I actually liked them as a club despite their massive spending when they were still fun to watch. I am not that much a fan of a particular club, but of attractive gameplay and Chelsea had times where they were really tough to beat. By the way, I remember the Champions League final against Bayern Munich in Munich, I was there watching it in the stadium. Undeserved, but they still couldn't be broken. Those were the successful times and they had a serious say in the Premier League as well. That's what I am kind of missing and now with all the spending it makes them look even worse when they can't get the job done against all these underdog teams.
Well first of all I'm glad you were in that final, I hope one day to be in a Europa League final, a Spanish league final and the final of a UCL, it's something that excites me a lot, however I share your thoughts in many ways, and more so when you talk about Chelsea, I don't know, but I feel that Chelsea will not disappoint this time, I see them with a different vibe, however for me this team has a UCL legacy, if all goes well I think they could do very well in the PL and the Europa League, I know that maybe it's too early to predict, but the little that I've seen gives me that feeling and with these new rules there's a very good opportunity.
It wasn't quite as fun as the stadium was full of neutral fans as I remember. It is not the typical Liverpool game at home at Anfield Road. Lots of rich people bought tickets on the black market, but they are usually the kind of guys who are more calm and less frenetic and fanatic about their team or any team. The fun part about the visit was how the game went back then. I remember Bayern Munich had 17:1 corners, a missed penalty in the game and then they lost the penalty shootout
Anyway, back to Chelsea: they lost their first game against Manchester City 2-0, which is fine as losing against City is not a shame. Then they had a hard time against Servette Genf while beating the Wolverhampton Wanderers 6-2 away from home, only to then tie a game against Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge. It isn't quite what I think is the big turning point here. They really need some sort of winning streak, like four or five games in a row winning full points. They have all these weird up and downs and nobody understands why that is. How is it possible that they beat the Wolves 6-2 and then can't beat Crystal Palace? It's just weird.
They have got a bunch of good players although I think at times they just buy a player for the sake of buying a player. It doesn't always come across as if there was a proper plan behind it. For the Europa League it is good to have them of course as for the time being it is another great name in the competition, which gives the Europa League a little boost. But hopefully they'll contribute their part to make the Europa League worthwhile this year.