'Embrace the Sh*tness'

The situation with coronavirus has impacted so many and Chester FC is no exception.

Similarly, to many football clubs throughout the football pyramid, the pandemic threatened the survival of Chester as a club. I had the opportunity to speak with Chester’s manager, Anthony Johnson about how the pandemic has affected his team along with his thoughts on how the national league ‘handled’ the situation.

“dealt with? I don’t think it was dealt with, they allowed the season to run until May without giving any clarity on how clubs will be funded, they left clubs to fend for themselves. So, when you ask me how was it handled, It wasn’t and its nothing short of a disgrace”. I think its very clear where Anthony Johnson stands with regards to the national league, and it’s hard to disagree. It got to 48 hours before the season was due to begin for the national league to provide any information as to how the season may continue. It was decided that the season would be played and would receive grants to cover for the lost income, as a result of the pandemic. However, over halfway through the season the league decided that the funding would be loans instead, clubs were now left unable to repay and stuck with players on contracts with no income. The national league decided to distribute the money evenly, this sounds great right? “you’ve got clubs averaging 300 at home receiving the same as Chester who average 2000? Its ridiculous.” Once again, the league shows a complete and utter naivety and inability to handle the situation. Football fan or not, the pandemic as a whole has been handled terribly, which has left fans, players and managers understandably fuming.

We could have sat for hours talking about the irresponsibility of the league, but instead ended up speaking about the positives that came as a result of the pandemic. Last season, Chester were allowed to play their playoff games behind closed doors and with private COVID testing, the problem was the £5,000 that was needed. Chester fans rallied together to raise the money for testing along with every member of staff and players deciding to play for free, as a fan this was amazing news. “it’s important people know this wasn’t some gimmick to make us look like good people, many of us have families and kids, this is our livelihood. But some things are more important than money”. Football as a whole has been taken over by money over recent years, so to see this level of camaraderie and desire to just play for Chester was brilliant.

As a fanbase, Chester were ridiculed for being knocked out of the playoffs (extremely controversially, may I add) but the response from Anthony Johnson was simple, yet wonderful. “Embrace the sh*tness”, fans proceeded to print flags banners and t shirts displaying the club’s new motto. It’s safe to say they love the club just like we love them. It’s the small things for me, the fact Johnno refers to Chester as ‘our club’. He’s one of us, and as a squad we wouldn’t change them for anyone.

This leads on perfectly to a discussion that has surrounded Chester for years. We are a fan owned club, meaning the board is voted by fans who are all equal equity owners in the club. The downside being we don’t have the funds of other clubs. “I get asked a lot, what’s the ceiling for a fan owned club and I just think you know what? F*ck your ceilings. We can go as far as we like it will just take time and will have to be organic growth, like a conveyor belt as players come in and out we slowly improve as a core squad. Chorley are a great example, they walked the league first season but they weren’t ready for the league above, they then get beat every week, relegated, their best players picked and guess where they are now? 4 places below us, because we’ve grown slowly, we’ve lost our best player but we replace and improve its just gonna take time.” Chester will never compete financially with the levels of others in non-league that’s been evident throughout this pandemic, but something this year has exposed is that with a core group of players, managers and fans who love what they do there is no limit to what you can achieve.

Written by Dan Laidlaw

Photography by Hattie Nicholas