Dear Bruce,
You have let yourself and our club down. You have deliberately
ignored the genuine concerns of a number of Chelsea supporters. You have been
shown to be manipulative in your dealings with the club’s support. You have
failed in your responsibility to the club (and fans) as a member of the board.
You have lost the confidence of the fans. It is time to do the honourable thing
and resign.
By portraying the key issue of yesterday’s CPO shares vote as an
issue of moving from Stamford Bridge to a new ground you missed the point completely
and ignored the many voices very publicly trying to tell you that was not the
case. Many of those who voted ‘no’ (including me) believe that a move from
Stamford Bridge is inevitable, we just didn’t hear any evidence from you and
your board as to why we should entrust you with the freehold of Stamford Bridge
(and thereby the club’s future safety) to do so.
You tried to manipulate fans by painting the matter as that one
issue; for or against moving. You even sank so low as to use Matthew Harding’s
name in your campaign, apparently in full knowledge of his continued popularity
among the Blue faithful thereby hoping to manipulate votes. Shame on you; it is
to the credit of our fans that so many saw through you.
The main concern all along has been safeguarding the future
security of Chelsea Football Club, something you are naive enough to believe
that the presence of Roman Abramovich somehow secures. How little you know of
the club’s history and how a previous owner, known to have the club’s best
interests at heart passed away and the club fell into the hands of less
interested parties. Or perhaps, since you like using Matthew Harding’s name,
you will recall how suddenly and unexpectedly fate can strike? That during all
of your campaign of spin and misinformation you have not once been able to
point to the board’s plans for continuity to safeguard against future events or
to demonstrate any meaningful succession planning shows you to be an
incompetent Chairman leading an incompetent board. This is basic business
planning and given the club’s history, anyone with any knowledge of the club
would recognise the need for such plans.
As a result of your manoeuvrings of the past three weeks, what
credibility you had among Chelsea fans has gone. You have shown yourself to
lack basic business skills, to be manipulative and to be uninterested in the
views of Chelsea supporters.
Please, show a little integrity, do the right thing and resign.
Yours,
PS. I personally find your comments in yesterday’s television
interviews in which you painted yourself as a long-time fan particularly
distasteful. We were not born yesterday and many of us have been following the
Blues since the days you thought football was a game played by people in
padding with an egg shaped ball. We will be here long after you depart too. Please
make that soon.
