JOURNAL OF A CHELSEA FAN

Chelsea FC, one of the big 6 teams in the Premier League, Champions of Europe on two occasions and winners of numerous other honours over the past quarter of a century. A glamorous football club with supporters all over the world. However, it wasn't always like that.

Back in the early 1980s it was a basket case of a club that was on the verge of bankruptcy. Despite the hard times for the team, and often reviled by the media, a hard core of fans remained fiercely loyal. JOURNAL OF A CHELSEA FAN is the authentic story of what it was really like to be part of ‘ John Neal's Blue & White Army’ during the days when being a Chelsea fan had you labelled as a hooligan not a glory hunter.

Focusing on two contrasting seasons 1982/83, the lowest point in the club’s history and the glorious, unexpected return to Division one the following season in 1983/84, this is the author's authentic journey from young supporter to match going fanatic, home and away week in week out during that era.

Through personal memories, raw emotion and unapologetic honesty, these pages celebrate the years when being Chelsea meant swearing allegiance through heartbreak and finding identity in the blue that ran deeper than form or fortune. This is not filtered nostalgia - it’s a snapshot of a time when the club was vulnerable and loyalty meant more than league position.

Here’s to the fans who lived it, the players who shaped it and our club that survived it!