the squad to perform to their very best when called upon, to make the club and the team a sucess.
Oh yeah, and Roman will apparantly get bored with his little toy some day real soon, and walk away from us. He was supposed to have done that some time over the last 5 years, but he hasn't. He's also still here, and going nowhere.
Must be frustrating for some other fans though, to actually realise that all their hopes and wishfull thinking, directed towards the downfall of CFC over the last 5 years have been in vain.
As season after season passes and we see the progression being made by our club, domestically and in Europe, its a pleasure to note that the prophets of doom are now thinner in number than they ever were. One day the rest of them will simply give it up as a lost cause.
Not that the rumour mongering and efforts at de-stabilising the club should bother us. We have always for as long as I can remember, risen above it all and survived it. We are Chelsea, and that's they way it's always been. That's the way it will always be.