A tour of Chelsea FC – Stamford Bridge by Bruno Robertson!

Today I went to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. The first thing I saw was the press room, It was massive, my tour guide said that during the pre-match Interviews that single room can be filled with cameras and journalist taking photos and talking about the match hype and affairs leading up to the game.

The second thing that I saw was the away teams changing room. My first impression was that they weren’t that amazing. Then when I took a proper look around I realized the size of it. It had very good facilities for example the washing rooms. It had several power showers and baths which made me want to jump in. Everything in the room was top of the range and it was generally clean. We also saw the all important tactics board on which the opposition manager explains the new formations or squads etc.

After that I saw the home changing room. As soon as I walked in the room I had to get my camera out. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the shirts of all the Chelsea stars hanging up. The guide explained that the players are not sat in number order, but in language groups for example Malouda, Drogba, Mikel and Bosingwa all speak French and Terry, Lampard and Cole all speak English. In general, the home changing room had everything the away changing room had and more, for example massage benches, the away changing room had two of them and the home changing room had six. Some of the players had their own bench like John Terry and Frank Lampard. The guide then showed us the contents of a selected few players’ lockers, the first locker I saw was Fernando Torres’s. It looked very slick and had a plug for his hair strengtheners, not to mention the bling box where he keeps the keys to his Ferrari and his Rolex watch! We then saw the contents of Drogbas locker. In it was a picture made by his son and was similar stuff to Torres’s. Finally we saw Essiens’ locker, inside was a poster made by a fan saying proud to be African with several pictures of him and again similar to the lockers of Torres and Drogba.

My group then left the changing rooms and made our way through the player tunnel to pitch side. This was where the greatest photos were taken and gave me along with the people in my group, an experience that I would never forget. Once we had taken our pictures pitch side, we were given the opportunity to sit in the seats which during match day are occupied by the manager, coaching staff and players whether they be injured, suspended or simply a substitute.

The group and I then made our way to the club shop where they sell a various selection of merchandise from Chelsea football kit too key rings of which display the classic Chelsea logo for fairly reasonable prices. Like the stadium the club shop is massive, almost like a Chelsea megastore which can easily deal with the high capacity crowds the come to spectator. 

Overall the Chelsea tour was a great experience. It is a great chance to have an insight to what some of the best players in the world feel before a match and I would most definitely recommend it to anyone whether like me you are not even a Chelsea fan or are a Chelsea fan through and through.

By Bruno Robertson

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