"Chelsea are my escape. They have ALWAYS been there for me" - Fan View Why Chelsea IS Life For So Many
"We need it. My Dad needs it. My mates need it."
Football is more than just a sport, Chelsea is more than just a football club. The sport, and Chelsea FC is literally LIFE to so many, and anyone who fails to understand or show compassion for this, doesn’t understand mental health.
In real life, in every day life, so many people need an ‘escapism’, something they can do or somewhere they can go to get away from the stress and pressures that life throws at us.
Chelsea FC for so many, is a vital escapism and has literally saved peoples lives. This is why I’ve not understood the narrative this week that Chelsea fans should not be upset or complaining about what is happening at the club, because what is going on in the Ukraine is worse. I do not deny that, it’s devastating and a sick tragedy. But even though what is going on there IS much worse, there is no need to search for comparisons and claim other people’s suffering is not as bad, it’s not a competition.
It shouldn’t be a case of what is worse, it is a case of showing compassion for ALL living souls on this planet, and genuinely I have no doubt that if you took Chelsea away from people’s lives, there would be some who would no longer have a life, and I mean that absolutely in the literal sense.
This is why many fans have been so passionate this week about wanting to make sure our football club is OK and continues to exist. This does not mean that we don’t care about other tragedies happening in the world, FAR from it. But Chelsea is a community that is heavily relied on by SO many throughout the world, and at the moment, we are also now being punished for the actions of someone else, that none of us have ANYTHING to do with.
Lifelong Chelsea fan and season ticket holder Scotty Hayter (AKA ‘The B*llocks and #TrayofLove) kindly took the time to give me his passionate words on exactly what Chelsea means to him, and it really is heart-wrenching stuff. I genuinely had tears in my eyes when I it back for the first time.
Scott is massively brave, and he openly admits that his mental health struggles so bad that he might not even be here right now if it was not for Chelsea Football Club, that is the severity of it and the raw reality.
“29/9/1990. That was the first time I walked through the Stamford Bridge Turnstiles and saw the pitch,” Scott told me.
“7 years old, clutching my Dad’s hand tight, I looked at him as he looked down at me and smiled. “What do you think”, he asked me. The answer was written all over my face. It was love at first sight.
”That game perhaps sums Chelsea up. 2-0 up after half hour, we capitulated, with Vinnie Jones and Brian Deane both scoring for Sheffield Utd (the latter being a 92nd minute equaliser) ensuring my first ever visit ended in a draw, and wasn’t completely perfect. It didn’t matter. I was hooked.
”That first experience is an example of how up and down my love affair with Chelsea is. It’s always eventful (it always has been), but they are the one constant in my life. The result doesn’t matter. It’s the escape. There is always drama. It’s a real-life soap-opera. Give me Frank Lampard over Frank Butcher, every day of the week.
”I never ever dreamt that September Saturday afternoon, standing in The Shed - watching a game with Ford Escorts parked behind the goal - that nine years later I’d be standing in an Away End at the San Siro, watching Dennis Wise score against the mighty AC Milan. It was such a thrill. Such a ride. It was beautiful.
”As a care-free child/teenager, Chelsea was all I looked forward to. I studied hard at school, but football was my life. I was never good enough to play professionally, so I decided I’d be a professional ‘fan’. Home & Away, it defined my childhood. Me and Dad - it was our time. My love for Music derived from sitting with Dad in the car on the way to games and having him educate me on the songwriting abilities of Lennon/McCartney. I loved it. I looked forward to it. Dare I say, I needed it. It was my escape. Following Chelsea was like having therapy once a week. It calmed me down. It brought me joy. It was everything.
”The older I’ve got, the more I’ve suffered with my mental health. My Mum was diagnosed with Cancer during my first year at University. I remember her sitting me down and telling me the news. It was a sad moment and I remember it like it was yesterday. I couldn’t take it all in. I’d come home for the weekend and was watching Man City put four past United in the Manchester Derby. It was before anyone expected that. They were rubbish, but Shaun Wright Phillips ran United ragged that day. I needed that game to be on the tele at that moment. I needed Chelsea badly. I couldn’t deal with the reality of life. Chelsea, helped me pull through.
”I just couldn’t deal with my Mum’s illness. I still can’t. I admit, I’m not the same person I was growing up, before Mum’s plight. She fought and fought, promising me she’d see me Graduate. She did. During that time, I struggled to juggle the load of finishing my Degree and facing up to life without my darling Mum. Chelsea got me through that time, more than anything, more than everything else in the World put together.
“Every week, I ‘escaped’. Every week, win, lose or draw, I was able to put ‘life’ in a box, and was completely engrossed with the football. It’s love, it’s an addiction. And, I think I started to understand during my University years just how addicted to the club I was. I actually needed it. Mum, Dad and I cried when Wayne Bridge scored at Highbury that night. I held my Mum so tight. She was weak and frail, but she celebrated like it might be the last goal she ever saw. It wasn’t. Sadly she saw us capitulate in Monaco. How very Chelsea of us to beat that tremendous Arsenal side and then blow the semi-final, in such glorious surroundings (the stadium is awful, by the way).
”When Mum passed, Dad and I would sit at home and couldn’t talk about it. We beat Palace 2-0 at Selhurst the day she died. The house was full. Chelsea was on the tele. About 20 of us jumped up when Drogba headed in his first goal for the club. We couldn’t face up to the reality of losing Mum, but we didn’t have to. Chelsea was our escape, yet again, and so it continued.
”Throughout my adult life, I’ve made mistakes. I’ve learnt painful lessons. I’ve had lots of success. I’m blessed to have a wonderful family, brilliant friends, two very beautiful, perfect children, and a loving partner. All that said, I’ve had to face up and live with addiction. It’s hard. I found life too overwhelming in 2018 and came very close to not being here today. I know see every day as a beautiful day; a chance to do good, a chance to help another person and a new opportunity.
”Chelsea are my escape. They have ALWAYS been there for me, when I need them. I have met hundreds and hundreds of amazing people. All with tales to tell. All with their own struggles, some more than others. I feel part of something. These people are my friends for life. Football brings us together. I need it. We need it. My Dad needs it. My mates need it. Road trips, away days, pre-match in the Cock Tavern, multiple Whatsapp groups; they all exist because of Chelsea.
”Life without them is unthinkable. I’m a mix of emotions writing this. There will be many who are enjoying this. I understand tribalism, so I understand that. What I don’t and can’t comprehend is any human-being taking joy in another suffering. We’ve got Lille on Wednesday. I plan to enjoy it - I’m spending time with some brilliant people, and I am lucky enough to be able to see my team play in the European Cup. The truth is, we could be playing away at Wigan or Chesterfield on Wednesday night, and we’d all still be just as excited. It’s not so much the opposition, or the competition, it’s sticking that ‘out of office’ on and ‘escaping’. 32 years of escapism, of joy, of disappointment, of drama. It’s life. And it’s an addiction. It’s Chelsea.
”You’ll never notice how much I love you. Please don’t take my Chelsea away.”
Simon Phillips, with words from Scotty Hayter (@ScottyHayter)
He made me cry..thank you to have shared those words in this particular moment! We love you chelsea 💙