MannyJello

who said anything about retiring from football?

can you get odds on Drogba never wearing a Chelsea uniform again? because i'd take that action right now.

i'd have some sympathy for drogs if he didn't go down like a rag doll six times a game, limping around like a mug for 10 minutes after the slightest touch. why not give Di Santo a run instead of replacing him with Belletti?

ok, enough talking about problems, let's talk about solutions. if no nearby pubs are showing this match, what do we have for streams? anyone? anyone?

That Culio is a pretty cool cat. Here he is posing with Marco Materazzi, living in a gangsta's paradise after returning from a fantastic voyage.

assume you have a taregt in mind and the team for which he currently plays seems unreasonable. either has their panties in a twist and doesn't want to release him, or is waiting for a replacement who may never come, or is valuing him too high. do you: (1) continue to negotiate them straight up until the deadline, hoping they will finally give in; or (2) build some leverage by actually identifying other options -- that way, the team realizes that you might just ditch them and not be hijacked by their demands, and if things fall through, you can go to Option B? i think Kenyon is a nitwit, and the fact that the Ashley Cole deal went down to the wire gave him confidence he'd be able to do it again. if i were Roman I'd fire the idiot. and i'd also buy a new car, just because i could.

that's a pretty myopic view, o great god of the Art of War. why in the hell did you think Robinho wanted to sign with us in the first place? because he had a romantic love for Stamford Bridge and the Chelsea badge for some unknown and mysterious reason? or because he knew we were one of the world's most popular clubs, he'd get to star in massive games with massive audiences, he would receive a big fat paycheck each week, he would work with a manager with whom he'd had prior experience and thus more likely to play a leading role for the team for the next few years at least, and he'd have a chance to position himself to perhaps get one more mega-contract in 3-5 years' time? i'd go with the latter. and i'm not begrudging him for it, i'm simply pointing out the fact that all professional footballers are mercenaries and it's no use crying just because one of your targets chooses someone else instead of you. was it Sun Tzu who said "Live by the sword, die by the sword?" Probably not, but it works here.

i wonder if Man City have Robinho shirts on sale on their website now. for f*cks sake, this is awful

that new boy Dorgba (or something) looks sort of decent

i'm not too worried by Man City's bid. Robinho will either come here or stay at Madrid. i can't see him agreeing to personal times with Sparky and his lot. think about it -- the three reasons he would want to come to us are (1) Champions League football, (2) his relationship with Scolari, and (3) probably a massive weekly pay raise. City's new owners can probably match him on the money, but can't offer the other two.

if Sp*rs were blaming their poor start on the distraction surrounding Berbatov, can we blame our poor form on the Robinho distraction?

di Santo comes on to make some magic in 2 minutes of time. go get em, son!

oh, i agree he misses plenty, i just can't ever recall him missing one as simple as that.

Sp*rs have made a few 2d half substututions:

wouldn't be surprised if it ended 1:1. the bus is *parked*

for those out there who think that we can compete on the highest levels with Drogba -- he scores that goal that Anelka missed 10 times out of 10. no doubt in my mind.

didn't he make similar comments sometime during the season when he said he had an opportunity to leave for a top club but lost out on the chance by staying with us? I thought the speculation then was that the club was Madrid after Capello was about to leave.

due to the great currency exchange rate at the moment, were you able to rent her for the whole night, or just a few hours? (cheers)

another rumor from a Sp*rs fan is that they are going to win a match this season. still, at this point, that's just a rumor.

17 pages, 330 posts, over 8700 page views, and the lad still isn't in Blue. the most prolific topic ever? and this one is starting to rival Essien's transfer saga, although that one seemed actually touch-and-go right until the wire. this one has had somewhat of an air of inevitability for a few weeks now. (and watch me have jinxed it with that comment and for Robinho to sign with Liverpool tomorrow...)

btw, Deco has now doubled his league goal output that he reached each of the last two seasons with Barca.

here's me... "why the hell isn't Ballack or Lampard lining up to take the.... YESSS!!" i'm starting to think that no. 20 is sort of good.

a beautiful thing GP W D L GS GA W D L GS GA W D L GS GA GD P 1 Chelsea 1 1 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 3 2 Aston Villa 1 1 0 0 4 2 1 0 0 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 3 Bolton 1 1 0 0 3 1 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 4 Blackburn 1 1 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 2 1 3 5 Hull 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 6 Middlesbrough 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 7 West Ham 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 8 Arsenal 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 9 Liverpool 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 10 Man Utd 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 Newcastle 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 12 Everton 1 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 13 Fulham 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0 14 Tottenham 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0 15 Wigan 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0 16 Sunderland 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 17 West Brom 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0 18 Man City 1 0 0 1 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 4 -2 0 19 Stoke 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0 20 Portsmouth 1 0 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 -4

i was voting Deco even before he struck that golazo

guess what, everybody?! Lawro's Predictions are back! And they are back in a big way. Lawro has gone out on a limb and predicted that six of ten matches, including ours against Pompey, will end 2:0. God bless you, Lawro. (and yes, I'm quite aware that the only thing worse than Lawro predicting a game will end 2:0 is someone making fun of the fact that Lawro predicts games will end 2:0, but i'm too excited about the start of the season to care)