Chelsea's Frank Lampard (left) and Jose Mourinho celebrate the team's Champions League win over Barcelona. Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

(Sung to You Are My Sunshine)

You are my Chelsea,
My only Chelsea,
You make me happy,
When skies are gray,
You'll never notice,
How much I love you,
Until you've taken my Chelsea away.

I'll never forget the first time I heard more than 40,000 fans at Stamford Bridge chanting the song in unison. Chelsea was preparing to play Manchester City two years ago and I was preparing to cover my first English Premier League match.

I was working on a story about the fascinating relegation system in the Premiership, which sends its bottom three teams down to the lower Division 1 League every season, while promoting the top three teams from the lower level. Manchester City, the slightly less storied crosstown rival of Manchester United, had swapped Divisions 10 times from 1983 to '92 and was making its return to the top-flight after winning the Division 1 title in 2002.

As I made my way around Chelsea Village, a 12-acre site filled with Chelsea-themed restaurants, bars, spas and a four-star hotel, I became more and more enamored with the team than with the relegation process. I couldn't understand how a soccer club in London, with one of the nicest facilities and some of the most passionate fans in the game, hadn't won a league title since 1955.

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When I broached the sensitive topic with Blues supporters over pints of Guinness at the Shed Bar, their excuses covered the gamut, ranging from the club's financial woes, which prevented it from being aggressive in the transfer market (soccer's version of free agency), to the often incomprehensible managerial decisions of Claudio Ranieri, whose sides would change from minute to minute almost as much as they would from match to match.

The one thing that wasn't wrong with Chelsea in the eyes of its fans, was the team's beloved captain, Gianfranco Zola, who had been an integral part in the Blues' FA Cup wins in 1997 and 2000. Throughout the match, the fans serenaded him with what had become his signature song.

(Sung to the chorus Can't Take My Eyes Off You)

Gian-fran-co Zo-la
Da-na-na-na-na-na
Gian-fran-co Zo-la
Da-na-na-na-na-na
Gian-fran-co Zo-la
Da-na-na-na-na-naahhh

I left Chelsea that night with a decent story on the relegation system after speaking with England legend and Man City manager Kevin Keagan, and a fascination with the team. I wondered what would happen if they weren't in the red financially and had a manager who could manage more than experiment with their talented roster.