I thought I would relate conversations I recently had with Chelsea fans I know.

Living in South London means I am not amidst the maelstrom that is Newcastle United and a one club city.

Instead, on a Sunday afternoon I spend my time watching the TV football in local pubs on a Sunday afternoon.

The other weekend I happen to be sinking a few with old boy Chelsea fans who are now in their late sixties. Tadgh and Mick are supporting Forest on this occasion as the Garibaldi Reds are playing Arsenal.

Watching the game we all agree it is inevitable that Arsenal will score against the run of play and Mikel Arteta will have the look of the cat who got the cream in his post-match interview.

Disappointment all round as the inevitable happens and Arsenal get a deflected goal.

Oh well, time to reminisce about the football of the eighties when football was real and you paid in at the turnstile.

When they see him, these older Chelsea fans love telling my son about how they ran aock when they were his age and I do not doubt their tall tales. When you watch footage of the football back then it really is young kids creating chaos.

Nowadays kids need to be accompanied by an adult. Both the Chelsea guys have arms full of fading CFC tattoos as well as the Trojan Records logo. These lads are the original Brixton skinheads, not the rebooted racist version of the eighties that I was familiar with.

A week later and I am having a beer with Tadgh. He is angry, no he is fuming, and saying he is ditching his Chelsea season ticket. We’ll see. The reason all the guys who were around him have already ditched their season tickets is the prices are unaffordable to working class Londoners.

In the Matthew Harding Stand my Chelsea mate is now surrounded by one-off tourists taking selfies and filming the game.

The difference between me and the Chelsea boys is that they have had their many days in the sun courtesy of Abramovich. As a Newcastle United fan I do not have the luxury of ditching a season ticket because the crowd has changed. If me and my lad can get into a game I’ll be ecstatic.