Are CHELSEA Really a Big Club? Does London's Richest Club have History?

Chelsea have become famous in recent years and many people will name them as one of England’s biggest clubs. But they are not like other clubs in England. Nobody can doubt the number of trophies they have picked up over the last 20 years and many will associate them with big spending. But there is more to them than this. They have a long history and there are some surprising facts about their support and their ability to pick up European trophies even before all the investment they had.
There is no doubt that Chelsea have changed a lot but the whole of football has changed since the dawn of the Premier League. Fans may have different opinions about who the real Chelsea are and they may be asking questions about their identity now that results do not always go their way.
Chelsea are one of the clubs who did so well in a particular period of time that many fans will think that they are entitled to this success. This is one of the fallacies of football which has overcome fans of clubs recently possibly due to the increased contact with football teams from countries where this does happen because leagues on the continent are often stuck with authoritarian like clubs who tend to get what they want. Powerful individuals dominating English football was not a thing but this has increased recently. It is not fair to tar Chelsea with the brush of authoritarianism and it is important to look at their first hundred years to understand who they really are.

[@stud105]

Historically a small club. All the trophies that have been bought have given them huge status. I remember seeing someone walking their dog in the open stand at Stamford bridge in the 70s, With their paper under their arm

[@joelww2501]

'Historically a small club' small clubs don't have France's 1998 World Cup winning centre back partnership (Leboeuf & Desailly) or Gianfranco Zola.

[@chrisdawe3293]

That’ll be interesting 👀😆

[@MrBallerinakaka]

They Became Big Club in 2000s When Russian Businessman Bought Then Jose Mourinho Was Appoinated to Be A Manager Following Porto Champions League Success Which Led to Won More Trophies Which Saw Increased Trophies Count & Having Legendary Players (Included Petr Cech & John Terry) So They're Still Big Club But Now Under Todd Boehly They Wasted Money on Wonderkids (Decent Signings But Not Good Enough at Club) & Sacking World-Class Manager Thomas Tuchel.

[@bigfootballclubs]

I suppose the question is does this really make them a big club in themselves or if they were just a conduit for Abramovich's reputation. The success of Man City illustrate how such levels of investment can work at many clubs, and that there is nothing about Chelsea in themselves that make them big.

[@historyoffootball87]

Chelsea before the takeover by Abramovich were more of a cup team and I would never have classed them as a big club. You only have to look at what they won before the takeover as opposed to after the takeover, before the takeover they only won a single league title 50 years prior, a couple of FA Cups, league cups and a cup winners cup. Look at them now following all the money, they have pretty much won everything.

[@chelseacharger]

Clearly and predictably there's going to be the usual comments from those who ignored the fact that Chelsea had the biggest attendances in England, either side of WW1 and again in 1955. Everything is not set in stone. There was a time, Liverpool were not even the biggest club in their own city while Man Utd were a decent sized but by no means biggest club. As with all these video's, it depends on what you are comparing each club to and where you draw the line. Your attendance graph is not really a good representation in that is an aggregate list, not the average attendance of each club over their entire league histories. Chelsea a 6th. They were recently in 5th but their limited stadium capacity means Newcastle overtook them a little while back. Even so, with the 6th biggest all time average crowds, the first ever club to average 40,000+ attendances a century ago, a record league crowd of nearly 83,000, that alone puts them pretty high in the rankings.

[@chrisdawe3293]

I can’t wait for the Man City one 😆