"Come and Get Yer Programme!!"

This was often the shout by raucous men that I used to remember from my early days of going to Chelsea. With this in mind I yesterday purchased the item below and it is an excellent reference to the history of our matchday programmes.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=the+official+chelsea+fc+programme+book&client=firefox-b-ab&tbm=isch&imgil=7BSw8KfbMjbICM%253A%253BROCqJDAV3A4D3M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.sportmediashop.com%25252Fproducts%25252Fdetails%25252Fchelsea_books%25252FOfficialChelseaProgrammeBook%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=7BSw8KfbMjbICM%253A%252CROCqJDAV3A4D3M%252C_&usg=__aBDUtkIdjpuzz_N0nk1rurclS24%3D&biw=1366&bih=644&ved=0ahUKEwjY742J5O3MAhUkKcAKHWf-DkYQyjcIQg&ei=O7NBV5jmMaTSgAbn_LuwBA#imgrc=7BSw8KfbMjbICM%3A

Having a huge Programme collection myself of virtually all our home Programmes from 1964-65 (years before I actually started going) all the way up to the start of 2007-2008 when I suddenly decided not to buy them anymore, including quite a few of those illustrated on the front of the book. It really did take me back on a nostalgia trip to fonder and not-so-fonder times. A real must for all Chelsea fans. However advertising some random book is not the purpose of this article.

Taking a break from the staple diet on here of Club X,Y or Z are shi ite, skum or whatever and should be banned immediately, which normally promotes 2,000+ comments, with everyone wading in and throwing haymakers (pardon the pun) I decided to try to introduce something a bit more cerebal and friendlier for us all to ponder and contribute to.

I would like to know from all fans of JA606 of their experiences and views of their own Club's matchday magazine. Is it a must-have essential part of your matchday experience and have you dedicated a part of your home as a shrine for the storage of such things or is it just something that, you'll buy occasionally, leave on the train going home when piissed or fold up, tear up, or cut pictures out of and use as a door stop or to even up the rickety coffee table at home.

What are your favourite features in it? For example for about 20 years the first page that me and all my mates would always turn to was Ken Bates's page. Now even though Bates wasn't everybody's cup of tea (including mine at times!!) his page was always worth the purchase price alone and would often give us a warts-an-all view of what was actually going on behind the scenes at the Club, something that I personally feel is lacking with the current ownership of the Club, having an owner who appears to be a very private, low key sort of person and this is reflected by the amount of information being released to the fans. Chelsea have kept the price at £3.00 since 2007 which is admirable but I don't buy the current journal (although I do get to flick through it every game), as to me it is a hearts-and-flowers type of production that is full of sterile, scratching the surface type of information and teenage wall pin-up pictures of the players rather than incisive info about the Club and possibly more pictures of the action from recent games (like we used to do).

During my travels away down the years I have also accumulated a huge, diverse type and amount of away programmes from all over the Country and Europe ranging from a 2 page leaflet from a Pre-Season Friendly at Millwall, which isn't much use for a torniquet to stem the inevitable blood loss from such a fixture, to actual tabloid sized Newspapers at Derby (The Ram) and PNE, tiny booklets from Real Mallorca or 1960's Ipswich Town, to the mini telephone directories issued at Villa Park, Wembley (old and new) and the Allianze Arena.

So come on tell us all about your "United Review", "Stoke City Clipper" or "The Owl Magazine". Tell us the good and bad points, whether you're a collector or not and what could be done to improve your own match day magazine.

ps. Do any of the older posters on here remember also the "Football League Review" that used to often be stapled in the middle of the programmes of a lot of Club's, even for Wembley Finals and the like. That colour magazine was often better than the programmes themselves.