BlueChampions - The backyard of Chelsea FC!

With this international break and the new Sheikh in town, there’s hardly any Chelsea news now. I thought this is indeed the right time to continue the series on my pilgrimage to Stamford Bridge. For those who had not the read earlier parts, here are the links:
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“I’ve been to Stamford Bridge” – Part I and “I’ve been to Stamford Bridge” – Part II

Any thank you all for all your nice, appreciative and encouraging words. If I say I’m overwhelmed with your response, it would be an understatement. Thanks again. Okay, here we go with the third part of the series:

So I started climbing up. After a dozen or so steps I reached the interior first level of the stadium which had a lot of shops and all that. There were some fellow visitors walking there so I just joined them. After about 10-15 metres of walking in that dimly lit corridor, I could see some bright sunlight from the stairs on the left hand side. That’s when I knew I’m lot closer to the stands.

I just sprinted up the stairs as I could not wait to see the beautiful Stamford Bridge as I knew it. As I climbed up, the greenness of the pitch just struck me like a lightning. With all these hi-tech sophisticated cameras there are things that still cannot be captured by them like it’s done by the human eyes. The image I saw of the pitch and the stadium there could not be substituted by a photograph of any size, quality, clarity or resolution. It was surreal.

I just stood there, took my time, observed the beauty of the pitch and the stadium. I took my time to suck the beautiful image with my eyes. The composition of the image was brilliant. The green grassy pitch in the middle of the army of bue chairs is a photographers’ delight. This must be one of the most beautiful looking stadiums. Apparently, there was none on the pitch except that gentleman who was mowing the pitch in horizontals. I like chequered mowing more than horizontal. Anyway, by the first match, I guess they had changed the pattern to some extent.

The stadium looked compact. I know the word ‘compact’ is the euphemism for ’small’ but I didn’t mean it that way. It was really compact. I could realise that even from the farthest row on the top most tier, the game and the players would look lot closer. I think, from the stands of Stamford Bridge, you can really feel you’re part of the game. I wonder how it works out for the man seated in the farthest row in huge stadiums. Big stadiums could mean more support and enhanced environment but in terms of the pleasure of watching what goes on in the pitch, the medium sized stadiums such as Stamford Bridge would be the ideal ones.

I had not taken my nikon digicam because I was carrying my Nokia N95 8GB which has a 5 mega pixel camera and beats a lot old age digicams like mine. I then had this old gentleman to take a picture that I can title ‘me in stamford bridge’. He must have known what was going through my mind. When he handed back my mobile to me, he said ‘now they’ll believe ya’, with a smile on his face. I must have taken about half a dozen photographs of the view of the stadium/pitch from where I stood.

After realising that there is no point in having so many identical pictures, I moved on. That’s when David came in. David was our tour guide. He must have been in his early fifties. He welcomed us all and started explaining all of us on what we’re going to experience. At that time I also realised that the group of visitors also had fans of rival clubs such as Man Utd, Liverpool, Fulham and Arsenal. I wonder how keen or excited would they be in visiting a stadium of another club. I wouldn’t have visited the Old Trafford or Anfield or Emirates. They are great stadiums all right, but the special feeling won’t be there, without which it means very less. It’s like visiting a bird park while I have zero appreciation for ornithology. I can just see them but I won’t be as excited as a bird life enthusiast. After that welcome speech, David marched on like the pied piper as we all followed him walking across the sea of blue chairs.

David gave us a brief history of the stadium and its surroundings. He also said that some of the buildings around the Stamford Bridge are also owned by Chelsea FC. But still I see it’s near impossible to increase the capacity of the stadium. As the club gets bigger, a stadium with a capacity of 42,000 looks really smaller. But, given the history and the fantastic location of the Stamford Bridge, I hope we don’t move to a new stadium miles outside the London map. As we walked along David said that the first part of the tour would be to the official press conference room. Not bad, I never thought we’ll be able to set foot there. He led us back to a tunnel where the press conference room was situated.

We walked into the room. Actually, it did not look special. It was just like a conference room with about 80 to 100 chairs in it. We were all asked to take our seats where the people from BBC, Sky etc would sit. I found a first row seat, right in the middle. David went and sat in the chair under the spotlight. That’s the one that had the background with all our sponsors’ stickers on it. In my lap top, I must have dozens and dozens of images with that sponsors sticker background on it. As David went on talking about that place, I started to realise how special it was.

It was in those chairs under spotlight, the managers and players sit for the interviews. The desk on which the microphone is placed, has been there for 30 years. Many many Chelsea legends have signed their contracts on that very desk. We were then explained about how a normal press conference would feel like on that room. Also I think on European nights, one part of the conference hall would turn into a bar and all varieties of liquor are served to the press people free of cost, so that they can drink all these exotic stuff and write bad about us.

After a short while I got the surprise of the day. David told us that we can sit on the spot light chair and get ourselves photographed. Wow! I was not expecting that. That was a bonus. I helped a certain people with their photographs and when my turn came, I sat on the chair I got my self two pictures, one leaning back and other leaning front. It so happens I take ‘brilliant’ pictures when asked and when I’m returned that favour it’s not even half as good. That goes to show what an exceptional photographer I am, in my eyes. Anyway, who cares for how the photo is, I was already in cloud nine that could sit there. That’s a great feeling isn’t it to know that you’ve sat on the very same chair as Jose Mourinho once did.

Sitting on that illustrious chair, I can’t help but imagine myself signing for Chelsea a life-long contract with an option becoming a manager at the end of the contract I thought of video taken of me, where I say “we have a great team, sorry if I’m arrogant, we also have a top manager. I think I’m a special one”. Hard luck, we had to move on as we were behind time already. The next section of the tour was supposed to be an even more sacred one – the home dressing room . . .

To Be Continued . . .