Chelsea FC - Why Ron Gourlay Is Wrong About Fixing Their Image

Chelsea FC needs to stop being so apologetic. For a competitive sports entity to go about its business as though winning a popularity contest were its highest priority, is puzzling. That’s why the sight of Ron Gourlay breaking his sword over his knee, in an admission of guilt over Chelseaai??i??s many sins and ruined image, is the last thing the Blues needed right now.

Ron Gourlay - (c) Wwmo210 - Wikimedia Commons — Can’t Fix What Ain’t Broken

Gourlayai??i??s inexplicable need to offer up Chelseaai??i??s newfound attacking prowess as a public mea culpa for the club’s perceivedAi??sins over the past several years beggars belief. Chelsea are playing the way they do now for two simple reasons. First, Roman Abramovich wants them to do so. And second, because thereai??i??s been a shift in the balance of power towards the deft-footed Iberian style of playing football. And not because Gourlay truly believes Chelseaai??i??s exciting style will repair the clubai??i??s image.

This must and should rankle True Blues around the world, to no end. To suggest the clubai??i??s image needs repairing is to lend credence to accusations that somehow Chelsea are the spoilt brats of the English Premier League, and that if it werenai??i??t for the peskyAi??Blues, the Premier League wouldai??i??ve been a paragon of virtue.

Claiming the clubai??i??s image needs repairing – apparently, more than any other club out there -Ai??also questions Chelseaai??i??s commitment to stances that while seemingly controversial, have always been justifiable in the circumstances ai??i?? the case of Graham Poll, notwithstanding. So what particular instances does Gourlay refer to as having ruined the clubai??i??s image?

Was it Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack letting Tom Henning Ovrebo know exactly what they thought of him? Drogba served his ban, Ballack was suitably chastened while Ovrebo – who put in a performance so atrocious that he could only plead incompetence ai??i?? received not even a rap on his knuckles. Chelsea reserved the right to protest, and the only people likely to perceive that instance as ruining the Bluesai??i?? image are Barcelona sympathizers who arenai??i??t going to be swayed into siding with Chelsea in that game no matter what.

Or is it the Anders Frisk incident that Gourlay refers to as having ruined the clubai??i??s image? While itai??i??s shameful and utterly deplorable the referee received death threats from a bunch ofAi??lunatics and had to prematurely retire, the club did exactly what it had to. When a clubai??i??s manager registers a complaint over an incident he allegedly witnessed, the club has every right to back him to the hilt.

There is no indication Chelsea rushed to judgment with no grounds to support Mourinhoai??i??s claim. Unknown to many, the Blues were eventually proven partially correct when it emerged Rijkaard did speak to Anders Frisk, even if it wasnai??i??t in the latterai??i??s changing room. UEFAai??i??s finding that the entire innocuous conversation only consisted of Frisk curtly dismissing Rijkaard is a matter of conjecture, and few will take UEFAai??i??s official version about anything without a pinch of salt.

Could it be John Terryai??i??s abuse of Rio Ferdinand that Gourlay believes damaged the reputation of the club? While the incident will forever hang over the captainai??i??s head, and rightfully so, Chelsea as a club have simply done no wrong. To suggest otherwise, is to presume the club has a deliberate policy of requiring its employees to verbally offend the players of other clubs. The wholeAi??incident is Terryai??i??s to deal with, and his alone. Just as it was Luis Suarezai??i??s fault alone and despite Liverpoolai??i??s ham-handed defense of him, nobody seems to be holding the whole of Anfield responsible for one manai??i??s transgressions.

Could it be the recent complaint registered against Clattenburg that Gourlay believes has soiled the clubai??i??s image? For a club that intends to take the lead in kicking the scourge of racism out of the game, any action that did not involve raising a complaint against Clattenburg in view of the recorded statements from Ramires and Mikel, would have been tantamount to not taking racism seriously. Had Chelsea failed to act, the very same detractors now accusing the club of crying wolf would have then accused the club of not learning its lessons from the Terry-Ferdinand saga and putting its own comfort and PR over whatai??i??s right.

Ron Gourlay needs to concentrate on the one thing guaranteed to ai???repairai??? Chelseaai??i??s image. Success, and lots of it. All the pretty passing in the world is not going to convince the clubai??i??s detractors the Blues deserved to be knighted. All the attacking football in the world isnai??i??t going to get Anders Frisk to come out of retirement, or convince Ovrebo and Clattenburg to cheer the Blues on from the Shed End.

Manchester United — The man that time forgot

Maybe itai??i??s time Chelsea took a page out of its rivalsai??i?? book, and stopped calling attention to its own flaws. Sir Alex Ferguson believes time ought to stop for his club, while Arsene Wenger has never seen his side do anything wrong. Perhaps it’s time Chelsea stopped the self-flagellation. Gourlay thinks it might make Chelsea more likeable; but all it does is make Chelsea look guilty of crimes it was never responsible for.

For too long, the transgressions of Chelseaai??i??s players have been held up as proof of a club culture lacking in morals and ethics, when the Blues biggest rivalsai??i?? get a free pass even when their players are guilty of far worse. Pundits never tired of telling us how John Terryai??i??s affair with Vanessa Perroncel, would never have taken place at Manchester United because of the patriarchal influence Sir Alex Ferguson exerts over the squad and the fact the pious Red Devils even have a chaplain.

That is, of course, until Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney were revealed to be leading double lives too. That these personalAi??incidents might be seen as harming Manchester Unitedai??i??s image as a club was rightfully never even considered. But had such details emerged about Chelseaai??i??s players, you can be sure Ron Gourlay would be holding a press conference in West London offering his apologies to anyone whoai??i??d listen.

Tags: Chelsea FC Terry

Chelsea FC – Why Ron Gourlay Is Wrong About Fixing Their Image

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