youlots

All UEFA/FIFA will probably do is chuckle and say to themselves: oh look the adulterer is having a whinge - nobody will care; let's ignore him and the issue of our continuing & conscious choices for a specially chosen ref for chelsea will go away until next year when, of course, we'll do the very same thing come the knock out stage. JT was right to tie the refereeing of Ovrebo & Smark to the respect campaign generally but then holds back - good use of discretion to avoid penalty. But this is a much bigger issue in general and everybody knows it (see Loz's current thread on use of video technology & Dorset started a thread a few months ago etc etc). In my view the best thing JT could do (for the game generally and his long term reputation other than as a great player) would be to run with the idea and wait say until the end of the season and then hold a press conference an announce that he and other players are going to set up a separate player's association lobby group for the introduction of video technology and for domestic, conference and international refereeing standards and rating system to be adopted by FA/UEFA/FIFA etc etc. I mean what part of a (apparently mutual) respect campaign means that you have to continually accept bad decision making in your chosen field?? These blokes are earning so much and now (collectively) have a lot of say in the game. Why they don't or can't, or (perhaps) don't want to put to good use the benefits of collective association to make UEFA/FIFA accountable I don't know. It's a bit sad - and meanwhile poor old Chels (that's you and me) keep takin' it up the arse year in and year out from UEFA and FIFA: so much so that they must laugh when they read the inevitable threads such as the old chestnut that does the rounds whenever we get thrown out of europe asking which comp. is more important to win (the answer being obvious) as a salve to our perpetual disappointment.

Full and frank bjd - all of it too true, well put & probably overdue but saved nonetheless for after the inevitable day of reckoning. We've been a (too) patient bunch really.

Dorset - imo your best post for sometime (and no criticism intended there!) and I feel sure that a lot of us are thinking along the same lines at present. However, and quite apart from the aging squad problem and how to reinvigorate same and to what extent etc (and the subject of other threads), imo it is wishful thinking to conclude that our owner should/will re-adjust his priorities concerning this competition to concentrate solely or predominantly on the domestic front. Quite apart from the massive financial boost that comes with the CL both directly and indirectly, I somehow doubt that our owner will undergo some sort of latter day domestic conversion because of what took place last night. I mean let's face it: for him, being european champions is everything. Surely the quandary for him (and for us) is whether he will have the necessary patience and financial werewithal to re-adjust for the next cycle: surely he could no longer believe after watching the current squad for the last twelve months and probably longer that we can mount a serious challenge for european glory next year without some significant squad changes. And one part of me is relieved by the result against Inter over the two legs because it somewhat neatly closes the karmic cycle ala Roman/Jose & more importantly (& hopefully) will now motivate our owner (if he's still interested) to plan for the longer term and to assemble a new squad. The trick is to do so and hold onto a top four spot for the forseeable future. No mean feat now that city are in the mix with the spuds and villa not far behind. Will he have the patience? Interesting times ahead - never a dull moment with Chels.

Pissed off about Kakuta. He's not injured is he? Given our defensive woes and Stoke's type of game imo we have to take the mentality into the game of outscoring them and attacking at will for the whole game - even if we're ahead: especially if we're ahead. 1-0 will of course do but a loss will be difficult to come to terms with in the present climate and a draw not much better.

I agree. Also, if you accept that it was purely defensive the inference is that Jose rather under estimated the latitude given to our fullbacks to begin with. Good article though.

Ruud Gullit threatening Terry? or g4 threatening Moos? I can't decide!?!

Also saw Alice in Underland this weekend & mostly agree with your take bjd. Such a monumental task to begin with though - soothing all the monumental expectations; quite brilliant staging, acting and effects for the most part (as us devotees of Burton expect) but let down, no doubt, by the fact that it was disney money after all: hence the trite narrative tie-up. Imagine if Burton had been allowed by disney to do a Peter Jackson with the material - ie. three films not one. Sadly that would never happen of course.

Finally saw Moon. How Sam Rockwell wasn't nominated for best actor is beyond me - well, no, in fact it's not beyond me at all. Happens every year with the bloody oscars that the stupid academy miss nominating seminal performances/films and at the same time someone like Sandra Bullock gets nominated! Unf**kinbelievable. Sandra Bullock for christ sakes and for that crap. She'll probably win.

That's a good read g4 - what part don't you agree with?

errrrrr, Mr Bridges & Moos, hockey in this instance is a reference to hockey (ie. field hockey) not ice hockey.

Most probably just a zinc deficiency.

truly comic defending

Oh I see - and there I was thinking that Ivan had had a word to Nic...silly me.

Explain.

Tad harsh on Mikel bjd - we had a lot worse on the ground than him. Answer me this: why is Anelka so afraid of the byline this year?

That's a hell of a long time between screenings! Saw two stupendous Aussie films this week just out on dvd after missing them on screen. Van Diemens Land - ALexander Pearce's first culinary tour through the south west forests; and Beautiful Kate - sexy incest flick. Aussie film gets visceral again - its been too long!

English vaudeville - lovely stuff, long may it reign!

Cam - what's happened to viewer's choice on Foxtel?!?

A Cole - in superb form

Mr Bridges you're right - I don't generally care for stupidity - it's a problem for me but I'm happy to say I'm try to deal with it in my own way. Meanwhile try not take offence if my remarks reek of reality - it's not your fault - it's mine alone. Secondly, you seem to have a penchant (like the tabloids) for misreportage. I can't seem to recall ever saying that Terry may not be suffering from a smear campaign - people can be so unkind after all. The reality is course is that you just can't stop people thinking and saying things. Terrible isn't it But he is a big boy & his wife is a big girl & as for his kids well....part of life really. And I disagree with you in not wanting to change things but I do feel that a more successful approach to changing things is usually intrinsically tied up with trying to change things that are possible to change in the first place. Like our defence at set pieces for example. As for journalism as a possible career for you I think you may have too many latent sensibilities...then again with those dating tactics of yours you never know...

Where do I start.... First, goodluck with organising the press boycott by the english players Mr Bridges & in a world cup year (and where England made it this time around); keep us posted will you? I'm sure that'll stop the paparazzi in their tracks too ... Secondly, goodluck with the notion that such a boycott will result in some mass supporter epiphany whereby people deliberatley stop reading or watching or digesting this stuff. Thanks also for the provision of the vox populi street street quotes caught by your legions on the ground whilst Terry's wifes been doing the rounds. And you're so right about the definite harrassment JT's kids are no doubt undergoing/will undergo. Maybe they should be schooled at home from now on & given completly new identities when they reach adulthood so that they'll always be free of the mere possibility of such associative infamy. Oh and next week, can you start a thread showing us all how to construct box girder bridges & another thread showing us how we can reconcile the russians and the chinese: on 2nd thoughts the latter is a bit old hat, how about the americans and the cubans. Thanks in advance.

A robust & eloquent reply Moi. Mr Bridges, to assert that a collective national boycott by the players, even if maintainable, would, in some imagined way, help to elevate press standards and/or deter the more salacious press content is naivety at best, sheer stupidity otherwise... Teach the press a lesson by subject boycott?!? History has shown that only rigid authoritarian control/censorship by a state exercising control and censorship over state owned media can control content. And that all took place before the internet. And to suggest that Terry is somehow, given the circumstances, going to feature less in the national press spotlight if he "retired" from international football is well....an interesting take I would've thought. The only possible damper to this kind of thing is the tort of privacy and even that, for the average gutter press news peddler, is merely a post facto annoyance (ie. flog the papers now & increase circulation/hits now & then wait around and pay some damages some 3 years later). And your allegation regarding the alleged vilification & mud slinging of JT's family. Who has villified his wife? Who has slung mud at his kids? Kindly provide the press references. Oh and for your edification mate, nationality has nothing to do with the validity or otherwise of the opinion you may hold on what has gone down - we've sort of moved on...

Yeah but she was part of the "family" so the english press will only go so far... Also, from recollection she didn't play for Chels...

Well said Moi. Terry et al are just as whorish by that measure & were married as well which makes em' far worse in my opinion. Just heard that she's decided against selling her story: most probably because she's got half a brain and doesn't want to be tarred with the "whore" tag by the misogynists for the rest of her life.

Glad that he's lost the armband - I think Capello has done him & Chels a favour in the long run. JT's been pushing at various boundaries of the field for a while & like an impudent child getting away with it. If JT gets so upset about the loss of ther captaincy together with any on-going terrace treatment in the coming months that he's minded to want to play in Spain or Italy then he's truly a sook imo. Not that I expect Terry to ever want to leave Chels at all and irrespective of the treatment meted out & to come. Deep down he'll welcome this "correction" since imo it's what he's been subconciously after all along & it should make him a better leader in the future in any event.