Lines in sand about who is Chelsea and professionalism make no sense

Do you like Chelsea? Congratulations, you’re a Chelsea fan. None of this “well actually, fans and supporters are different” nonsense that comes straight from the big book of “I’m better than you because you are different”. Some fans get to go to the Bridge, some don’t. Chelsea, in its current form, doesn’t exist without both the fan going to the Matthew Harding Stand and the fan turning on the TV at three in the morning wearing their blue.

It’s the story of human history to draw lines in the sand about what is Chelsea and what is not, with the tangent of what is okay to say about Chelsea and what is not. These lines in the sand rarely make a whole lot of sense simply because they get crossed so much as it is. If people are Chelsea, shouldn’t that be enough?

Take the Romelu Lukaku interview which Thomas Tuchel and people at the club got over basically as soon as it happened. There are still fans that can’t move past that interview and don’t even get started on the dog whistle that is “lakaka”.

But then Christian Pulisic says something that really isn’t much different than what Lukaku says, and its ignored. Lukaku said he wasn’t happy with how he was used and there was uproar. Pulisic? Crickets.

And there isn’t far to go from those interviews and “wanting to be at the club” to the current contract situation. Nearly anytime Andreas Christensen’s non extension comes up, it is almost immediately met with cries that he can leave. Is his situation any different than Cesar Azpilicueta’s though? An unsigned contract is an unsigned contract, no matter how many times a deal has been “close” before. But one player came down on the right line of the sand and the other did not.

Maybe it is a professionalism issue, but people have no idea what they want there either. Some fans cry about Jody Morris being “unprofessional” simply because he tweeted like they would a few times. They even flock to defend Jose Mourinho from mean old Morris as if Mourinho hasn’t made a career out of giving as good as he gets.

And perhaps the big one is turning on John Terry, the captain, leader, legend himself, because he’s pushing NFTs. Little to no criticism goes the way of Reece James who is also involved. “It’s unprofessional!”. Well then, wouldn’t all advertising be? Terry is using his image to advertise a product. It’s not a tangible product, but it is one nonetheless. Is that different than when Eden Hazard did the tea commercial?

All these lines in the sand are pointless. If someone is at Chelsea, they’ve already done the leg work to show they want to be at Chelsea. If they decide they want to leave, that’s their business but while they still are at Chelsea, they are Chelsea. And if someone at Chelsea decides to act like a human being instead of the impossible image people have crafted in their heads of them, they are still Chelsea.