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Some new and interesting extracts from Didier's new autobiography. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3323802/Chelsea-s-dressing-room-secrets-revealed-Didier-Drogba-Tactics-chosen-Jose-Bosingwa-Phil-Scolari-tried-oust-didn-t-recognise-John-Terry.html Oh, Mata, you'll always bleed blue. I'll never forget that corner kick he took to set up our equaliser. Loved what Didier, Frank and Luiz did by the way. It might seem insignificant at first, but it somehow contributed to our victory. The belief and passion shown by our players that night were amazing, these attributes are almost non-existent in some of our players right now. Just for laughs.

Maybe he's decided it isn't necessary and a move into Kingsmeadow will suffice when all the JCL's f**k off after we get relegated.

From http://www.ww1playingthegame.org.uk/content/ww1-history/football-battalion The recruitment poster shows a detail of Stamford Bridge. Chelsea Football ClubChelsea’s gentleman amateur captain, Vivian Woodward, had joined the 17th Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, whose formation had been the idea of Fulham M.P. and Arsenal director, William Joynson Hicks, as a way of recruiting football fans. Woodward marched around the pitch with members of the battalion appealing to fans to join up. The poor response from Chelsea fans appeared to be in direct contrast to successful recruitment drives amongst rugby players and sportsman from public schools. A thinly disguised class bias seemed to depict followers of the working man’s game as ‘shirkers,’ despite The Chelsea Chronicle’s claims to the contrary. That 2000 out of 5000 professionals had already joined up and over 300,000 amateur players enlisted seemed to escape the notice of the critics. One young lad who did heed the call was James Ridley. As a 13 year old living opposite Stamford Bridge he had volunteered as a ball-boy, a first in the Football League. He had even sneaked into the first Chelsea team photograph so he could be seen with his idols. Ten years later, in 1915 he was serving alongside them in the trenches as a soldier in the Football Battalion. He became a Prisoner of War when he was captured at Cambrai in 1917 but survived the war. Professional football finally came to an end following Chelsea’s first appearance in the F.A. Cup Final on 24 April 1915. The ‘Khaki Cup Final’ was played at Old Trafford and Chelsea lost 3-0 to Sheffield United. Vivian Woodward had received special permission from his battalion commander to play and raced up to Manchester only to give his place in the team to his replacement Bob Thompson, as he did not wish to deprive his fellow team mate of a cup final medal. With the ending of professional football, players effectively had no choice but to join up. One such player was Jack Cock, who had grown up in Fulham before becoming a pre-war star with Huddersfield Town. He joined Woodward in the Football Battalion and at the end of the war joined Chelsea, scoring England’s first post war international goal.

"The guy who single-handedly convinced me to stay was Frank Lampard," he said. "One day, just after the World Cup, I was having a short family holiday in Marrakesh when I received a text message from him. "Strange, because I didn't remember ever having been texted by him during the entire two seasons I'd already been at Chelsea. I looked at the message, and I remember it to this day: 'Hi DD, I hope that you're staying, because we have to win the league together, and we have to win the Champions League together!' "I just stared at the phone. Frank wasn't the sort to talk a lot. He's really calm. He's a leader, but he leads more by his goals, by what he does on the pitch, not by words. Along with JT, he was the boss of the team." He added: "For me, receiving that text was really powerful. It was proof that I was wanted -- not that the team or the club didn't want me before, but I needed someone to tell someone." As if Lamps needed to be MORE important

From The Telegraph; Latecomers at Stamford Bridge manage to get a good view of the match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur (1913) .

There will be a lot of 'behind the scenes' discussions going on between the Club, the Architects, Transport for London and the Planners at Hammersmith & Fulham before a Full Planning Application is submitted. This will be a massive development for the area and will require a lot of consultation. The more detail you can get in the application early on the more chance you have of getting it approved. So even though it appears to be quiet - you can be sure there's a lot of work going on to make sure it (hopefully) sails through planning.

Daily Telegraph February 26 1914 showing a Baseball game at Stamford Bridge.

I have pre ordered it on amazon on hardback. tenner, bargain

I miss the mid 2000's Chelsea, so much balls and work rate

Paris chante toujours.