I’m back once again. The net connection still stays screwed but the techie in me set things up with a brilliant idea of connecting my gprs mobile to my laptop and using it as the modem. Goddammit! It works! It’s not quite flying like my broadband does but at least I can type stuff in a notepad and upload in bluechampions in just about 5 mins. There were quite a lot of transfer rumours last couple of weeks and also the photo finish at Spain.

There is this ‘news’ on Skysports that Drogba might leave Chelsea. Even Jose Mourinho would not read that piece if he is a regular reader of Skysports website. Whatever BBC Sport puts under the ‘gossips column’, Sky publishes as ‘news’. I wonder why such an organisation of Sky’s stature resorts to cheap journalism for few more thousand hits. By the way, Drogba had said that he’d like to play for the european giants before he retires. This is something every player feels. How many players are hoping to finish their career in the same club they are playing now? Drogs just said what you and I would have said and Sky presents that to us with some salt and pepper. Staying with Drog news, Drogba could well be the catalyst in bringing Malouda to Stamford Bridge as they seem to enjoy each other’s company on and off the pitch.

Read this from the Boss and then probably you’ll lose interest in Malouda, Tevez, Villa, Quaresma, Alves etc.

For the next season Chelsea have told me there is not much of a budget for reinforcements. The money will be practically nil and we will not be paying for transfers. But I don’t think that investment is necessary because Chelsea already have an able and successful team as long as we don’t have injuries. That is what hurt us last season.

Read this from Boss’s Boss and then you’ll start tracking the rumours again. That’s how things work at the club nowadays.

The delay in the signing of contracts by Terry and Lampard has started to make me uneasy and nervous. It is quite obvious that both these players want to pledge their future to Chelsea and one of them even ants to be a Chelsea manager when he retires as a player. The club, manager, fans and the players themselves want to continue with Chelsea. With all these positives around, as this is still getting delayed so much, I’ve started worrying. I hope the contract issues are resolved soon so that we won’t have to read about Juventus’ interest in Lampard and how Ranieri tries to woo Frank. Robben is all set to sign a new 5-year deal with us snubbing interests from Real Madrid. That was the best piece of news I heard in the last few weeks.

Alex must be wondering what does he have to do impress Chelsea. Another season goes with no explicit interest from Chelsea to call back Alex. Our wait to sign a defender could mean that we are probably going to land someone from La Liga. Talking about La Liga, I don’t know how many had a heart attack last Saturday when the Real Madrid and Barcelona were playing snakes and ladders. Barcelona are a good team and for some reason or no reason, I despise them (like Arsenal in Premiership) to such an extent that I would even support Maccabi Haifa if they are up against Barca. Ruud scored a double to put Real where they belong. His incredible goal spree could put him in contention for the Ballon d ‘Or this season.

A small flashback: Jose Mourinho on Lionel Messi after the Champions League match in 05-06 at Stamford Bridge.

How do you say cheating in Catalan? Can Messi be suspended for acting? Barcelona is a cultural city with many great theatres and this boy has learned very well. He’s learned play-acting.

While Ruud was working his ass out to score goals, Lionel Messi does a Michael Jordan at Camp Nou. Someone told me that this is the second hand ball goal he has scored this season. It’s very fishy and surprising that the Spanish FA has not reviewed this incident which if happens would result in Messi being suspended for 2 or 3 matches thereby missing the title-decider this weekend. Luckily for Messi, both Madrid and Barca drew and his goal did win the title for Barca. If that had happened that would have been a real disgrace to football and he would never have been forgiven for that sin. To call that a handball is a gross understatement. Messi punched the ball into the net knowing that it was the best possible action that would get him a goal against a charging goalkeeper. And his celebration after that piece of cheating was absolutely disgusting.

Back to EPL, while Sir Alex swooped ‘nanny and her son’, Chelsea has taken on board 10 youngsters who would be playing in the under-19 and the reserves team. Most of these guys are English kids. Even if 2 or 3 of these kids come along well, that’s more than value for money. With composition of our current team and the contract lengths, we may not need teenagers playing in our first team. May be the club’s idea is to have as many groomed players as possible instead of buying high-priced and super-hyped dudes from Europe and that also explains why our scouts have flown to Holland with some names in their mind and we are all set to sign 17-year old Alexander Pato.

I’m getting sick and tired of this Thierry Henry soap opera. I pity the Arsenal fans who are losing sleep over his ‘agent-dictated’ statements such as “i’m an arsenal player now“, “i can talk about only today“, “no one knows what can happen tomorrow” and the like. Best thing for Arsenal would be to sell him to Barca and give Gallas for free. The incorrigible loud mouth that he is, Gallas is annoying quite a lot of Arsenal fans with his unwarranted bullshit. With every interview of Gallas nowadays, I’m feeling more and more convinced that we got the better deal of the swap.

More news tomorrow on the Chelsea fixtures next season and when I find time I’ll also update the calendar. Bye.