oldbloke

Perhaps not, but finishing in the top four last season enabled us to play in the CL this season and the opportunity to win that for a second time. I would take that over the FA Cup any day of the week.

Because somebody sold them their tickets and that's where they think the market is. Painful but it's going to happen and I don't see any real action to clamp down on it.

I follow both pretty passionately (off to Ukraine next week to follow England - I always go the Euros and World Cup to follow them). However, Chelsea edges it for me by some distance. I hate the way England fans boo the likes of JT, Ashley, Lamps, etc. If you go to England games there are loads of flags from fans of team likes Huddersfield, Hull, Forest, Derby, etc. A lot of them seem to have a massive chip on their shoulder about Chelsea. I try to ignore them but they do get on my nerves - we are on the same side, for goodness sake, when it comes to England.

http://www.ebay.com/...=item20c589f740 Someone is flogging one on ebay but it's already over eighty quid Although here is another seller with a couple of them: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADIDAS-CHELSEA-HOME-SHIRT-2011-2012-CHAMPIONS-LEAGUE-WINNERS-SIZE-S-XXL-/290715544556?pt=UK_Men_s_Activewear&var=&hash=item43afff2bec

The morning of the game I picked up one of the local German papers. The front of the sports page had a big photo of a glass of beer with the caption (in English) "For You" and then beside it a photo of the Champions League trophy with the caption in German "Fur uns" (For us). I brought it home with me - it still gives me a chuckle.

It was fantastic. Nice early flight direct to Munich from Heathrow (took a chance and booked before the Barca second leg), got in to Marianplatz about 1pm, went to the Spatenhaus restaurant nearby, which we had booked for a group of 6. Had some German food and beer and were joined by various other friends so had about dozen guys crammed around the table. Early evening checked in/dropped rucksack off at hotel nearby and headed for the Allianz arena. It was a right pain getting on to the train and very slow along the way but made it with a few minutes to spare before kick-off. After the game/celebrations at the ground we headed back into town, found a pub on Schillerstrasse and had a couple. Went back to my hotel at 3am but couldn't remember my room number and they couldn't find my check-in. Finally found it - I had clearly been quite drunk when I filled in the check-in card - it was unreadable. Got to bed at 3:20 or so but couldn't get any sleep as there were 50 or so Chelsea fans singing outside, just below my hotel room window. Went down and joined them for half an hour. Went back to bed for 2 hours and then got up and headed for the airport. Tried to watch the victory parade on TV but kept falling asleep and finally crashed in bed at 7pm on Sunday evening. Happy days.

He was amazing. His penalty saving was truly first class - it sounds like he had studied every Bayern penalty since 2007, according to a press article I read in one of the tabloids. I remember when he first came to us, he was a brilliant keeper at virtually every other aspect of his game but he wasn't great at penalties - that has changed a lot over the years - he is top notch at those now (even if some people argue his overall game isn't as good as it was pre getting whacked on the head by Hunt).

Because it's the final of the Olympics football that weekend at Wembley.

I was in the same stadium during the World Cup and saw Germany play against Sweden, so maybe that gives some sense of what a predominately German crowd would be like. It's definitely a massive stadium and I was in the middle tier - I felt quite far from the pitch but the overall atmosphere was pretty good. I was sitting in a mainly German section and, while they weren't exactly doing the bouncey, it was fairly lively.

Saturday is also the Heineken Cup final at Twickenham between two Irish sides, Leinster and Ulster, so there are thousands of rugby fans flying to the various London airports from north and south of the Irish border. It strikes me as a typically g@b-sh!tey move by Ryanair and that d@uch bag O'Leary. I would never fly with them anywhere.

Any more update/colour on this, Chelsea8oy? I was hoping to see some returns go on sale but no joy and it's getting very close to Saturday. Such is life.

Yes, membership makes sense. You will be able to buy tickets for all games (provided you build up loyalty points, which isn't that hard to do if you go to most games - especially cup games). In practice, most home league games except the really big ones are easy to get, regardless of points. The difficulty is mainly re cup finals and away games. Season ticket holders will get first shout on the likes of Champions League and FA Cup finals and members don't get much of a look in (although I think some got tickets this year for the FA Cup final at the last minute). Membership also gives you the chance to buy away tickets - some of the bigger London away games like Arsenal are typically done on loyalty points but a lot of the other away games are reasonably easy to get. Wigan on a Wednesday night in November anyone? Most seasons there is an opportunity for members to "trade up" to a season ticket for the following season. The number of points it takes varies wildly - it is a function of how many STs don't renew and how many STs the club wants.

Do you have any sense if the players took up the option to buy more tickets in a significant amount? Just wondering if (ie, hoping) some of those/corporate-allocated tickets are put back on sale

Yeah, that's not great, is it? In fairness to the guy, in the small print at the bottom, he has said the delivery dates are wrong and he will get them to the buyer in time but it doesn't help his cause selling them.

Fair enough - still weird though