In fairness, the riot had subsided before sunset as chairman Ken Bates shuffled into the lift following Chelsea's relegation.
With delicious comic timing, an audacious journalist sharing the elevator with Bates from the upper floors at Stamford Bridge graciously asked if they were heading in the same direction: “Going down, Ken?” It seemed perfectly reasonable to check, but Bates returned serve with a famously grumpy retort. “I'm off to my 300-acre farm – you lot can bugger off to your council houses,” he chuntered before disappearing towards his Rolls Royce.
Before a gilded age financed by Russian enterprise, Chelsea were relegated as recently as 1988, losing 2-1 on aggregate in two-legged play-off final against Middlesbrough just two years after the Smoggies had cheated extinction with 10 minutes to spare. Ahead of the clubs' FA Cup quarter-final at the Riverside, any Blues fans bleating about sanctions, or the legacy of outlawed owner Roman Abramovich's unsustainable largesse, should heed the tale of Boro's astonishing survival.
