VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1JAN 2010

First and foremost, I hope you all had awonderful holiday season full of thelaughter of little children, the warmth of family and friends and wishes comingtrue. I would also like to take a momentand wish all of you and your families allmy best wishes for love, hope, peaceand success for this New Year. I know ithas been a trying year on many of us,and I hope that 2010 settles theproblems that have troubled any of yourecently.

So, on to all things Blue. I hope youdidn’t miss the deadlines. As of the 31stof December, Chelsea has not onlyclosed their True Blue membershipapplications for this season, but alsotaken down the a

liated form forregistering o

cially as a member of ourclub if you are not a True Blue member.We have also closed the membershipapplication process as well for Chelseain America for this season. And we willopen it up again for next season towardsthe end of this campaign.

Just so that you all know we ended thisseason with 417 members of CIA! Thatis far larger than I anticipated, and howwonderful is that? We have membersrepresenting 35 states and the Districtof Columbia, and that is truly amazing.We are starting to cover the country! Andof our 417, we have 73 youth members,so a big welcome to the future of ourclub. I guess I could say that as Chelseagrows the club’s academy, we are doingwhat we can to raise our youth to beTrue Blue. We also registered 107 TrueBlue members, and I wish I could reporthow many in total we have registeredo

cially with Chelsea through thea

liate program, but I haven’t gottenthat number yet; it could be as many as150!

The New Year has brought great hopeafter our FA Cup win over Watford, and itis also the start of the mini silly season(enough for me to say about that!). Butwe are also very busy as we clean up ourmembership data, make sure everyonethat is entitled to permissions on theboard get them and all of that. We areworking on some new initiatives andmore on those as we sort them out. Andof course the Spring Tour is rising oneveryone’s radar. So let’s go over somenews for the New Year.

It is true that the Dallas Cup will featureour U19 team in the Super Group, andthose of us near North Texas are gettingvery excited. I have been told that theyoung boys are very excited aboutcoming to Dallas, as they have been toldhow great the support was the last timethey were here, and I sure don’t want tolet them down! It was a great time thelast time Chelsea were here, and we arehoping for just as good a time. Full of allour young players that can qualify, andmaybe if they are not needed too badlyfor the ﬁrst team, include the likes of Borini, Matic, Kakuta, Bruma, Cli

ordand all the rest. So if you don’t haveanything to do towards the end of March, ﬁrst of April, mark that in yourcalendar. You can ﬁnd more informationon the dates and venue by going to theo

cial Dallas Cup page atwww.dallascup.com

And of course the Spring Tour. Therehas been a poll on the True Bluemembers area of the board for a coupleof months and I think we have come to adecision that it will be for the homematch against Stoke towards the end of April. All True Blue members are of course welcome and will be eligible fortickets. I also want to remind all of you,as has been posted and included inemails, that all non-True Blue membersthat have registered with the club arealso allowed access to tickets to our

continued on Page 2

DEEP FROM THE HEART

Notes from the Chairwoman

The Bluesletter isn't possiblewithout your help! If you havean opinion, idea or somethinginteresting regarding Chelseaor football to share, we'd loveto include it! Just send an emailtonewsletter@chelseainamerica.com!

•Notes from theChairwoman•Austin BluesGive Back•Tel's Season inQuestion•5 QuestionsFor...•Brief Spotlighton the BeltwayBlues•January Dates to Remember•BloggingBridgeviews

PAGE 2

CONTRIBUTORS:

A big thanks to everyone whohelps make the CIA Bluesletterpossible!Editor: Jamie EdwardsChairwoman: Beth WildLogo and Graphics: Raciel DiazDates to Remember: Tel StevensProofreaders: Dorothy Cooperand Sarah DrakeCIA Crest done in collaborationwith Who Are Ya Designs -www.whoareyadesigns.comWant to contribute or make asuggestion? Send Jamie anemail at newsletter@chelseainamerica.com!

Spring Trip match without being a TrueBlue member. The only thing is that it islimited to availability for a

liatedmembers, and no ticket can be assuredlike it will be for True Blue members,and that spouses and children of TrueBlue members are given priority. Thereis a thread on the board for raising yourhand if you are a deﬁnite or a maybe forthat match. I do have to notify Chelseaof our choice and a rough head count,so if you have not posted to that threadyour intention, please do and help thismove along smoothly. In the near futurewe will be posting more informationabout the trip, so keep checking theboard.

And speaking of the board, please besure to sign up. You don’t have to readeverything, but it is a great way to checkwhat is going on quicker than waitingfor emails and the newsletter, so pleasesign on and use the board as it is bestfor you.

I also want to remind you about thepodcasts as well. Danny and I wererecently at the CPO and had anopportunity to speak to more Legends,and we are working at setting up someadditional Legends podcasts as well asthe entertaining weekly podcast. Don’tbe shy - call in sometime, it is a laugh.And we have been watching our listenersgrow in number on that and are amongone of the top rated “amateur” sportspodcasts o

ered on iTunes. We mightnot be professional but we do have fun,please join us! Or at least listen in.

We are also talking to the US Megastoreabout making available to membersshirts with the crest and our club nameon it. Hopefully the details will beworked out shortly and I will haveinformation on that. Again, it will beposted to the bulletin board ﬁrst, socheck in from time to time.

And of course I want to let you knowthat all of our hard work and fundraisingon the summer tour last year was metwith much excitement at the club.Thanks to our corporate sponsors likePhoenix Autographs, the US Megastore,Who Are Ya Design?, Setanta, Adidas andour special sponsor Cory Caouette, thegenerous support of all our regionalclubs in CIA, and of course the NYBluesas well, along with all of your generoussupport, we not only raised over$15,000 to bring Spy, Tommy and Jockto America to join us on the summertour, but we were able to present to theChelsea Pitch Holders a check for$5,000! Danny Campos and I were inattendance and asked to present thecheck to Bruce Buck during theluncheon. It was not just exciting but theapplause for your e

orts was amazing.We were so proud and made sure thatBruce and everyone knew that it was thee

ort of hundreds of you, that you werethere in spirit as we are each match tosupport the team. That we at Chelsea inAmerica not only love our ﬁrst team, butwe LOVE OUR LEGENDS! Helping in theclub's e

orts to help those that haveserved our club is very near and dear toour hearts. Danny and I were welcomedby many people we had never met withkind words of appreciation for all of youre

orts, and it was an honor to representyou all. It was a fantastic day, not justbecause of that, but because of beingthere amongst fellow supporters and the60+ legends that were in attendance. Itis one of the most special events on theChelsea calendar. This was my fourthtime to attend, and they just keepgetting better. And Danny, I think, was abit overwhelmed. We enjoyed thecompany of Lynn Osgood (Ossie’s wife),Hugh Hastings (club photographer in thegood old days), and Rick Glanville (clubhistorian and author) at our table.Tommy and Jock were at the table rightnext to us, and bragging about all of youand what an incredible time they hadthis past summer. They were the envy of many of the legends - well at least for aslong as Jock was standing and able totalk. The list of legends is so long, butsome of my favorites were there: KerryDixon, Clive Walker, Paul Canoville, IanBritain, Gary Stanley, Gareth Hall, PeterBonetti, Roy Bentley, Bob Tambling, thelist really does go on and on! And wewere able to chat to them into the weehours, as after the luncheon we allcarried on celebrating until the weehours of the morning, finally finding aplace for Brits and Stanners to crash (youwill have to ask Danny about the details,or listen to the podcast). And of courseSpy was there, and it was the first time

Continued from Page 1Continued on Page 6

I was fortunate enough to grow up inLondon.

Our home was on a streetcalled Gloucester Road.

Luckily, ourhome was closer to the Bridge ratherthan to Craven Cottage, otherwise Iwould more than likely be a Fulham fan.

In 1967, I went to my ﬁrst match withme mum, dad and brother and I washooked.

Although it was a fairly tightgame with a 1-1 draw against Newcastlethat day, the season ended up to bequite a mixed bag.

This was the year welost to Leeds Utd 7-0, and my best matewas a Leeds fan...never will forget thegrief I got that day.

Nor the grief whenwe lost to Spurs in the FA Cup ﬁnal atWembley...but anyway I digress.

1977 found me moving to Texas andgoodbye to everything Chelsea... nointernet in those days.

I tried to keep upthe boys

with foreign newspapers andthe occasional phone call to me oldmates back home.

About 25 years later,a pub here in Austin called Fado startingshowing a game or two every now andthen and I felt the passion come back.

Then the games started up on a muchmore frequent basis.

My brother went toa summer tour and mentioned that hemet some Chelsea nutters callingthemselves the Texas Blues and as fatewould have it, I met the Legend JR atFado the following weekend.

Once Ifound the Texas Blues, I noticed a fewmore Chelsea regulars at the pub.

Icalled ourselves the

Three Amigos... LaloSalinas, Tim Pugh and I.

Lalo and Timwould become dear friends.

I startedrecruiting every Chelsea fan I saw,getting emails and phone numbers andencouraging folks to become membersof the Texas Blues... our little supportersclub grew and grew.

And before I knowit we had 10-15 regulars at the pub forall the Chelsea games.

My desire tocontinue to grow the group wassolidiﬁed when Tim and I took themisses to London to watch a game.

Dueto some passport issues our amigo Lalocouldn't go.

We missed our friend as weattended the ChelseaCentennial

celebration at the Victoriaand Albert Museum, the amazing gameagainst Spurs and mourning the loss of the King of Stamford Bridge at themakeshift memorial outside the Bridge.

Ossie had passed away just a few daysbefore our arrival.

It was on this trip

Idiscoverd what a huge heart Lalo had.

He had already purchased his tickets tothe match and asked me if I would makesure they were given to the Bridge sothey could be provided to some lessfortunate Chelsea fans who could nototherwise attend a live match.

He hadthe ability to turn a negative experienceto a positive one for someone else.

Thistouched me.

Shortly after returning from our trip,Lalo mentioned to me that the AustinBlues was getting fairly large andperhaps we should think about doingsome things for charity.

I'll be honest, atﬁrst I wasn't sure how we could even dosomething like this... then theopportunity raised its head.

The Arsenalcontingent who came to the

pub werealways giving us some stick.

They werehaving a great spell in the prem at thattime and were strutting around the pubon the weekends.

After some post-game analysis as to how great their teamwas... the suggestion was made to havean Arsenal

fan scrimmage against theAustin Blues fans.

This was the start of the fan charity games.

I mentioned toLalo and Tim

that we could dosomething

with this

asking folks tobring a donation, it worked out well andwe raised just over $100 for a fellowBlues member,

Jenni Jones, andher

marathon run in London in thesummer.

The event was fun and thislead to several other charitable eventsover the last couple of years.

We had atournament called "Give the Red Card toHunger", which we were able to raiseover $1500 to the Capital Area FoodBank. Our pub Fado stepped upand

provided us with burgers to sell.

Wehosted a Texas Blues Christmas partywhere we had ra

es to beneﬁtCapital

Area

Food

Bank

and a Toys forTots box.

Since then we have had twomore annual Fan Charity

games whichhas now become known at the ArseaCup.

I am happy to say, the Austin Blueshave won both of them 3-2 and recently6-3.

We have also been able to raiseover

$1000 per game for the MiracleFoundation,www.miraclefoundation.org