Volume 3, Issue 2 March/April '11
DEEP FROM THE HEART
Notes from the Chairwoman
Hi guys, I am going to have to make this
short as work is CRAZY!
! Dallas, and from the looks of the banner
• Deep from the So I hope this finds everyone happy and
Heart healthy and working. Is it just me or is
the economy picking up? I sure hope it is
• California for everyone.
! London by Dennis of the Motor City
Blues Visit the Did anyone really expect the
Fox Studios rollercoaster that has been this season?
Ah, the life of a Chelsea supporter - the
• Meet the ups, the downs, that constant feeling in
the pit of your stomach, be it nerves,
Florida Blues elation or disappointment - you have to
• Tel's Know love it, the stu" of a full life. I know
many of you had given up on our hopes
Your Chelsea this season, but at Chelsea, hope burns
eternal. Don’t ever give up. BELIEVE. It
• Back Page might not seem probable, but it is still
Crossword possible, so put on a brave face and
send our boys lots of positive thoughts
and hope. We know they have the
capacity, let's support them to the end.
! with lots of photos.
This has been a pretty exciting time for
us. We now have all the banners up at
the Bridge, an amazing 18 of them! And
for those of you that are interested in
facts and details, the chapters
represented are:
CHELSEAINAMERICA, Austin, Bay Area,
Beltway, Boston, Charm City, Chicago,
Georgia, Midwest, Motor City, North
Texas, Orange County, Pacific Coast, San
More CIA banners at the Bridge! Diego, South Bay, Southeast, Texas
That is a whooping 110 FEET OF
BANNERS FROM AMERICA! Pictures are
on the board, on Facebook and
elsewhere.
! design and ideas for NEW CIA
We have had the vote for our 2009/10
Player of the Year and the winner is...
DIDIER DROGBA!Thanks to all that voted.
It was a close race but our Drogs won
out. We have created a banner
composed of all the banners hanging at
Congrats to the EPL Manager and Player the Bridge in a 4’ x 6’ format. We have
of the Month for March! been sending the banner around the
country to have members sign it. What
fun! I know we had a great turnout in
it has seen a lot of members. The banner
is now in Boston and, after stopping
there, will make its last stop in Chicago
before being hand-carried over to
Blues. We will present the banner to the
player (if allowed) before the West Ham
match. We will be taking photos of the
two lucky members that will be selected
to make the presentation. The folks on
the spring tour will be deciding who that
will be, so we will know closer to time.
We have a lot planned for the spring tour
and I just wish more folks were coming!
Please have a think about next spring,
be it your first trip or not, going as a
group means there is lots to do and lots
of fun in store. And we will be sure to
get one of the “spring trippers” to write
up a piece all about it upon their return
!
Lastly, I do want to remind all of you
that there is still a lot going on at CIA
behind the scenes. And all of that
happens because of VOLUNTEERS, so
don’t be shy - join the fun and get more
active. We have folks that have done an
incredible job on Facebook both with
CIA and local chapter pages. Our website
crew is working feverishly getting ready
for a whole new upgrade. The Podcast
crew is checking on new techonology
and desperately needs at least a couple
of volunteers. Our famous Jamie is also
busy with the newsletter and always
could use articles and photos. Raciel and
Starla Rose have been working on a new
MERCHANDISE! And then we had the
scarves on o"er designed by Chris Blake,
how great are they? Of course the mods
on the bulletin boards are always busy,
keeping the board clean, fighting the
spam attacks and doing general
Continued on Page 2
 Page 2

Photos from the California Blues' Trip to Fox Studios for

Continued from Page 1 Chelsea vs. Liverpool - story on Page 4!
maintenance. All your chapter heads Photos by Julie Carlson and Chris Cruz
and boards are involved in so many
things and give of themselves for the
growth of the club. So why not commit a
teeny bit of time to helping out to
continue to grow CIA and make it better
for all of us.
!
That leads to membership. The 2010/11
season is winding down, and that means
that in about six weeks membership will
be opening for the 2011/12 season. So
keep in touch, check Facebook, check
the website, check the board or ask your
chapter head when and where to sign up
for next season. We are looking for
another big year, and you don’t want to
miss out. We are already planning and
we want to invite all Chelsea supporters
to join us and continue to support the
Blues here in America.
!
Got to run - all my best wishes to all of
you.
!
KEEP THE BLUE FLAG FLYING HIGH!
!
CAREFREE!
!
Beth

Contributors:

A huge thanks to everyone who

makes the CIA Bluesletter
possible!
More CIA banners at the Bridge! photos
thanks to Gill and Graeme of Kent Blues Editor: Jamie Edwards
Chairwoman: Beth Wild
Assistant Editor: Dominique Lui
Graphics: Raciel Diaz

CIA Crest done in collaboration

with Who Are Ya Designs
(www.whoareyadesigns.com)

Want to contribute or make a

suggestion? Send Jamie an email
at newsletter
@chelseainamerica.com!

MEET THE FLORIDA BLUES by Erik Coulbourne
The Florida Blues chapter of CIA was
formed in the Fall of 2010 to try and
unite Blues fans from the Sunshine State.
!In its current form we have the unique
status of being one of the few groups
under CIA that encompasses either a
state or region instead of city or area.
!Because of this, it presents challenges
for the group as we cannot meet on a
regular basis like other groups. We
currently have members in most corners
of the state including Tampa, Orlando,
Jacksonville and South Florida/
Miami.!With 15 registered members that
is a good start, but of course we want to
grow and make the group as strong as
possible to truly represent Chelsea in
Florida.
Our current o#cers are listed below.!In
the coming months we plan on
CALIFORNIA BLUES INVADE FOX STUDIOS
by Andreas Reiter
What’s bigger than Torres coming to
Chelsea during the January transfer
window? Torres playing his first home
game with Chelsea against the team he
left six days ago. It seemed like destiny
for him to come good for us from day
one.
At the time we were invited to watch the
Chelsea-Liverpool match live at Fox
Studios in Los Angeles, I was pretty
excited to say the least. Then finding out
Monday afternoon that Torres was a
Chelsea player put the icing on the cake
to an already highly anticipated match.
Everyone was a bit anxious and rumors
abounded about who would start and if
Torres would get a run against his
former club.
Match day started out early at Fox
studios. Many of us left home around
5am.!Several di"erent factions of
Chelsea in America met in the
downstairs cafeteria where breakfast was
provided.!Our group was comprised of
OC Hooligans, South Bay Blues and
Pasadena Blues, all from Southern
California. The Liverpool supporters
wandered in aimlessly over the next 30
minutes and huddled around the table of
recognizing heads of both the West/
Tampa and South/Miami, Ft.Lauderdale,
West Palm Beach regions.!The more we
grow, the more we will regionalize to
help organize individuals locally.
Je" Stephens - VP Central/Orlando
Region
free food. We were all excited, tired and
curious at the same time, not knowing
exactly how the morning would go on
and if, in fact, Torres would play. After
about an hour of restlessness, the Fox
studios sta" gave us a few instructions
and then led us up to the actual studio.
Once we got there, everyone was thrilled
to see what the morning would hold for
us. We were led into the Fox NFL studios
where only hours later the Superbowl
festivities would be filmed. Both teams
were instructed to sit on a set of small
bleachers which were placed behind the
cameras which were taping the Fox
Soccer Channel pundits. Right from the
get-go, we started singing our Chelsea
chants and in between chants, everyone
in our supporters group had a funny
comment or joke to say about Scousers.
I couldn’t stop laughing and it was
already becoming a great morning.
Before and throughout the game as well
as half-time, everyone got a chance to
meet and take pictures with Warren
Barton, Nick Webster, Eric Wynalda and
the others. They were all very inviting
and friendly. In addition to Temryss Lane
interviewing a few supporters from both
Page 3
Brian Healy - VP North/Jacksonville
Region
Erik Coulbourne - President/Founder
One of our objectives over the coming
months is to grow our numbers within
each region to promote our club as well
as CFC to allow others the enjoyment of
going to a pub and instill the sense of
brother and sisterhood that comes with
being a part of CIA. Next season we plan
on getting together with all members to
meet in person in one location to
KTBFFH.!A website to promote ourselves
is in the works at www.floridablues.org.
!Currently we have a group page on
Facebook to interact with one another
where we exchange banter and photos.
Rome was not bulit in a day but of
course it did start one brick at a time.
teams, they also had a camera guy
filming us for a few seconds at time,
which gave us the chance to be on live
TV. The camera guy would give us a cue,
and that’s when we had to go Chelsea
crazy. Careeee freee, wherever we may
be!
The toughest part of Sunday morning
was watching Chelsea struggle to make
any real o"ensive e"orts. I felt like the
game was a slow motion scrimmage.
Even with Torres and Drogba up top, no
real chances were created. To add insult
to injury, we had the Liverpool fans
singing and when they scored, they went
absolutely nuts, right in front of us.
Funny thing is though, half the time we
couldn’t understand what they were
singing. As annoying as their singing
was, the Liverpool fans were pretty cool
and they seemed like a good group. It
was a good experience to share the
studio with them.
The day sadly ended in Liverpool's favor,
but I think Amanda ended it best in her
end of the game interview with Temryss
Lane, “I’d rather walk alone. Win or lose,
up the Blues.”
 Page 4

KNOW YOUR CHELSEA: by Tel Stevens

Chelsea vs. Aston Villa games in the '70-'71 season, and during A feature on The Times website summed
'71-'72 Micky saw hardly any action, just him up as "six feet four inches of hard-
the one game all year. But as times were core centre back, who had an
changing at the Bridge and a lot of the unsentimental way with a headed
medal-winning players wanted out or clearance and who, from 1971, gave 15
just fell out of favor, Micky started more years of no-nonsense service to a
playing time. The '72-'73 season saw mortifyingly declining side. He was
him notch up 15 games. Chelsea's Player of the Year
in 1978.
As the rebuilding o" the pitch After a brief loan spell with
started to take its toll on the Luton Town, Droy left
pitch, Chelsea had a transfer Chelsea in March 1985, first
embargo put in place. As signing for Crystal Palace
Good Days:
youngsters were thrown in at and later Brentford before
Sept 17th '66 W (A) 2-6: Goalscorers:
the deep end, Micky actually moving back to non-league
Boyle, Tambling 5
had a decent run of games, football initially with Dulwich
Mar 29th '21 W (H) 5-1: Goalscorers:
playing 30 in '73-'74 and Hamlet and then for several
Dec 11th '54 W (H) 4-0: Goalscorers:
scoring his first Chelsea goal years with Kingstonian
Parsons, McNichol 2, Bentley
in the process. where he later became
Dec 27th '86 W (H) 4-1: Goalscorers:
manager. He ran a
Pates, Spackman, Dixon 2
In 1974-'75, Micky played 26 successful electrical
Mar 21st '99 W (A) 0-3: Golascorers:
games and doubled his goals business and moved to
Goldbaek, Flo 2
tally, but that didn't help us Florida.
!
much as we were relegated to Division 2.
Bad Days:
1975-'76 saw Micky start the season but One last thing, if history serves me right,
Apr 15th '52 L (A) 7-1: Goalscorer: Smith
come January got an injury that saw him I think Micky was the first player to put
Nov 19th '38 L (A) 6-2: Goalscorers:
miss the rest of the season. He still the ball in the top tier of the East Stand
Argue, Mills
managed 25 games. during open play.
Nov 19th '31 L (H) 3-6: Goalscorers:
!
Jackson 2, Miller
In our promotion season of '76-'77 Its in the Numbers:
Dec 25th '19 L (A) 5-2: Goalscorers:
Micky didn't play much and only saw 9: Times Dennis Wise was asked to take
Dale, McNeil
action on eight occasions. 1977-78 saw an early bath, four of which were in
Sept 8th '84 L (A) 4-2: Goalscorer:
us struggle in the "old" first Division but 1998-99
Bumstead 2
we did managed to keep away from the 894,000: Website pages produced by
!
relegation zone. Micky had probably his a!Google search for Stamford The Lion
We have also played out a lot of high
best season in the Royal Blue shirt, 13: Goalkeepers who were understudy to
scoring draws, none more so than the
notching up 35 games. Peter Bonetti during his 20-year stay
one on!December 12th, 2008. We drew
With the '80's fast approaching and with between the sticks
4-4 thanks to a last-kick-of-the-game
just Chopper and the Cat left from the 48,302: Our highest ever average
penalty by Gareth Barry. Our goals that
glory days of the early '70's, Micky was attendance; it was accomplished the year
day were scored by Alex, a brace by
becoming a bit of a stalwart in the we first won the League in 1954-'55
Shevchenko, and Ballack.
Chelsea side but even with those three 9th & 20th: Luca Vialli won two!trophies
!
in the side, they couldn't stop Chelsea as manager on his 9th and 20th games
Played For Both:!Andy Townsend, Tony
from being relegated with an 966: David Calderhead, who was in
Dorigo, Kenny Swain, John Phillips,
embarassing points total of just 20. charge for 966 games, won nothing...
Tommy Hughes
Micky totaled just 15 games. Now thats what I call keeping faith with
your coach!
The 300-Game-Plus Club: This month
The 1979-'80 season saw us miss out !
I thought I would highlight a player who
on promotion on goal di"erence. Micky Cup Exploits: League Cup 1997-'98
for some reason doesn't receive as many
managed another 28 games with one 10/15 (H) Blackburn D 0-0 AET: Won on
accolades as some of the other players
goal. From 1980 through to the end of pens
who have played numerous games for
his playing days with Chelsea, Micky 11/19 (H) Southampton W 2-1:
us: defender Micky Droy. Micky played
notched up another 84 games. His last Goalscorers: Flo, Morris
313 games for Chelsea, scoring 19
game was a 0-0 at home to Middlesboro 1/7 (A) Ipswich D 2-2 AET: Goalscorers:
goals. He started way back in the "old
in the spring of 1983. This was the Flo, Le Saux, won on pens
glory" days of the '70's and was actually
season where we nearly ended up in
a squad member of our European Cup Continued on Page 5
Division 3 for the first time.
Winners' Cup run. He did only play four
 Page 5

THE CHELSEA BACKPAGE CROSSWORD by Andy Burbidge

Across!
3.!Even World Cup holders want to come
from this country to play for Chelsea

4.!All our boys from here have lion's

hearts!

5.!When our players from this country

take the field, the opposition may as well
stay in port - or would they be better o"
drinking their port?

7.!Clogs or boots, our players from this

country certainly leaves the opposition
smelling the flowers... tulips, perhaps?

9.!Mention of our striker from this

African nation and his countryman,
whether spelled in English or French,
scares defenders to death

11.!It's either the garlic or their amazing

skills, but our players from this country
certainly leave the opposition standing
when they get on their bike

12.!We were once called the New Azzurri

because of our players from this country
at one time, but we still have one
representative

13.!The English winters must seem mild

compared to our Cossack player from
this country
!
Down
!1.!Even when players from this country
have two names, they are both first
names!
2.!You don't have to check our 'keeper's
nationality, it's pretty obvious
6.!Glad our boy wasn't playing for this
country the other night as England may
well have lost their first game to African
opponents
8.!When this Blue plays for his national
team they certainly soar like the birds
they are named after
9.!If we had a "'David" from this country
he would surely be a star
10.!A generation or so older and our
player from this country might have
been Yugoslavian
Continued from Page 4
1/28 (A) Arsenal L 2-1: Goalscorer: M
Hughes
2/18 (H) Arsenal W 3-1: Goalscorers: M
Hughes, Di Matteo, Petrescu
3/29 Wembley Middlesboro W 2-0:
Goalscorers: Di Matteo, Sinclair
Useless Information: It is rumored that
there is gold buried underneath the
West Stand, and it has been there since
the early part of the last century. When
the original stand was built many many
years ago, it was built upon tons of clay
which had been dumped there during
the construction of the Piccadilly Line.
Also tipped into the rubble was the
remains of a Georgian Mansion which
was being demolished by the Mears
Brothers. A workman drove a pick into
a plaster wall and a cascade of coins
were released. Rumor has it he took
just one coin, which was identified as a
spade guinea,!and left the rest to get
buried deep in the Stamford Bridge
rubble. So if Roman ever quits, I'm
taking my spade and going to get
digging!
Significant Date:
Aug 31st 1997: The day before Lady
Diana was killed, Chelsea opened the
brand new Shed End stand. We beat
Southampton 4-2 with goals from
Leboeuf, Wise, Hughes and of course
the delicate chip by Dan Petrescu to
start it o".