View from a non-fan

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Nice question OP.

We'll benefit in simply one way - Transfer Market. With this in our trophy cabinet, with Europe assured next year & a billionaire owner, we now have the lure of the dominant football club in Europe. This means we're a definite target for players from Hazard to Gotze to even an outside shot at Neymar.

[Kezza 1,965]

Bayern Munich deserved to win the Champions League final. It all reflects on the game statistics. Bayern had the possession, shots, passes, corners and all the rest while Chelsea had none of it. Bayern were dominating the game, Chelsea wern't.

Stats in a game mean shit.

If you want to have a look at the stats you'll see that bayern actualy didn't deserve to win. They had fourty something shots on goal and got ONE in. If a finalist can't capitalize on that amount of shots, they shouldn't win it. Bayern failed to capitalise on all corners, where Chelsea took the chance and drogba slotted one home.

Don't get me started in the penalty.

Again, if a player can't score from the spot in a UCL final they shouldn't have a medal.

Stats don't win you trophys. Goals do, or in this case, converting in penalty shoot outs

[Kezza 1,965]

.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Let me just start off by saying I'm not here to vent anger, I'm not here to cause trouble I'm just here to give my views and get some back from Chelsea fans on their two big Champions league games against Barcelona and Bayern.

Often sides have played defensive football against Barcelona due to their brilliant attacking football. It wasn't a great game of football but there have been a few bad semi-final games in history because an underdog really wants to get through to the final. After the end of the game Chelsea were the better team because Barcelona do not have a target man they can put into the box and they demanded to much to come from Messi. If you watch La Liga Barcelona's away form let them down because the majority of their goals came from Messi.

Moving onto the final I had high hopes for a good game of football. Bayern aren't as dominating as Barcelona and they do have a target man or two.

The Champions league, the ultimate inspiration in club football for clubs, supporters and youngsters coming through. The final last night has done nothing good for the sport, I'm sure Chelsea fans will be delighted. At the same time I've seen fans complain about the lack of youth coming into your team. Several young talented footballers have been shifted away and not a lot of them have been given game time to progress. The performance from the team sums up why this has happened, the main thing a football club should be doing in bring in and develop new young footballers. Sometimes you have to buy youth and then develop them which is fine as long as the new club provides a platform for them to develop.

I support Celtic and we won the European cup in 1967 with the Lisbon Lions and with the way we won it pushed our club to where it is today. We got decades of benefits from winning it with style and all the men playing came from within 30 miles of Celtic park which was a inspiration to Scottish football. That is the true benefit of winning the UCL, not the win but the way it was won. It's effect can still be felt through the club today and is a massive inspiration to the youngsters and fans.

The question I have for you is how will Chelsea really benefit from winning the UCL last night? A win with style with youngsters would have been an inspiration to London as the 1967 win was an inspiration to the whole of Scotland and to an extent the whole of the UK as Man United was the second British team to win the European cup in 1968.

Who cares how we won, stop being Jealous. This will only make us an even bigger club. Pride of England!

[capriccioso 2,545]

To answer the question of the opening poster:

This is a celebration of a frankly awful (relative to the stature of our opposition from the semi finals and onward) team winning the greatest prize in club football. Overcoming all the odds. Overcoming ourselves and our painful history in this tournament. It is a celebration of passion and positive mentality and never giving up. It is a celebration of David triumphing over monsters far larger than Goliath. It is being stuck up shit creek without so much as a banana leaf to paddle with and getting out of there in one piece. In short, it is a celebration of what truly makes football great- not a million passes in 90 minutes and winning every game 7-0; not taking 42 shots and having 20 corners. No, what makes football great is that anyone and everyone can dare to dream.

On a more detached and less emotional note, the suggestion that our playing style in this tournament is in any way lacking or liable for criticism is insane. The difference in the quality of our players vs theirs, the difference in the club ethos- since 2004 we've always been Mourinho, pragmatic, 4-3-3 and it's many variants (4-1-4-1, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1, 4-5-1) - and finally the type of players available to us, makes any other style of football suicidal. As I said when Frank de Boer criticised our playing style; people who think 2-3-5 up and at them are as backward as early 20th century military leaders. 2-3-5 is as effective in the modern world as climbing out of your trench between the years 1914 and 1917 and walking very slowly towards the enemy who has a machine gun capable of killing 400 a minute.

I know there's a school of thought that goes "Chelsea have spent 800 million putting this squad together, spend that kind of money and you are honour bound to 'play' the right way."; but that is incredibly flawed. For one thing, nearly all of that was spent in the opening years of Roman's rule. And transfer fee's don't dictate how to play football. Barcelona have only spent some 75 million less than us since 2007 (take out David Luiz and Fernando Torres and that's identical) and play football a completely different way. What influences the style of football played by a team is it's mentality and technical ability of its players. Look at Schweinsteiger and Kroos, look at Xavi and Iniesta, then cast a glance at Ramires and Meireles. There is simply no way we can compete with them on their game. We play to our strengths, discipline and physicality, they play to theirs. What's wrong with that? It is another thing that makes football the greatest game in the world, the diversity in playing styles.

[buccaneer 16]

"I support Celtic and we won the European cup in 1967 with the Lisbon Lions and with the way we won it pushed our club to where it is today"

You lost me there.