Chelsea FC 2006/2007

S4P wrote:------------Cech-------------
Ferreira-Carvalho-Terry-Cole
----------Makelele-----------
Robben----------------Bridge
----Lampard-----Ballack----
-----------Sheva-------------

There will be some injuries aswell, lets say carvalho and robben. then add to that maka will be 35 ferrira is pure garbage

kas wrote:

S4P wrote:------------Cech-------------
Ferreira-Carvalho-Terry-Cole
----------Makelele-----------
Robben----------------Bridge
----Lampard-----Ballack----
-----------Sheva-------------

Subs bench?

Youth and reserve players.

going down.

L r d wrote:

S4P wrote:------------Cech-------------
Ferreira-Carvalho-Terry-Cole
----------Makelele-----------
Robben----------------Bridge
----Lampard-----Ballack----
-----------Sheva-------------

There will be some injuries aswell, lets say carvalho and robben. then add to that maka will be 35 ferrira is pure garbage

We will have bought players by then, I was just doing it with todays team

Just watching the weekend's highlights and noticed something extremely funny - the billboards at Stamford Bridge had an ad for "chelseafcmoney.com"

So, it shall be Norwich in the FA Cup on Saturday for us. Should be a fairly comfortable win, although Jose won't take anything for granted, and will therefore field a strong team.

Expect JT and Carvalho to play together, to get 90 minutes together before the trip to Porto.

Predicted line-up:

----------------Cech---------------
Diarra--Carvalho--Terry--Bridge
---------------Makelele------------
--------Essien---------Lampard---
Shevchenko---Drogba---Robben

But I think Jose won't want to overplay the likes of Drogba, Essien and Lampard so expect them to come off if we're winning comfortably for the likes of Kalou, Woods and maybe even Geremi. Shevchenko may well get to play his first full match.

Lassana Diarra has been hit by the power of new media technology.

He was forced into giving his first English language Chelsea TV interview on Big Match Countdown two weeks ago by his team-mates. That interview has now received a wider airing.

Basically, the only way to get him to speak in English was by 'gentle' persuasion, so Didier Drogba, Gérémi (his second Dad), Michael Essien, Claude Makelele and Salomon Kalou were enlisted to hold him firm in front of the camera until he spoke.

So entertaining were their efforts that various television stations jumped on the film, including a French one which carries a Sunday morning programme similar to Sky Sports' Soccer AM.

Apparently, it's been on African television too - probably in Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon.

Lassana has been swamped with texts, phone-calls and all sorts of messages. He's not happy!

He stated to me in clear English this week: 'That is it! No more interviews!'

I pointed out that a good English interview now would prove all the mickey takers wrong.

Swift as a Diarra tackle he replied in good English: 'Good English. Fine! In 2010!'

If you haven't seen the interview yet, you can catch it on YouTube.

With so many overseas players here now, language is vital. The ones who seem to develop the best English are those who speak it at home, and that tends to be those who are living with English speaking women.

So of all the overseas players Chelsea has had, Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Di Matteo have become the most fluent speakers. Luca's wife is South African, and Robbie's girlfriend is Irish.

Others have settled in English speaking environments having retired from football, and their English becomes very fluent. Ken Monkou lives in Harrogate. Frank Leboeuf lives in Los Angeles.

Fortunately Ken has yet to pick up a Yorkshire accent, and Frank still has a French one.

The problem for someone like Lassana is that with so many French speakers around, he can get anything important that he doesn't understand easily translated.

What's more, if the manager speaks very good French as well as English, Portuguese and Spanish, not to mention some passable Italian, when there's a message that needs making, it can be made in the player's language.

For those who don't find learning a new language easy, there's plenty of opportunity to avoid learning.

What seems to make people who are struggling with the first basics of English popular with fans, is if they try and give interviews and do their best with the language. Gianfranco Zola started his popularity roll by doing that. Now it is no problem to him to hold an English conversation on the telephone.

This season's signings are coming along well. Khalid Boulahrouz had good English when he joined, and it has improved. As one of the Socom players in the team, he is screaming it off the pitch at regular intervals.

Michael Ballack's English has improved with ease. Salomon Kalou learned English more easily without lessons while living in Holland than he learned Dutch with lessons. Andriy Shevchenko is improving at a better rate now than at first and is becoming comfortable in conversation.

But us English are the worst people in the world to talk about language. Anyone who was in Los Angeles for the press conference introducing John Mikel Obi following his signing must cringe at recollecting the question from the man from The Sun.

'You're English is excellent, where did you learn it?'

Mikel stayed cool. 'Well in Nigeria we speak English. English is the general language.

Kas posted the link..

Haven't had a chance to post on the board all week but suddenly find myself heading to Stamford Bridge tomorrow. Hoping not to get mauled. What sort of team is going to be played, considering the fact that you have Porto midweek.

Like I said, it will be a strong side (to avoid an upset) but the key players (Drogba, Lampard, Essien) may only get 70 minutes out on the pitch, to save themselves for Porto.

I expect the line-up to be:

----------------Cech---------------
Diarra--Carvalho--Terry--Bridge
---------------Makelele------------
--------Essien---------Lampard---
Shevchenko---Drogba---Robben

With this team for the Porto match:

----------------Cech----------------
Geremi--Carvalho--Terry--Bridge
---------------Makelele-------------
--------Essien---------Lampard----
----------------Ballack--------------
------Shevchenko---Drogba------

3 in the Premiership

Owen Thomas wrote:3 in the Premiership

World class saves from Schwarzer, Jussi and Carson have denied him certain goals

Jose:

"No doubt we deserved to win the game but 4-0 is a bit heavy for a team that fought like they did. They gave us a very difficult first-half and we were a bit lucky to be winning 1-0 because they defended quite well," he stated honestly.

"The second-half, after the second goal, we had a lot of chances and a lot of space and I could rest players and start to think of the game next Wednesday."

"He's dislocated his shoulder," revealed Mourinho, "and will be out for quite a time."

"Because the team is in a good moment, winning matches, confidence back, I thought I could give some rest to some players and left Carvalho and Makelele out of the team.

"I am always a bit afraid of these matches and I want to be protective. I want to have some important players on the pitch or bench in case I need to make an impact in the game. The first moment I felt the game was over, I took Didier and Lampard off."

"This week we have two finals: Porto is like a final and Arsenal is really a final."

Ah well, you lucky bastards, 4-0 a very unfair scoreline! Just their fact that our defence had three second half lapses. Sadly the game was marred for me by an racist incident at the end of the game but a good day out all in all.

SWP goal was quality, other than that I thought Chelsea were distinctly average. Your best players today were those in defence, especially Geremi who had Huckerby in his back pocket. Terry and Cech never looked like letting anything through as per usual.

Robben makes no friends with his antics but you cannot deny the fact he is ALWAYS involved and I certainly feel he will be your biggest threat against Porto with the form he is in.

Agree with everything you say, although personally I thought Geremi was our worst player. Terry stopped Huckerby from almost certainly scoring, Boula stopped another certain goal, Cech made 2 world class saves and Ferreira had a fantastic 60 yard run.

You're right though, 1st half was very even, 2nd half we started to get on top, but still were not 3 goals better.

I thought Robben was top draw today, and actually tried to stay on his feet, although his finishing is poor. I thought Sheva did well when he was on the pitch.

If you can play like that on a regular basis, you'll be back in the Prem very soon.

nCfC-CaDiZ wrote: Sadly the game was marred for me by an racist incident at the end of the game but a good day out all in all.

What happened?

I didn't actually realise that the SWP goal took a deflection, thought he bent it in, so that takes a bit of the shine off.

Thought Geremi looked really unbeatable at the back second half. Put in at least three challenges to retrieve the ball from Huckerby with out the ball going out of play. Huckerby knew that he had no hope of cutting round him, and when playing against Hucks, it is crucial that you get him into that mind set. May think that as I could only really view action that was right in front of me, the terrible front row seat I was in meant that whilst Norwich were attacking away from the shed end, I could see very little.

As for the racist incident - that was our fans - lout sitting next to me racially abused one of your stewards non stop for the last ten minutes when they sit around the pitch, including spitting at him when his back was turned. When I said something to him I had a torrent of abuse thrown at me. Went to speak to they steward at the end of the game about taking it further only for him to state "thats just the way it is". Seems they often have to put up with this sort of thing from away fans. Shame that it is going to reflect on the football club. Was pissed off for hours after and really ruined the end of the day for me.

As for us in the Premiership, its a shame we don't perform like that every week. In short Dion is the only one who has any consistency in defence, so lapses in concentration cost us goals, which despite the fact that they did cost us three today, we don't come across that sort of finishing every week. Hopefully if we get somebody to play alongside Dion and the full backs can improve, we have a good chance when you look at the attacking options further up the pitch.

I was going to say that I haven't heard racism at the Bridge for ages (although I only go to about half the games in a season).

The Shed lower and the Matthew Harding lower are pretty awful in terms of seating. It's why I always try and get M.H Upper or West/East Stand. If you sit too far back you can't see anything 'cause of the poxy uppet tier, and if you sit too low you can't see the far end.

I thought Jose was very honest too when he said the game was "much much closer than 4-0 and this scoreline was unfair on you"

Yeh, was in the lower tier of the east stand last time and had a shit view due to the overhang of the second tier, could only see the pitch, none of the stadium. Looks as of they have altered it about a bit so that the view isn't so bad.

I have to admit that I have never heard racism like it from Norwich fans either, there has just been odd comments, but this was passionate and angered abuse aimed to offend this guy. He seemed genuinely angered that there were black stewards.

nCfC-CaDiZ wrote:He seemed genuinely angered that there were black stewards.

So did Ronaldinho and Eto'o, so this guy's probably used to it.

Huh!?

2nd leg at Stamford Bridge 04-05.

You don't remember?

I remember their anger yes, but didn't know it was a racially motivated attack on the black stewards?!

Well, it wasn't really. But they started shoving the black steward and then accused him of being racist to them

Ah right, can't seem to remember the accusation!

Finally! The club is starting to be run like a club should be:

Chelsea have announced losses of £80.2m for the financial year to June 2006.

Costs at the Premiership champions have been cut by 42.9% and keep the big-spending Blues on target to break even by 2009-10.

The losses are £60m down on the £140m deficit recorded in 2004-05 and are the lowest in three years recorded under Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

"These figures demonstrate the business is moving in the right direction," said Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

"That positive trend will only continue as, for example, this year end does not take into account the benefits of our adidas deal.

"Last year we took some painful decisions in order to help us achieve our long-term business aims. This year's figures prove that was the correct decision.

"With increasing sponsorship income, television revenue, and ongoing success on the field, those positive trends are projected to continue."

Abramovich has now spent in the region of £500m at the London club, who are second in the Premiership and battling for silverware on four fronts this season.

The bulk of the new income comes from shirt sponsorship with Samsung and next year's accounts will show the benefits of the £13m-a-year kit deal with adidas as costs start to fall.

Chelsea are also broadening their worldwide appeal with expansion into Chinese and American markets.

Transfer spending has also been reduced and Chelsea did not sign any players in the January transfer window.

Asked if the figures were a sign of success on the financial front, the club's director of public affairs Simon Greenberg told BBC Radio 4: "No, I do not think it is success. It is moving in the right direction, reducing losses and increasing major income streams.

"Our turnover was up and football activities increased income by 6.6%.

"We are not spending as much as we used to do on wages and they are more manageable - they are down by 2%.

"We think that has become more stable and as revenues grow the business will become more successful."

@S4P

Do you think there is any truth in Robben heading to the Camp Nou.. the runours are gaining down here that he is the actual transfer target for our attack and not Cristiano..

It would suit him to play in La Liga and I think he'd be much more injury-free if he went to your team.

Seems likely that he won't be here much longer, although I did think he'd stay for another season or 2. He's a fantastic player when on form (as he's showing at the moment), but like I said, he gets injured far too often.

If he joined you, I'd worry about our width, though I have to say Wright-Phillips has been looking much better lately, and Joe Cole will obviously be back.

Although I haven't heard anything, it wouldn't surprise me that you're interested in him. He really is one of the best wingers in Europe, and if Dinho left, he and Messi could be an unbelievablely good partnership.

S4P wrote:It would suit him to play in La Liga and I think he'd be much more injury-free if he went to your team.

Seems likely that he won't be here much longer, although I did think he'd stay for another season or 2. He's a fantastic player when on form (as he's showing at the moment), but like I said, he gets injured far too often.

If he joined you, I'd worry about our width, though I have to say Wright-Phillips has been looking much better lately, and Joe Cole will obviously be back.

Although I haven't heard anything, it wouldn't surprise me that you're interested in him. He really is one of the best wingers in Europe, and if Dinho left, he and Messi could be an unbelievablely good partnership.

I think the plan is to avoid a situation like this year, meaning that Robben would be rotated into the games instead of being a direct replacement.