BlueChampions - The Blog of the Champions of England!

And then I drowned myself in beer on Friday night, only to wake up late on Saturday morning. I quickly wrapped up all the morning formalities such as the shower and the corn flakes. Being a vegetarian, corn flakes has always been an important part of my diet when I’m outside India. I was in my lee cooper brownish jean and a black levi tee on top. Unfortunately I had not brought my Chelsea jersey. May be I’m not too fortunate with the jerseys. Either they are too big for me or little too long. Being a bit thin, I don’t think the collar less jersey looks good on me. But that never stopped me from sporting it. For some reason (which could be my wife!), the jersey was not in the travel luggage. That was not a problem as I knew I would be buying a new jersey anyway.

The first stadium tour of the day starts at 10 am. I thought I should be there in time. I had already done the trip the previous day so I knew exactly which way to turn, which tube to catch and how long to walk. I was carrying a bag with some essentials in it such as some chips, water and this book ‘Calcio’. I bought this book back in India. It is a book on the history of Italian football. It runs us through more than 100 years Italian football, its origin, its evolution, its highs and lows, its moments of pride and shame (more of the latter?). It’s a fantastic read and I covered quite a bit in my tube travels in London.

Punctuality is not my forte. There was a reassurance of it when I reached Stamford Bridge at 10:15 am. The Indian in me thought I can still talk my way to the 10 am stadium tour despite being a bit late. Well, it didn’t work. My idea was politely turned down and I was advised to join the 11 am tour. No issues. The Chelsea mega store was inviting me with open arms. What a luxury of choice? I can either get to the stadium tour or the Chelsea mega store. Not bad eh?

It was a great feeling to be inside the megastore. Wherever you see, you see blue, you see Chelsea. I wanted to spend ‘some’ time in the mega store. The store had a ground floor and a first floor. The ground floor was full of DVDs, books and goodies such mugs, flags, photo frames, caps and the like. The first floor was for the apparels – jerseys, shorts, tees etc. I didn’t have a list of things to buy as such. I was sure that I would be buying the 08/09 season jersey and the Blue Revolution DVD. I was quite open to buy anything as long as I liked it, I could afford it and more importantly I could afford to fly back with it. Also, I was going to buy only those Chelsea stuff I could not get in India.

It was good fun spending time in the megastore. It was an ocean of mugs, diaries, towels, flags etc. There was even this mug with Pizarro’s image on it. Wonder who’s buying it!? There was such a shortage of goodies with with the prominent players. May be they were sold out. In the DVD section, I got this Blue Revolution DVD I was looking for. There were also the season review DVDs that I already had or I did not want. The Chelsea vs Barca champions league match was on a separate DVD. I’ve got the the highlights of both legs on my mobile. So I didn’t go for it. I badly wanted to buy a cap but thankfully there was a mirror nearby. Caps are not meant for bespectacled people with short hair.

There were also the old copies of the official Chelsea magazine. I browsed the Aug 07 and Sep 07 issue to see if I can sense that JM was to be sacked three weeks later. No signs there. In fact, there were some articles praising his genius. Funnily strange. The plasma inside the ground floor of the store was showing the highlights of the champions league final match. I seriously wondered why! That match had the most disappointing moment of the season that you don’t want to watch again. Still, from Chelsea FC’s perspective, making it to the champions league final was an achievement in itself. I could see that from the various ‘Road to Moscow’ goodies.

Before this match on plasma got to the penalties, I climbed up to the first floor for the apparels section. As I said I wanted the new jersey. Knowing my luck with sizes, I asked for the biggest ‘kids size’ that’s available in the store. That one looked a little small so I was checking where the trial room is. This stores guy then told me that there is none and I can just try. Felt a bit strange but I just tried on my tee itself. It was a bit too tight. Have they done something to the standard sizes? I tried the S (small) sized jersey then. You know what, it fit like a shoe. Certainly they have done something in the jersey fit. This is the first time a Chelsea jersey has fit me to my satisfaction.

I could have had my name printed on the back of the jersey. I didn’t particularly want that. I bought a Michael Ballack jersey. I bought another one for Chelsito. I moved on. There was this range of tees, shorts and all that. The previous season’s jerseys were sold in cut price but all of them were only full sleeves. I wanted to know if the black away kit of 06-07 was available. They weren’t there. They may not sell everything in stock by the time a new kit is introduced. I wonder what happens to the unsold jerseys of the previous seasons?

That’s when I was also wondering how many of the goal keepers’ jersey are sold? I think the goalies’ jerseys don’t even make it to the stores in India. Poor souls. Ah, now I realise that in the ocean of Chelsea stuff they did not have Petr Cech’s very noticeable head gear! Hope it doesn’t sound cruel! We use the term ‘blue-tinted glasses’. Walking inside the megastore, I felt like was wearing one. I should say, the time flew, inside the megastore.

Purely by accident, I looked my watch. 11:15 am. Bad luck, the next stadium tour also would have started. That’s another 45 minutes to roam around in the megastore. I came down. I bought some goodies. I went up. I saw this Stamford Bridge replica that I had set my eyes on. It did not look as impressive as it did on the images. Still it was quite beautiful. With some touches here and there, I’d have loved to have it. The whole set must be 3 feet by 4 feet. The item being so big and fragile, I did not even think of carrying it back home. More than anything, I don’t think I have a 3 by 4 disposable space at office or home where I can place this.

The CCTV inside the megastore must have so much footage of me wandering pointlessly. Before someone could look at me suspiciously, I thought I can end my megastore campaign. I got all my stuff billed where I requested the staff to unclip all the tags and the stuff on the jerseys. It was 11:45 am. Then I had planned to do this thing. I got out of the store and took that brand new jersey and wore it on my black tee. I felt christened. And I had not even stepped inside the stadium. I went to the stadium tours section and checked about the tour. That sweet lady said that the tour would start in 15 minutes and the tour guide would join us and until then I can wait ‘inside the stadium’. What she was telling me was to be seated in one of the 42,055 seats of holy Stamford Bridge!