Why are Chelsea F.C fans called “plastic fans”?

Originally Answered: Why are Chelsea F.C fans called 'plastic fans'?

For people who mentions that Chelsea (and Manchester City) fans support Chelsea
(Manchester City) only after 2003 (2011), and that Manchester United, Arsenal and
Liverpool have a huge history, I would like to ask you a question.
This question is valid for people who live outside UK, and/or does not have any other
emotional attachment with the city.

How did you start loving your club, and start supporting them?
I can only find three possibilities.

1. Your favourite player was playing for that club at that time.
2. Your club has won a significant match, or a significant tournament, or
did some cool with the ball tricks in one of the matches.
3. Some of your near ones follow and support that club, and you keep on
hearing about that club all day long, and start loving it.
I am sure, you did not sit up on the Google with a list of clubs, and checked their history,
legacy, bank balance and all of those stuffs, and then made a "wise" decision to
support a particular club. You learn the legacies as you start following their matches,
their moves etc.

So, what is the fault of the Chelsea and Manchester City fans, and how they are the
plastic fans? They fall in love with the club, yes when the clubs were at their pinnacles,
but, they love their clubs enough to cling to that even after 10 years.

A fan always wants his club to win, and I am sure, being a fan gives the right to criticise
what I don't like about the entity I love.

Edit (actual history):

The reason I put the actual history to the last part of the answer is because Chelsea fans
are blamed to be gold-diggers and most of the people call Chelsea fans as Plastic fans
not because of the history, but because others are calling them as Plastic fans.

Anyhow, a quick visit to the old times:

In UCL 2007 semifinal first leg, Chelsea hosted Liverpool FC. Chelsea management
distributed plastic flags for fans. and this led to the then Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez
saying: "We don't need to give away flags for our fans to wave - our supporters are
always there with their hearts, and that is all we need. It's the passion of the fans
that helps to win matches - not flags." 
[1]
The term plastic fans was coined since then, for fans who are given plastic flags, for fans
who don’t own official merchandising or bring real flags on match days. In other words,
these are not fans.

Footnotes
[1] 
'We don't need to give away flags for our fans to wave'