Cast your mind back to the hazy summer of 67 as Celtic basked in the glory of their Lisbon triumph over Inter Milan.
Then contemplate the pain of Stevie Chalmers and Willie Wallace questioning their future at the club with uncertainty over whether the club wanted Jock Stein to stay on as manager!
That’s the scenario that Chelsea fans are going through after Saturday’s Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich.
Other than the famous old trophy there was little in the way of similarities between the 2012 and 1967 versions of the games greatest trophy.
While Celtic pounded the Inter Milan goal for 90 minutes Chelsea equalised from their first corner in the 88th minute and were happy to go to the lottery of winning on penalties.
Fifty million pound substitute Fernando Torres was first to question his future at the club after being left on the bench for the FA Cup final and Champions League Final.
After picking up his winners medal the Spaniard said: “In the end I was able to play a bit and help the team but there was huge disappointment when I saw the starting lineup. Maybe the biggest disappointment of my life.
“This season I felt things I had never felt [before]. I felt they have treated me in a way I was not expecting; not in the manner for which the club brought me here.”
Out of contract matchwinner Didier Drogba has been linked with a £300,000 a week move to China with confusion surrounding his future.
Last night Drogba’s agent denied quotes published in France Football which said: “I could not see myself sitting on the bench watching others play when the club plans to set up a new team.
“I’m not relieved, I am especially sad to leave such good guys. I prepare for my leap into the void, into the unknown.”
“If I must leave it will be for an adventure that’s totally different from the big leagues.
“First, because there is no question I would play for anyone else in England other than Chelsea and also, because I don’t know what I could get in Spain, Italy or Germany that I don’t already know.”
Meanwhile caretaker manager Roberto di Matteo awaits to find out what his future holds amid reports that Roman Abramovich would prefer to see his side playing a more entertaining style of football!
Will the Chelsea players still be revered by the fans in 45 years time and hosting conventions in Las Vegas?
CLICK HERE for Doncaster offers newco SPL encouragement
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That was a tragedy for the game. Chelsea dont deserve to win anything, spending all that money on players and still playing such a horribly boring and unadventurous style of football. Platini would be as well just selling the trophy to the highest bidder every year.
Oh dear – such bitterness. Listen boys, just enjoy your success this season and glory in your own history. This pathetic attempt to discredit Chelsea’s achievements this season reflects very poorly on the author
“There is not a prouder man on God’s Earth than me at this moment. Winning was important, aye, but it was the way that we have won that has filled me with satisfaction. We did it by playing football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football. There was not a negative thought in our heads. Inter played right into our hands; it’s so sad to see such gifted players shackled by a system that restricts their freedom to think and to act. Our fans would never accept that sort of sterile approach. Our objective is always to try to win with style.”
Jock Stein, 1967