Chelsea: Fear and loathing in West London

By Sulla
April 12 2005

Hunter S. Thompson inventor of Gonzo Journalism and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was possibly the best and most cynical political journalist up to his death in February this year he seldom stopped bringing the great and the good down to earth. He once wrote of a Sports journalist that had, had enough and on his last day in work, when forced to write coverage of a horse race simply handed in one sentence, ‘the f***ing horse, won the F***ing race.’

Writing on Chelsea has been a lot like that this season, their charge for the Premiership title has seldom be really challenged, they eased through to the Carling cup final and even when the odds are stacked against them, like in the Barcelona game they come through smiling.

The FA cup apart where they were knocked out by Newcastle United, they are still on track for a near perfect season.

But along the way there have been tantrums, walk outs, the sort of rumours flying that normally only make it into Bond film plots and one man has towered above it all Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho can be accused of many things, and usually is for that matter, but I don’t think anyone has ever described him as boring. He strides the game like a modern Brian Clough, batting aside opposition wherever he finds it.

"There was no point in fighting -- on our side or theirs," Wrote Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas "We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.”

And so Chelsea are at the moment can anyone stop them? Can Bayern tonight.

About the only thing concerning Chelsea fans at the moment would be that Abramovich looses interest, which doesn’t look entirely likely.

But the end of that Thomson quote reads:

“So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

You sit and wonder when the water is going to break back for Chelsea.

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