The Chelsea supporters thread

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@GeoffreyBoycott

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38196746
Chelsea Football Club has apologised “profusely” to former footballer Gary Johnson over sex abuse he suffered as a youth team member in the 1970s.

Mr Johnson, 57, told the Mirror on Friday that the club paid him £50,000 to keep quiet about allegations of sexual abuse by a former chief scout.

In a statement, Chelsea said Mr Johnson had “suffered unacceptably”.

The club said a review into the case would take place, adding it had “no desire to hide any historic abuse”.

It said the review would examine whether it had carried out a proper investigation when the allegations first came to light and why it did not report them to the Football Association and Premier League.

"We are fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all children and young people who are in our care or attending our premises.

“Their welfare is of paramount importance,” the club said.

Mr Johnson was a member of Chelsea’s first team from 1978 to 1981.

He joined the club as an 11-year-old in 1970 and told the Mirror he had been groomed from the age of 13 by scout Eddie Heath.

Mr Heath, who was the club’s chief scout from 1968 to 1979, died before the allegations against him were made.

According to the Mirror, Mr Johnson signed a confidentiality agreement in 2015 and accepted £50,000 from the club, but they did not accept blame.

Chelsea said in its statement that when the settlement was reached the club’s board understood it was “usual practice” to include a mutual confidentiality agreement, adding that Mr Johnson’s solicitors had not objected to the clause.

“More recently, against the current backdrop of wider revelations and other victims coming forward bravely to tell their story, we no longer felt it appropriate to keep the confidentiality agreement in place. It was therefore removed,” the club said.

The club said the decision to have a confidentiality clause had received “significant scrutiny” and it had now asked an external law firm to review this decision and make recommendations for settling claims in the future.

"In advance of that, however, the board would like to make clear that, in light of what we know now about the wide-scale abuse in football clubs in the 1970s and 1980s, it now believes that the use of such a clause, while understandable, was inappropriate in this instance.

“We certainly have no desire to hide any historic abuse we uncover from view. Quite the opposite.”
Chelsea said Mr Johnson’s solicitors at the time claimed Heath had “inappropriate relationships” with other young boys and men from the club, but no names were given.

The club said with the “limited information” it received it had been unable to identify any further individuals who may have been subject to abuse.

It comes after former Chelsea midfielder Alan Hudson said on Facebook that it was “common knowledge that Mr Heath was a danger to us youngsters”.

Chelsea added it was now a “very different club” to the one it was in the 1970s.

It said its safeguarding policies were robust and continually reviewed and audited by the Premier League.strong text

@GeoffreyBoycott

So Chelsea paid Gary Johnson £50,000 in 2015, told him to keep his mouth shut and didn’t accept any blame. Chelsea have now apologised and are saying they are a very different club to the one it was in the 1970’s. What about the club they were in 2015, not accepting responsibility, still sweeping it under the carpet and still blackguarding Gary Johnson 35 years on.

@GeoffreyBoycott

The silence from all these new Chelsea fans like @Tassotti, @Nembo_Kid, @ProjectX and @The_Selfish_Giant on this one is deafening. The clubs attitude to sex abuse and how they treated victims of sex abuse on their watch clearly wasn’t part of their due diligence in deciding to suddenly start supporting Chelsea.

@GeoffreyBoycott

The outrage of the new found brigade of Chelsea fans in relation to query’s not answered to their liking is quite selective. Five months on, after getting called on to do so any number of times @Nembo_Kid still refuses to condemn the role Chelsea FC, as late as 2015 in continuing to cover up its paedophile former employees.

Still no condemnation from @Nembo_Kid. Maybe he has similar views on all of this as fellow Chelsea fan Eric Bristow.

[Nembo_Kid]

Is Gary Johnson your exit strategy when facing up to your comments on Conte?

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@Nembo_Kid

Is Gary Johnson your exit strategy when facing up to your comments on Conte?

I’m asking you to address the Gary Johnson issue for five months but you refuse to address it or condemn it. Why is that? When news of the unfortunate Spurs fan Michael Voller who got attacked the day of the FA Cup semi final, was first reported, you were on here straight away screeching for Spurs fans to speak up and denounce it. Your hypocrisy is just breathtaking.

[Nembo_Kid]

You are failing to address your own comments and asking me in return to address a matter than I’m not interested in.

I think it’s pathetic the way you use a victim like Gary Johnson to score cheap points.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@Nembo_Kid

You are failing to address your own comments and asking me in return to address a matter than I’m not interested in.

Well the bad news for you is that you don’t set the agenda around here and this is a subject that I’m interested in and want you to address your own comments that you’ve just made. After five months you’ve finally broken your silence to say that you’re not interested in the fact that the club you started supporting only a few months ago were covering up for its paedophile employees as recently as late 2015.

What interests you and sparks a sense of outrage is any perceived slight on Antonio Conte who is paid £6.5 million a year (and about to get a hefty pay rise). No interest or sense of outrage though about the derisory 50 grand thrown at Gary Johnson to shut him up and play along with the Chelsea F.C. cover up. You have a very strange moral compass.

[Nembo_Kid]

That bears no relevance to you having to address comments you made regarding Antonio Conte, comments which make you appear like a clueless idiot as Conte stormed to a title.

A man with a bit of conviction would stand over his words and face the music, you lack backbone and honesty.

[Little_Lord_Fauntleroy]

Most xenophobic pigs do

[Nembo_Kid]

Boycott is asked to stand over his own comments and he then tries to use a child abuse victim to point score.

Pathetic.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

You repeatedly call me a racist and xenophobic, yet still continue to refuse to condemn the Chelsea fans convicted by Hammersmith Magistrates Court of racially abusing Spurs fans, which I highlighted here six months ago. The double standards and hypocrisy are just breathtaking.

@Nembo_Kid

you are inherently xenophobic and racist.

@Nembo_Kid

you don’t have the class to put your hands up and admit your xenophobia

@GeoffreyBoycott

The support base doesn’t seem to be embracing the multiculturalism of the ownership and playing pool.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3923834/Chelsea-fan-guilty-aiming-Nazi-salutes-Tottenham-fans-insists-m-not-racist-just-idiot.html

[Nembo_Kid]

You are a racist and you’re still failing to address your comments on Conte.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@Nembo_Kid

You are a racist and you’re still failing to address your comments on Conte.

There you go again with another libel. Clearly your brush with defamation law earlier made no impression on you.

[Nembo_Kid]

It’s not libel, it’s true.

You can’t even bring yourself to stand behind your earlier comments this season on Conte because you’re a hate filled racist.

[Little_Lord_Fauntleroy]

Prove you are not a racist.apologise to Nembo and admit to the forum you got it wrong again like a dullard

[Nembo_Kid]

Get in.

Big win.

[Nembo_Kid]

With European football on the horizon this season we need four new players.

So far we have signed three.

Morata - a direct replacement for Costa.
Bakayoko - a direct replacement for Matic.
Rudiger - a new body in defence to replace the losses of Terry and Ake.

Christensen is back in the squad with Zouma going out on loan.

There’s still no cover for Moses or Alonso, they need another attacker as they’re light with Hazard out injured and another central midfielder with Chalobah gone.

[Little_Lord_Fauntleroy]

Signing back in

[Nembo_Kid]

Zappacosta will be a good signing for €25m and offer some cover for Moses and Alonso.

Still look very light in midfield with only 3 central midfielders at the clubs. Could do with another wide attacker too, unfortunatelty Chelsea cannot compete with super franchises like Spurs or Liverpool.

cc @GeoffreyBoycott

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@Nembo_Kid

Zappacosta will be a good signing for €25m and offer some cover for Moses and Alonso. Still look very light in midfield with only 3 central midfielders at the clubs. Could do with another wide attacker too, unfortunatelty Chelsea cannot compete with super franchises like Spurs or Liverpool. cc @GeoffreyBoycott

What an utterly bizarre statement.

Transfer Window, August 2017 - Expenditure
Manchester City - €244.30m
Chelsea - €202.90m
Man U - €164.4m
Everton - €158.2m
Tottenham - €93.10m
Liverpool - €89m
Watford - €61.5m
Leicester - €80.85m
Woolwich - €53m
Swansea - €50.3m
Brighton - €47.6m
West Brom - €45.7m
West Ham - €45.4m
Huddersfield - €44.6m
Newcastle - €42.3m
Southampton - €35.46m
Crystal Palace - €37.2m
Bournemouth - €34.3m
Burnley - €34.04m
Stoke - €27.1m

Transfer Window, August 2017 - Net Spend
Man U - (€155.9m)
Manchester City - (€147.95m)
Chelsea - (€80.10m)
Everton - (€50.82m)
Brighton - (€47.6m)
Watford - (€46m)
West Brom - (€43.65)
Liverpool - (€41.80m)
Huddersfield - (€38.75m)
Bournemouth - (€34.3m)
Crystal Palace - (€34.2m)
Leicester - (€32.95m)
Southampton - (€25.7m)
Newcastle - (€22.9m)
West Ham - (€14.75m)
Stoke - €8.04m
Tottenham - €9m
Burnley - €15.96m
Woolwich - €15.7m
Swansea - €27.5m

[Nembo_Kid]

When Costa goes today our net spend will be lower than Liverpool, mate.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

I couldn’t care less about Liverpool, I’m a Spurs man.