BlueChampions - The Blog of the Champions of England!

Great start to the pre-season, isn’t it? What better could have happened in this match than Michael Essien scoring a superb goal! It was a good game with an opportunity for most players to get some time on the pitch. While the world cup bunch stayed away, Essien must have been dying to step on to the pitch. That was a very well taken goal built up by Sturridge’s pass and Josh McEachran’s smart lay off to Essien. It wasn’t so easy. Essien still had to beat a man and score with his left foot with a sweet finish. Next up is Ajax.

Chelsea have still not done a great deal in the transfer market. Ancelotti has said that he doesn’t need to bolster his attack to retain the title. While it is worrying on face value, this could just be mind games behind the negotiations. Definitely, Carlo doesn’t sound like someone who’s desperate to buy. Honestly, we do have to bolster our attack to retain the title. Our attack is highly reliant on Didier Drogba. Even Man Utd is relying heavily on Rooney. The difference is Rooney is about 7 years younger than Drogba and these details determine the proneness to injury and recovery time. It’s high time we’d got an understudy who is also a fairly established player.

Jeffrey Bruma is on a year long loan to Wolfsburg. I see mixed reactions for this move. Some of us thought that Bruma would get into the Chelsea first team this season. This move also indicates that Carvalho could be staying after all, which is a good thing too. If Carvalho is going to stay here this season, Bruma’s loan to Wolfsburg could end up being a very good move for Chelsea. Wolfsburg are a good team (were champions a season back) and are now managed by Steve McLaren. I’m certain that Bruma would return to Chelsea as a much more matured defender. It is in places like Germany and Italy where you can learn your trade and sharpen your skills as a good defender.

In other news, Joe Cole joins Liverpool. I’m confident that Chelsea did the right thing by letting him go. Also, I’m happy that he didn’t join our ‘rivals’ just in case it turns out to be otherwise. Liverpool have got weaker by replacing Benayoun with Joe Cole. I have no animosity towards Joe Cole ‘the Liverpool slayer’ for joining Liverpool. It’s his career and his choice. Hope it works out well for him and not for Liverpool as such.

The Capello Index is back! I must say that this index is pretty interesting. There are a few indices and models that rate players but I think this one seems to be an improvement over the other existing models. At least it gives me such an impression. The website is not complete yet so the minute details behind each score could not be seen. The legal battle would be on between Capello/FA and the Capello Index website. The website could be removed from the web but I hope this comes with a legal-friendly version with probably no direct reference to Capello. Anyway, check it out while it lasts.

Finally, we’ve started seeing premier league clubs banning vuvuzelas in their stadiums. Some have made it clear but some are still undecided. There is still no news from Stamford Bridge yet. Personally, in Stamford Bridge, I wouldn’t want vuvuzelas. In South Africa, it would have been unfair and even foolish to have banned it there because it’s part of their football culture.. In England, it’s not. It is the chants and songs that are part of the football culture in England. I would hate if the sound of vuvuzelas drown our chants of ‘can we play you every week’ when Arsenal plays . . .

Catch you later!

The season begins tomorrow. Chelsea will play their first pre-season game against Crystal Palace tomorrow. We are not going to the US this time for the pre-season. This game would be at Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace, right here in London. It’s good that the players don’t have to make long travels with longer jet-lags just for the pre-season, after a physically and mentally tiring world cup.

The new away kit has now been released while the launch would be in August. When I first saw this black away kit, I was excited because I like these kind of black kits. Our ‘unlucky’ away kit of the last season was more of a black and blue kit. This new kit is a full black kit with stuff like adidas three stripes, kit name and number in orange. When I saw this kit in action, in the kit release event on Chelsea TV, I realised that the kit looks lighter on the torso. When players are on the move, the front side doesn’t look black at all, because it isn’t. All said, this kit looks very good.

The big news about tomorrow’s match is the return of the bison. I know this is a cliche but I have to say it – Essien’s return is like a new signing for Chelsea. Our best period of the last season was when Essien started in our midfield. If he can start about 30 matches in the premier league this season, we should fly high. I’m sure Carlo would play almost all the players that are available. We won’t get to see Yossi playing for Chelsea yet as he won’t be available due to injury. This match would be telecast live on Chelsea TV. I have access only to the Chelsea TV online. I might watch this match if the internet streaming is decent. In any case, I’d watch the highlights and share my thoughts with you all.

In transfer news, there’s still nothing concrete for Chelsea. If anything, Hodgson confirms that Torres is not leaving, after his face-to-face meeting with El Nino in Spain. Papers report that Chelsea are offering £30m for Torres. It’s true that Liverpool need the cash but getting back to champions league would be the top priority for them. With Man City strengthening so much, Liverpool will have to be really worried. So, unless Torres wants out, it’s hard to see him in a Chelsea shirt this season. Despite his desire to play in the champions league, Torres does seem to love playing for Liverpool. But still, we are yet to hear from Torres on his ideas about his future.

Meanwhile, Man City are on a spree and that’s not a surprise. They have bought some really good players and are looking to buy some more. Look at their purchases so far – Yaya Toure, David Silva and Jerome Boateng – these are fantastic buys for their positions on the pitch. They are building a truly formidable squad. We still need to see how these players play together, how well they gel with each other, how the egos can be kept under check and how much ‘devotion’ they would have to their club.

Chelsea certainly has a vision and strategy. Our transfers over the last 5 seasons have shown that. Carlo seems to be keen to use the youth players that we have and he is also interested in buying players for the future than for just this season. More than ever before, I have full faith in this Chelsea management which comprises of various people from Ancelotti to Gourlay to Abramovich himself. Something tells me that we would be the European champions this season.

Let’s hope we have a great season ahead. All the very best! I’ll leave you with this great picture to kick start this football season! This is Nicolas Anelka. When has the world seen this man like this? My caption to this picture is ‘The Spirit of Chelsea’. What you see here is success + style. Let’s keep the blue flag flying high!

Okay then, Iker Casillas has lifted the world cup trophy to knock my last piece of prediction. Congratulations to Spain. I feel sorry for the Dutch. They could have won it as well but they didn’t. I thought it was a very good match. Yes, there were a lot of stoppages and yellow cards but when a match of this intensity is being played, it’s understandable. I liked the match. It was very tight, there were very few mistakes in midfield and defence. Despite this match being tight, there was certainly a lot of desire and ambition from both sides, which made it a very intriguing game.

I also feel sorry for Howard Webb. He is a good referee but on this occasion he got quite a few crucial things wrong. Netherlands should have had de Jong sent off and Spain should have had Iniesta and Puyol sent off. With just 3 minutes to go for the shootout, he got a big decision wrong at that crucial time. The free kick from Sneijder in the 116th minute should have resulted in a corner for Netherlands but he awarded a goal kick for Spain and that attacked ended the Dutch hopes. Looks like a very minor detail but at the 116th minute of a world cup, for a 10-man team, every bit of possession would have helped. Anyway, this is not meant to suggest Spain didn’t deserve or anything. It’s just that Netherlands deserved to be champions as much as Spain did.

Andres Iniesta was always on my ‘great footballer but a despicable character’ list. It’s just that he improved his ranking yesterday. I thought Robin van Persie was the most useless player on the pitch yesterday. He looked like he didn’t want to be there. His useless presence meant Netherlands were always a man down against Spain, which is not an easy proposition. I won’t blame him though. In his kind of form, he’s never going to get anything against Pique and Puyol. RvP shouldn’t have played or he should have been subbed very early.

Thomas Muller wins the golden boot of this world cup, thanks to his three assists which were the tie breaker. I’m happy for Muller to win it than the incredibly lucky David Villa. He is made out to be like the striker of the tournament or something. He’s been poor but lucky while Torres was poor and unlucky. If Villa had won the golden boot, it would have rivalled Anelka’s golden boot in the premier league. Diego Forlan wins the golden ball for being the player of the tournament. That’s a great choice, I must say. He’s not only brilliant and consistent, he’s been pulling his team along and made them punch above their weights. Truly deserved the prize. I wouldn’t have complained if Schweinsteiger got it.

The most important thing is: the world cup is over. And that means: the glorious world of club football is back!

The transfer mania would set in now. So many top players have been linked with Chelsea but you and I know that we’d buy none of them. There were some strong rumours about a Chelsea bid for Fernando Torres, who wants to play in the champions league, which is not possible with Liverpool this season and hopefully a few more seasons. I like Torres. I’d love to see him in a Chelsea shirt. Yes, he’s had a poor world cup but which Chelsea had a great world cup? The fact that he has had a poor world cup can work to our advantage as his price should be most certainly lower now. See, Torres is a top class striker and if he plays for Chelsea, he’d get great supply from everywhere and he should love playing with a selfless striker like Drogba. All this is fine, if he comes at a decent price. I happened to see a piece of news (or junk) about Liverpool slapping a £100m price tag on Liverpool. That’s beyond a bad joke.

Meanwhile, our eternal target Sergio Aguero is still on the look out for ‘a top club that would help him achieve his ambitions’. Quite expectedly, he made a reference to Chelsea and said this:

To be the strike partner of Didier Drogba is a thing many players would love to be. But it’s not just Drogba – it’s Lampard, Terry, Anelka, Essien, and maybe even Fernando Torres. They have quality players everywhere.

That’s nice – the intent and the slip. Happy that he is still intent on playing for Chelsea. He has been in this ‘come and get me’ mode for a few seasons now. And then the slip – see how he drops the name of Fernando Torres, his ex-colleague and friend at Atletico Madrid. Looks like Aguero knows something and I hope he didn’t get that from the tabloid rumours.

Torres wants to go. That’s bloody clear. But where can he go? He wants to play in the champions league, having played for Liverpool he might want to continue playing for a top club and he does get paid a handsome package. Having raised in / played for Atletico, I don’t see him going to Barcelona or Real Madrid. He may not want to join his Rafa at Inter. Out of the other clubs that can afford him, Man Utd don’t seem quite keen. Juventus? AC Milan? They’ve got Pato. I’d be happy if we end up getting either Torres or Pato. We need to wait and watch.

Ancelotti has kind of clarified that we’re not buying Kaka, though he would love that proposition. Having replaced Joe Cole with Benayoun, we’re still looking to find someone to fill the boots of Ze German. Strangely, not many midfielders get caught into these rumour stories. About three-fourth of the rumours are always about the strikers, forwards and wingers. While we are looking for a very good midfielder, Ancelotti gets some joy as Essien and Mikel return to full training. If Essien gets to start every single match next season (ala Frank Lampard), we could have a fantastic season and would help a lot in defending our title and progressing in Europe.

Happy to be back with proper football where the champion is decided over 38 matches across 10 months. Happy to be talking Chelsea.