hachejay

might as well get started now jim white has finally showed up!! we're due a lot of fingers-worth this year apparently!

i hope he has some decent half time entertainment. david hasslehoff singing jump in my car springs to mind given his germaness and certain arrest history...

good read. it is very true and very sad but the talk of how much difference winning trophies makes is spot on. (fernando torres will go down in history while doing f**k all hahah!) like i find it interesting they mention his leverkeusen side that missed out on all the trophies when that about that time there was a bayern munich team once touted as the best that had ever been that have long since slipped into obscurity since the failed to clinch the final victory they needed. (to teddy sheringham and ole gunner skolskaer in injury time... hate united but f**king funny!) had bayern lost again this year they would have gone the same way, and robben that of ballack.... instead... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/10086843/Bayern-Munich-topple-Manchester-United-as-biggest-football-brand-after-Champions-League-victory.html they are the biggest club in the world. 1 man, 1 goal, history. footballs awesome sometimes. even when its not about us! ;)

i don't particularly think its a question of his style suiting mourinho or anything like that... i think mou would actually want him to stay, i think the club would ideally want him to as well, but i think hes probably the most sellable person on the team so from a purely financial perspective he may be a casualty. the old school players are told old to have any real value, torres has shot his value over the bar as it were, mata n hazard etc are going nowhere... if they want to get back some pennies in return for a summer spending spree then i think he will be the player to go, especially if varane or mangala ends up coming in. fans want him, mou wants him, club wants him, but at the end of the day he is replaceable. replaceable with 45 million.

http://hereisthecity.com/2013/06/04/michael-ballack-will-help-seal-chelseas-schurrle-transfer/ hadn't seen this was happening before, but thought it may be of interest to people! Michael Ballack XI vs a World XI playing in Leipzig tonight... with Mr. Jose Mourinho taking the honours of coaching the world XI! furtherly of interest as this article points out is that andre schurle will be feauturing in the match and his coach rudi voller will be taking charge of the Ballack XI. ps (dont think match is on british tv but seems to be a link on usagoals.com and presumable elsewhere for anyone who wants to watch.. KO 7pm)

fight for your right to chelsea?

except for jim white. favorite day off ever today sat infront of skysports new all afternoon! :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10087465/Jose-Mourinho-will-be-a-disaster-at-Chelsea-claims-Barcelona-vice-president-Carles-Vilarrubi.html barcelona vice-president having a mega-bitch at mourinho! made me laugh my arse off and reminded me quite how much i hate the bunch of pretentious w**kers over at the nou camp...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/jose-mourinho-congratulates-rafa-benitez-winning-europa-league-073118562.html sums it up all pretty well for me: Jose Mourinho congratulates Rafa Benitez on winning the Europa League: Congratulations, Rafa. You have proven that you can win the Europa League with the reigning champions of Europe. This is as impressive as Cristiano Ronaldo winning a handsome competition held under a bridge. You did something that should happen. And now you want credit for it like a 15-year-old looking to be commended for not wetting the bed during sleep time. So I will give you as much as you deserve. People say you have vindicated yourself, Rafa. But what have you done at Chelsea? Win the Premier League twice, the FA Cup once and the League Cup twice? No. That was me. When you rubbed a magic lamp and asked the genie to turn you from a blog person back into a manager last November, Chelsea were four points out of first place and had four trophies to compete for. Then you showed up with your 1998 goatee and everything got worse. First, you signed a contract to be the "interim manager" even though you did not want to be called "interim." Then you could not fit into any of the club's suits, so you had to wear your own. Then you made everyone think you had a brain glitch when you called Marco Materazzi a liar nine times in 30 seconds. Then you lost in the League Cup, the FA Cup and even the Club World Cup, despite watching my Inter win it in person in 2010. And in the Premier League, you struggle to finish third, 16 points behind Manchester United. That is four times more than four. Or four times the number of different countries in which I have won domestic titles. In case your forgot, you still just have Spain. I have a tiny piece of paper that says all of this. You were supposed to fix Fernando Torres. He had six goals in the Eurjoke-a League, yes. But in the Premier League, he has not scored since December. He has seven goals. One more than last season. If anything, you have him fixed like a neutered labradoodle. Speaking of the Europa League, you beat four clubs that couldn't buy lunch at Chelsea's training ground and then one that has lost seven European finals in a row. This is how you finally won a trophy, Rafa. And you did this with a team that has regularly reached the final rounds of the Champions League in recent years, regardless of whether the manager can button his pants or not. Is this vindication? If a chef gets a bad review and then heats up a frozen pizza without burning it, is it vindication? You have done the bare minimum with the talented team at your disposal and so you get the bare minimum credit. You didn't burn the pizza. Congratulations. Now get out of my seat and start rubbing your magic lamp again.

does that mean we get to sneak downstairs early and take mourinho out the box while RA isnt looking?

why is nobody keen on cavini? would seem to me he has all the finishing skills of falcao with all the pace and skills of lewandowski. plus hes bigger and stronger than either.

well here's a snippet of an article on it from last week... http://www.givemefootball.com/340601-chelsea-set-for-stamford-bridge-exit

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=p&vpsrc=6&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=200618240859811444463.0004ae7555340816369c6 that's a pretty old link but it still gives a good impression of what still are the discussed locations. i read a report about it a few months back but i cant find it unfortunately. but i remember it saying nine elms was still the desired location if anything was to go ahead.

hahaha, i was actually thinking for a professional footballer he could probably do better lol! I've shagged better down my local tbh! As my brother put it, I guess being a goalkeeper is kinda like being the drummer in the band...

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/04/09/chelsea-owner-sends-in-fixer-to-get-jose-mourinho-to-agree-terms-on-formal-deal-to-return-as-blues-manager/ Marina off to Madrid apparently...

doesn't giving them the west side of the stadium give them all the pubs inbetween the tube stations and the ground? I'm sure last time I was there for Aston Villa a couple of seasons ago I couldn't get in anywhere on my way to and from the train. Ended up in a hotel bar that hadn't been delegated lol!

I'd rather die than see us actually cheering him don't worry. just meant that coming out with a comment like that when the fans have just about stopped constantly hurling abuse at him everyone match is a stupid move on his behalf.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2305129/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-says-Jose-Mourinho-biggest-threat-Manchester-United.html Ferguson thinks we'll be the challenge next year with a decent manager... and we should be. United have made fewer mistakes than everyone else this year, and that's a lot down to Ferguson and what he's done with them over the years. They are not a team that can beat anyone, but they are the team that needs to be beat. With proper competition next year I think they will be in for a struggle. If Chelsea, City, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal all pull it together better over the summer there's going be a lot of tough matches for everyone next season. And the rest of the league is improving too, whoever challenges next year is not going to be in for an easy run like this year at all if you ask me!

oh god no, i'm not saying i think Torres should stay or that Roman would keep for that reason... just that he has a lot more value than just as a mis-firing over-paid striker that seems to be the general consensus here. as an investment for RA i just think that there is more to the picture with torres and making such a ridiculously huge signing in the first place to simply say; "he cost a lot of money, he's been sh*t, count your losses and move on" chelsea fc is not just a club anymore it's being pushed and built as a global brand and business, a practice that has been succesful in making us the 4th biggest club in the world (ok, that's another point that can be argued i admit) and in that respect (irregardless of the football) i'm just saying that i think roman will look at players in a different light than us as fans would normally. ofcourse he needs to get a damn striker that can shoot straight and he wants the club to win, but there's a business side to signings that goes beyond just what the player can do on the pitch. as an extreme example look at beckham and psg. he isn't exactly there to play football now is he? he's there to promote some rich oil dudes new toy. not saying torres is the same at all, just that there's always more to everything than meets the eye, especially in football, business and roman abramovich. yeah my bad, meant million. i've been counting in thousands for some reason today and i confused myself. 2011/12 we shipped 910,000 apparently.

I don't particularly think they'd want him back... but that's really not a good thing for him to be saying when he's just getting everyone behind him finally.

I was wondering similar myself actually after watching the new adidas promotions for the 2013/14 kit... I can hardly be the only one to notice the prominence of Torres and the absence of Lampard in it, and while one can read into that what they want, it more made me ponder the marketability and brand value that Torres actually is to RA and the club. Now, Torres is not as impressive a figure as he once was, but he is still and incredibly popular player with huge appeal internationally as well. He's a clean-cut, good looking, well mannered striker that has one two European championships and the world cup scoring in all competetions and 2 finals... he is an internationally well known figure with huge appeal at a time when Chelsea are looking to drive into foreign markets to promote the brand and is young enough still to spearhead that. A few years back he sold more shirts than anyone else in the country, possibly the world, and while Chelsea refused to comment in the last survey on who sells the most shirts now, at the last check it was still Torres. The first year he arrived he sold more shirts in the last half of that season than drogba or lampard (the next two most popular) did in the entire season. Chelsea are now the 4th biggest seller of shirts in the world (after united, Barcelona and real) pushing coming on for a billion units a year and growing. If Torres maintained his popular status and continued to sell like that, selling maybe, 10 to 15% of the shirts (just guessing outloud here) then at 55 quid a pop your actually getting a good chunk of those wages back from him. Through in other merchandise sales and the fact that his popularity makes him a walking talking billboard for the club than I don't know that he doesn't start to seem like a reasonable person to keep around. I dunno, i'm just thinking off my head here and I am no football economics expert by any means. As a player investment... obviously very poor... as a brand investment... he's actually pretty damn good if you ask me. Anyway, feel free to tell me what a crock of sh*te i'm talking... just food for thought for yall!

the campaign is hardly designed with the intention of selling shirts you haven't seen, and has no meaning whatsoever as to whether or not they look good or not (which is completely subjective anyway so...) it's all about selling Chelsea and instilling a sense in you that there is something to be proud of in supporting this team. Chelsea are currently trying massively hard to push into foreign markets and promote their brand and this is a fantastic and cool looking advert for the team... especially for Asian / non-English speaking markets because this is communicating entirely through imagery. it's very clever, and very good if you ask me.

we're still singing for Robbie after all...

well obviously... as the courtois affair appears to have ended pleasantly they couldn't have much of a story without throwing in a whole lotta negativity lol! JT still makes me laugh anyway... nearly pissed myself when someone pointed out that Gerard Pique's son was born almost exactly 9 months after that red card in Barcelona!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2306242/Chelsea-love-triangle-Thibaut-Courtois-alleged-affair-Kevin-De-Bruyne-girlfriend.html I probably shouldn't giggle, but this story does make me laugh! Can't help but think of people trying to take pictures emulating his best moments might be a little different now! ;) At least we know he's gonna get on famously with JT!