Chelsea in a Pickle
Chelsea’s pickle is not financial, but the sort of problem you get when everybody tries to pull in different ways. It’s described here on the BBC.
I would think that working for Roman Abramovitch must be difficult in any capacity., from a gateman and a tea lady upwards.
I certainly think that unless something remarkable happens, Andre Villas-Boas doesn’t have long left at Stamford Bridge.
Who Will Be Chelski’s Best Manager This Year?
Or should it be this month?
After all the current incumbent can’t be given much more time by Roman Abramovich, can he?
I Don’t Get These Football Colours
The Manchester United match was on in the background last night. I thought they had scored, as the team in red had!
But it was Benfica!
Isn’t it about time that in important matches teams played in their proper colours!
But it’s all about money. So if it’s about money, does that explain why a fairly small crowd turned up to watch Chelski on Tuesday.
That Wasn’t a Goal
The Chelsea equaliser I’ve just seen against Tottenham wasn’t a goal. The ball appeared not to cross the line and the referee was unsighted. So Spurs should have been given the benefit of the doubt.
So I may be biased, but then if there was goal line technology we would have known for certain.
Who’s Going to be the Next Chelski Manager?
Chelski seem to be trying hard to prove the old adage that money can’t buy success, especially after their defeat by Everton in the cup yesterday.
I can’t see Carlo Ancelotti surviving very long, unless Chelski win the Champions League. But remember the year ends in one!
A Reply for Kazakh Jock
Kazakh Jock of the Bacon Sandwich episode has asked me a question about Ipswich Town.
What is going on as you get absolutely thumped one week and then come round and beat the second best team in the country !!!! and all within a week.
The words about monkeys and backs come to mind. But also on Wednesday, Ipswich got the tactics right, even if Fabregas throught Ipswich were playing rugby.
Priskin’s goal was the result of one of numerous balls lofted over Arsenal’s vulnerable backline, a tactic of which Fábregas was dismissive. “I don’t know if it is long ball or it is a rugby kick but it worked for them,” he said. “In England a lot of teams play like that and it works for them, they create chances like that and it is their football. I can only remember two opportunities for them but it was from a long, long ball because, playing football, they could not really get behind us or [get] attacking.
“We just have to put the ball on the floor and try to play football – that is what we do. I still think we played well. We were good enough but just did not put the ball in the back of the net. The result is a bit disappointing because I think we were the much better team. Credit to them because they played well but Arsenal made the football. The other team refused to play football. They were lucky to score in a long ball. But it was one of those nights and now we have to make it at the Emirates in two weeks’ time.”
Or should I quote Corporal Jones about not liking it up ’em? Or rather Arsenal’s rather suspect defence didn’t!
As I was at both matches, I can also say that one big difference between the two matches was the performance of the diminutive Jaime Peters, who is even shorter than me. Against Chelski his pace was employed up front and he was probably bullied out of the match, by players almost twice his size. But against Arsenal, he was at right-back and his quick tackling, interceptions and fast breaks completely subdued Arsenal’s left flank. Andrey Arshavin was made to look a very ordinary player.
A Disappointing Result at the Morgue
I went in hope to Chelski for the FA Cup match with Ipswich. I returned very disappointed, as it seemed that the Town players virtually gave up after thirty minutes.
Inside Stamford Bridge
Chelski may have an impressive stadium, but I wasn’t very impressed with the pitch and it certainly wasn’t up to the standard at Portman Road.
Considering that there were 41,000 people inside it was also very quiet.
I last went to Stamford Bridge in probably about 1963 to see Spurs play. In those days, you stood in an enormous terrace alongside the pitch, with the so-called Shed sticking up like a thumb to your left on the other side. There was also a lot more aggro about and Spurs and Chelsea still have a certain amount of bitterness between them.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the difficulty of getting to the ground. I took the train to Fulham Broadway to get there and coming home, I did what we did in the 1960s and walked to South Kensington. From there in the 1960s, I would have taken the Piccadilly Line to Oakwood. Yesterday, I just took it to Piccadilly Circus and got a bus from there all of the way to the stop by my house.
The Fightback Starts Here
So Roy Keane has gone and now the players of Ipswich Town can get on with what they hopefully want to do; play football to the best of their ability, without being bullied all the time.
It’s probably a good thing that they’re playing Chelski on Sunday in the Cup, as if they go down fighting, it will be character forming at worse and if they win, then it will prove that money isn’t everything.
I should think that the ghosts of Sir Alf and Sir Bobby are laughing their heads off, as they share stories and they will be motivating the players in the ways only they know.
I’m going to Stamford Bridge tomorrow and the match could well be something special, no matter what the result.
But whatever happens, it will be the start of Ipswich Town’s fightback.
The fans seem not to like the idea of Paul Jewell as manager, but there are a few out there without jobs, who manage almost in the mode of Ipswich Town’s great ones of the past. Roy Hodgson and Chris Hughton to name but two!
The Special One
They say what goes around comes around.
It certainly did last night, as a couple of years after he was sacked by Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho returned to triumph. Not a bad result for a man, who used to be ridiculed as Booby Robson’s translator. Perhaps, he learned a lot from the master.
Of the four major clubs of the past few years in England, Chelsea and Liverpool are the ones that seem to be showing the strain. Could it be because they are the two who’ve tried to buy success more than Arsenal and Manchester United? Or could it be that Chelsea are the two clubs with smaller stadia and hence a reduced cash flow?
We’ve not seen the last of Chelsea this season, but I’d be putting my money elsewhere if I was a betting man.
The Anonymous Widower 