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Chelsea has made two important teenage signings in the last couple of weeks. The first one is an attacking midfielder and other, a striker.

Chelsea has signed an 18-year old Argentinian Franco Di Santo for a period of 5 years. He would join the team in January. Interestingly, he has an Italian passport. So he can start playing as a European player. He doesn’t have incredible goal scoring records in the Chilean league (where he plays) but obviously some of the top teams have seen the potential in him. You know what, I absolutely love his name! Franco Di Santo! Franco . . Franco . . . . Franco . . . . . . Ohhh!!!!!!!!! He scores . . . what a goal by Franco Di Santo!

Gideon Baah is other name you need to remember. He is 16 years old (or 20 years, to be accurate!) and is an attacking midfielder. When Michael Essien insists that we sign this kid, that tells you what he is worth. That’s not just because he is also from Ghana, he claims. Essien has monitored him and believes that he would be a world class talent. Gideon himself is hyper-excited that he got to visit Stamford Bridge, train in our training ground and meet the Chelsea players and importantly flattered by the interest and support shown by Michael Essien.

In other transfer news, Avram Grant is confident that his requests would be met by Roman Abramovich:

I have a good relationship with the owner and we speak regularly. I need to do my job and he knows that. If I want a player, as a manager there will be a discussion about it. We talk about everything. I’m looking first for the right players and then we will discuss whether that player is the right one for the owner. I don’t know what happened last year. I don’t know whether they were allowed or not allowed, but you can never sleep as a manager as you always have to make your team better. If there is someone out there who is better you have to look at them.

Of course, we all would also believe that Grant has good relationship with Roman, otherwise you would not have Roman verbally convincing Chelsea fans (after the Mestall game) that Grant is the right man for the job.

Here is Peter Crouch talking about how Mikel over-reacted to his assault on the Nigerian. For the kind of tackle Crouch did, he should be feeling so ashamed that he should stay indoors for 6 weeks. For once someone other than Mikel gets a red card in a tackle that involves Mikel.

Crouch need not have done or said those stupid things. Lampard comes to the rescue of his England team mate. Also he wants the strong tackles to remain in the game, which is fair enough:

The players do not know where they stand and I don’t think they ever will. It is difficult for referees. They have been given directives and in the 100mph game we play nowadays they can sometimes get it slightly wrong. Some tackles are more clear-cut than others and I hope they do not take the strong tackle out of the game because we don’t want that at all. Peter Crouch is a great lad and I think everyone knows that if he made a bad tackle, which it looked, then I’m sure he’ll hold his hands up. There’s no malice in him. He’d never try to hurt someone but there are times when players make rash tackles. We’ve all done it.

Finally, the champions league draw will be made today. The draw would start at 11:00 am GMT. Chelsea has a higher chance of meeting Roma, Olympiakos, Lyon or Fenerbahce. I’d take any team but preferably in this order – Olympiakos, Fenerbahce, Lyon and Roma. Let’s see how it goes!