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Kean - Lost It, & Other Hair Related Choices
The heat may well have got to one chap, who has come up with a few players/managers whose hair reflects their playing style. That, and the man who tamed Drogba...
Paying Tribute To Didier 'Beast' Drogba
He will be missed by Chelsea but also by other fans who had no choice but to stand back and admire. Plus, mails on Liverpool, Tottenham and the stout Irish defence...
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An Open Letter To Roman
Dear Mr Abramovich,
If you wanted to have a 'manager for life' like the other big clubs do, you should have kept the one you brought in originally; who won back to back Premier League titles and who changed the club philosophy forever. Instead, you decided too late and hired an unproven, green behind the ears, young, and structure-less man who has not made a solid team selection all year. Now, your club is having the worst season since you purchased it, and everything you've invested in in hopes of building an empire, is at risk of tumbling down.
If I were you, I would get on my hands and knees and beg Jose Mourinho to come back and be my 'manager for life'. Tell him that he is, indeed, special, and that you were wrong for the way you treated him. Give him the most possible money you could give him and if that isn't enough, double it. Mourinho could have been our Sir Alex - but better - and instead, we have a nobody manager with a team full of somebodies who can't seem to get it together.
Save our club before it is too late, Mr Abramovich.
Regards,
A Concerned Lifelong Supporter
Defending AVB
I'll leave it to others to tactically dissect Chelsea's starting line-up last night but one thing I read in this morning's papers summed up the problems for me. It was that Frank Lampard was furious at being left out, given his service to the club.
That seems to be the trend all season whenever he's been left out. Now I dont expect players to be delighted not to be playing, but it seems some the Chelsea stalwarts have a sense of entitlement that they should start. Lampard is not finished, still has plenty to offer, but he's not the player he was and is not undroppable.
If Chelsea are going to move on with an evolved team, which they need to, then Lampard and players like him have to be dropped. Or at least there needs to exist the possibility that they can be dropped. Im not a Chelsea fan, and im sure Chelsea fans are unhappy with the result and the team selection. And to be honest AVB may have got it wrong leaving Lampard and Cole out last night but thats not the point. Its seems clear to me that player power at Chelsea is a big problem. It may drive AVB out in the end but that doesnt mean he's wrong to try to break it
Gaz, Ireland
...Anticipating AVB will get it in the neck for the result, aaagain, allow me to keep it brief and say
that neither squad selection, motivation, tactics nor formation cost us three goals.
David Luiz cannot clear his lines, Cahill doesn't know where he is and neither of them have any sense of the pertinence of 'positional awareness', something which, incidentally, most centre-backs value.
Stop blaming the manager, blame the team.
Simon (you down with AVB? yeah you know me), miffed
P.S. What does Raul Meireles do? Seriously
...First off, I'm a huge Man United fan and love nothing more than Chelsea getting spanked in any game they play, especially Europe since their owner has some weird erotic fantasy over the Champions League trophy.
Yes, they are struggling to defend properly due to a combination of things; David Luiz, poor positional play, no help from midfield, possibly a few of the old guard causing problems. However, despite all this and the comical performances I am sick of hearing AVB being asked questions over his safety as manager after EVERY F**KING GAME!
Seriously, give the guy a break. He is in one of the most difficult managing positions in the world right now, we all know Roman's love of axing a manager if they lose 3 games on the bounce and now on top of that AVB has to deal with shipping out the dead wood that have given them the success in the past. Not an easy job for anyone and I wouldn't blame AVB if he walked away from this mess rather than having to deal with all the sh*t that comes with it.
Orts (rant over) Mufc.
Super Napoli
While many Chelsea supporters may have their reasons as to why the Blues didn't perform well, I think it was more a matter of Napoli being superb than Chelsea being poor. The front 3 of Maggio, Lavezzi and Cavani are a force to be reckoned with and their swashbuckling style of attack-minded football, they would even give Barca a run for their money. Especially the latter two.
As an Arsenal supporter, I was actually embarrassed by my team's performance because they barely even played. They actually made Milan look like Barca. This doesn't take away from the fact that Milan are a better side on paper compared to Arsenal. But watching Chelsea last night, one cannot say they were horrible. They gave it a shot, got disrupted in midfield and Napoli countered with fire. Which is what Napoli are good at. Even Inler and Hamsik put in good shifts. The score could've easily been 5-1.
While the odds are against the Blues, they could still put in a 2-0 and go through. That possibility still exists. That can't be said about my Gunners. Anyway, should Napoli go through I sincerely hope they face Barca because it's been a while since I watched an attacking side apart from the usual suspects (Barca, Bayern, Real) play with such zest. It's amazing that they are 5th in the Serie A when they have been quite impressive in Europe.
Carl ( Cavani has 5 goals in 6 shots in the CL. Goodness!), AFC
... Conclusions from last night.
A Napoli v Barca final = Football Porn.
Is AVB wearing a womans mac?
Dave(EIRE)
Dossena
I was just looking at the line ups for the Chelsea-Napoli game and something caught my eye:
Andrea Dossena is still in the Champions League and Liverpool is not. Talk about depressing...
Robert Scully(Is it ok to talk football now regarding Liverpool?) LFC Orlando
Torres Is A Right-Winger
I've been thinking about this for a while now and came to the conclusion that Fernando Torres is a right-winger... yes, a right-winger. Forget the loss of pace. Forget the dip in form. The man is clearly a winger.
We've all seen him cross and we've all seen him "naturally" move to the flank while his teammates look at him in confusion. I reckon that with some crossing and dribbling drills for a month Torres would become a world class winger.
Chelsea would definitely benefit from this, it fits perfectly. Sturridge is getting frustrated with the lack of opportunities he gets in his preferred central forward role. If AVB so desperately wants to play 4-3-3 then Sturridge and Torres should swap places.
Yamir N
One-Footed Footballers
'Jerry MUFC Ireland' says "Irwin is remembered most as a left-back but he was signed as a right-back and taught himself to play left-footed with the emergence of Gary Neville."
Now I am plenty old enough to remember Irwin but had no idea we was one footed and taught himself to be 2 footed. This is my biggest bug bear / grinds my gears / gets up my chuff call it what you will, but I simply detest the fact the footballers are only one footed. It amazes me and causes me huge annoyance that most footballers, nearly all in fact, are predominantly one footed.
Let's not forget that their 'job' is to kick a football. That's basically it. They have all been doing this since they were old enough to walk. They train 2 hours a day 4 days a week and play 90mins on a weekend. Honestly why oh why doesn't manager insist that 30mins a day is spent kicking with the other foot?
What other job can there be in the world where it's acceptable to only half-do the job you are (grossly over) paid for? Really I am i total disbelief and amazement.
Imagine how good Valencia would be with both feet (he is probably the most one footed player I can think of at the moment). George Best, I believe, stayed behind or actually played some games where he wouldn't use his 'favoured' foot in order to improve and he didn't turn out too bad as I remember.
Imagine a keeper who could only dive to the right, a secretary that could only type right-handed, or a one-handed boxer. Derek Zoolander even managed to turn left (or was it the other way round?).
C'mon seriously is there any excuse for it? Does anyone else care or is it just me?
Oh, and in order to get printed: Torres is crap or out of form, Carroll is crap or getting back into form, Sack AVB or Terry, Lampard and Cole and Arsene knows..or doesn't..
Al (LFC, despite the mentions of UTD players) Cousins
Love For Chris Wreh
While I would agree with the majority of Stu Woodburn's worst Wenger XI, surely the special mention for Chris Wreh is a little harsh. I would have thought that three goals in three 1-0 wins towards the tail end of a double winning season (including the FA Cup semi-final) were enough to make him exempt from such a team.
I'm sure Kaba Diawara would be a suitable replacement on the bench. Being a cousin of a good footballer doesn't make you a good footballer, however, it does make you a better footballer than the guy who pretended to be the same footballer's cousin.
Owen (cue a pile of Graeme Souness Worst XI mails), Cork
Good Shout
I read a few letters about penalties, and it reminded me of an idea that me and a friend of mine came to. The person who is fouled should take the penalty. That way players MIGHT choose to stay on their feet and score the goal, instead of Ronaldo or Rooney or whoever else it is to take the responsibility for them.
The pressure would be even higher if that player knows they faked it. Hand balls would be a problem, but then again it could be the player who took the shot, or made the cross. They were the once who forced it after all.
Zdravko (Man Utd) Tashev
What's With All The Booing?
I'm sure you will get mainly mails from Chelsea fans/ other gloating Top 6 fans...
But my club Charlton drew 1-1 last night with Rochdale. Although disappointing as our form has not been as stunning as it has been, the point leaves us 7 points clear of 2nd place in League One, and 12 points clear of 3rd... And some of our fans booed.
Yes, we haven't scored a goal in open play since 2nd Jan, however, we are not losing, and there's a million reasons to be positive about this team, the manager and the owner. And we are flying in the league! But the booing leaves me flat. How can so-called supporters be so unsupportive? What do they hope to achieve by booing? It's a terrible indictment of the modern football fan etc. etc. but anyway, it got me thinking about 2 questions which I would like to put to the mailbox.
Firstly, when have been the most inappropriate booings by football fans. Off the top of my head:
- Charlton drawing a game while 7 points clear of second place
- Liverpool under Rafa when top of the league and a negative substitution
- Arsenal after conceding late in a pre-season friendly
There must be some others?
Secondly, what causes a set of fans to be so negative? Why do some clubs have fans that are more prone to some inappropriate booing? I think it may be if a high proportion of the fanbase have come since the Premiership days - where they 'support' a team of their choosing, rather than a team that they were naturally a part of their heritage. If you're part of the club you wouldn't boo your own, but if you only attach yourself to a club for the plus points then I suppose it doesn't take much to feel like you're being cheated and disassociate yourself from the failures.
Michael (Going to start following Tazer ball instead) Brockett
Liking Your Style
Just a quick mail on the recent brilliant topic of people's favourite type of player. Mine has got to be the no. 10 or creative player from the Eastern part of Europe (as opposed to Eastern Europe to avoid the pedants). Personal favourites being Hristo Stoichkov, Gheorghe Hagi, Zlatko Zahovic, Georgi Kinkladze and Goran Pandev.
I don't know what it is that makes me love these player so much besides the obvious beauty of their footballing skills. Maybe their unpredictability on the pitch? Maybe the fact they play/played for the underdog? Or maybe I just like the sound of their names. Who knows. Love them all, and heres hoping the young Armenian team can produce another favourite for myself in the coming years.
John Mac (almost forgot Predrag Mijatovic and Pavel Nedved!) , Éire
Tad Harsh
Re: Jerry MUFC Ireland, One Of Many Fergie's Best Signings XI
Anyone who refers to Cristiano Ronaldo as 'CR7' deserves to die.
That is all.
Jonathan Horrocks
