Villa88

Do any of you actually consider Fulham rivals? I get the impression you don't which is fine with me. I support neither club. On a lesser note QPR don't get any attention from you either.

Was it the same way in the 1980's and prior to that? There's a situation at Ewood where Rovers fans seem intent on continuing this Burnley obsession. I personally can't understand this and assume you can identify with the premier league mentality I've always had. In the 90's incidentally Rovers fans didn't care about Burnley at all (I still don't) though perhaps Jack Walker's dislike of Man Utd had more to do with that. Your club has been in the lower divisions as well but your fans don't retain that type of mindset.

There are certain similarities between Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea. The owner thing is obvious except for Jack being a fan from boyhood and Roman taking an interest later on. I do think he cares about Chelsea by the way.

Secondly Rovers were also labelled with this nonsensical boring tag after winning the title. I don't believe Chelsea are boring personally and even if they were I'd rather see Chelsea win the league than Man Utd.

Thirdly Chelsea also had disinterested owners with the Myers family. I wouldn't say the owners at Ewood have left the club in major financial problems akin to what the Myers did but they don't exactly have much interest either. The funding hasn't been at the level Jack would have wanted though a takeover might be in place soon. Bates worked harder for Chelsea than Jack did for Rovers with the ground issues and all. Not that Jack had to work hard anyway he already had the funds in place.

Yes there are similarities but the mentality gap between Chelsea and Rovers fans in terms of who they percieve as rivals couldn't be any greater.

A Fulham fan posted on the Rovers supporters site that Fulham were linked to a takeover but I can't see anything about it.

Dan

No, we don't consider Fulham as rivals, because, quite simply, they've never challenged us for anything. I do beleive however that Fulham consider Chelsea bigger rivals than we do them, because they do have some songs about us like;

Stick the Blue Flag up your *!?%, and

We are Super Fulham, &*$£ Chelsea

Good thread, but just for the record, I hate Ken Bates and don't understand why Chelsea fans like him when he drove the club into the ground and left us with HUGE debt. We could have been Leeds MkII if Roman hadn't saved the day.

Dan

The rivalry between Fulham and Chelsea was really appartent in the late 50's and early 60's - both had good sides. The OPR rivalry took shape because of Fulhams being in different leagues for many years.

We had Steve Wicks play for both clubs and OPR beat Chelsea in a League Cup Quarter or Semi in mid 80's but the "rivalry" is tepid. their fans hate Chelsea, as is always the case when one side is dominating the national and local press, also drags out the plastics which adds to the fuel.


Its harder for London clubs to have rivalries as strong as the NW. Obviously Spurs and Arsenal is the biggest Derby but when you have so many clubs the rivalries itensify when in the same league.Chelsea's rivalries really reflect the good era's - Leeds hate us with a passion due to us beating them "at their own game" in the 19070 FA Cup replay - also our "rivalry" with Tottenham has peaked for Spurs fans with Chelsea dominating the fixture.

It's hard to really pinpoint intense rivalries when there are this many teams within the city:

Arsenal
Brentford
Chelsea
Milwall
Crystal palace
Charlton
West ham
Spurs
Barnet
OPR

London Cusp:

Reading
Luton Town
Watford
Leyton Orient

Drogalot, Chelsea wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Bates. He bought a club with no ground and debts for a quid. He fought tooth an nail to get the ground back from marler, fought with RBS on the freehold etc and ended up building a club that was appealing to RA to buy. Something that wouldn't have existed if he hadn't appeared in around 81.