Put aside all the turbulences at the Bridge. Let’s talk about something else, something light. I want to narrate you a story which has no direct relevance now but I just thought ‘let me write about it’. There are some lesser mortals such as me who gets to see matches only on television, that too sometimes at ungodly hours.
The beauty is that, when the ball hits the back of the net, it matters less if you’re in your drawing room or at Mathew Harding Upper. When you’re at the stadium, watching Cheslea score, you dance, you shout, you do whatever your mob mentality dictates you to. When you’re at home, if there is a cracking goal, what do you do? You can’t exactly replicate the stadium celebrations at home, well you can at second thought, may be an abridged version of it. I’m going to talk about one such match from the last season (which was supposedly a bad season for Chelsea) which, for evoking such emotions would remain as one of the most memorable matches I’ve seen. That wasn’t even a win!
In the 06-07 season, in the champions league Chelsea had beaten Barcelona 1-0 at the Bridge in a fantastic match that should have finished 3-0 or something. Hilario held on to a famous career-enhancing clean sheet against some really big names that included a certain world player of the year. The return leg at Camp Nou was going to be very special as Barca and their fans alike were saying things like ‘we’ll thrash you’, ‘we’ll teach you a football lesson’, ‘we’ll put five past Hilario’ and such stuff.
The match was to start at half hour past midnight India time. I had a couple of cousins coming over to my place to watch this match. One (chelsito) was a Chelsea supporter and the other (call barcito) was a Barca fan (‘anything but Chelsea’). These guys came home more than an hour before kick off to have our pro evo (then, not anymore now, it’s only fifa08 now) build up to the match. Me and Chelsito always team up. We choose Chelsea and play like Chelsea as in we play direct football with the ultimate objective is to score and not to concede and we would achieve these objectives by the most efficient and smart way. Barcito chooses and tries to play like Barca.
Barcito had already started by saying Barca were robbed at Stamford Bridge, referee was shite, Drogba has power but not skill, JM doesn’t respect others etc. I don’t quite remember what happened in our pro evo match up. We just could not wait for the match. The last time we played at Camp Nou, JM had promised that he would appear at the Camp Nou pitch well before his players and take all the abuses and boos of the catalan crowd. He kept his promise. There was deafening noise as the crowd saw a glimpse of the man they hate the most. The players then walked in by which time there was enough buzz in the stadium created by JM’s entry. This time, he did not have to do it. Barca players and fans knew that Chelsea at any stadium is a monster and for the Chelsea lads it’s ‘been here, done that’.
Finally the match kicked off. Within few minutes, Deco scores from an opportunistic ground shot from about 30 yards. Barcito already started off with his oohs and aahs. He every started to praise every shitty misplaced pass by Barca for the vision behind, which were never fulfilled, thanks to the Great Wall of Chelsea. Me and Chelsito were very quiet. We thought we’ll wait for the last laugh. First half was over. I was very sure that we’ll hit them back. You can’t take Chelsea lightly, those days.
Chelsea was still probing for a goal and then came that moment. The moment of magic that Barcito was expecting from Ronnie & co was produced by Super Frank. With an exquisite finish, Frank gave us a very deserving equaliser. Tension started to grip Barcito. Must have been thinking ‘god, this can’t end in a draw’. He can’t digest the fact that Chelsea can win and draw against Barca in a two-legged affair. Not-So-Super Frank then brought on Edmilson. As soon as he came in he delivered a superbly directed diagonal aerial ball (long pass, if it was a Chelsea player) which Ronnie received and rounded off Boulahrouz for a low cross to Eidur, which he only had to tap in. Barcito could not hold the joy. Still he did not go overbound as he knew a wounded Chelsea was the most dangerous team (back then, that is) to deal with. Chelsito is a quiet guy. He knows that it is very difficult to contain Barcito in arguments and discussions and he just keeps it to himself after some point.
Chelsea kept attacking and Barca kept defending. JM was on his feet shouting and pushing his players while keeping the referees on their toes. No player would look at the dug out after a bad mistake. JM would burn him with his eyes and words. As time went by, with every passing minute on the clock, Chelsea were getting stronger and stronger. The match entered stoppage time. Chelsea were not tired one bit. They wanted a goal, badly. This was not champions league final or not even a knockout round. This was just a group stage match where Chelsea could progress without much fuss. Barcito started to relax and relish. His grim face was loosening and he even managed to smile and started to joke.
Then there was the chance for the last attack of the match as there were only seconds left. Barca were already on a back foot with all their players in their own half. Essien made a weighted lob to surging John Terry who was parallel with the Barca backline. JT headed it to Drogba and there was Marquez even ready to murder Drogba to stop that goal. Marquez failed. Drogba silenced the whole of Camp Nou in a flash. I jumped from the couch and was screaming like a mad man. Barcito had his hands on his head, unable to believe that Chelsea scored. Chelsito too unleashed himself to celebrate with me with high-fives and all.
JM’s celebration was the best of all. It was as if he scored the goal himself. I shook hands with Barcito and told it was a good match. Barcito must have been thinking ‘Bastards, how did they manage to do it!’. Despite his hatred towards Chelsea, Barcito always respected Chelsea and in fact, secretly, he feared Chelsea. When Barca was put in the same group as Chelsea, I know he was not too comfortable though he relished the possibility of a good football match. He knew that you can’t score that easily against Chelsea. Barca’s party trick won’t work with Chelsea. We were simply too mature in defence and well-prepared to counter these things. He knew that Chelsea would get a goal if they had to. He was always nervous when Chelsea was in a bad mood, after bloody tackles, enraging quarrels and those card incidents. As I said before he knew that a wounded Chelsea was one of the most difficult teams to deal with.
In many ways, the Chelsea vs Barca matches epitomised the Chelsea characters. Commitment in the tackles, hitting the oppoenent with an ‘in-his-face’ approach, rising to the challenge, excellent teamwork, working together for a single common objective and more than anything, the ‘never-day-die’ attitude. That was the Chelsea I knew and loved. That’s what I want again. I wish we are back meaner, stronger, hungrier and deadlier.
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“When you’re at the stadium, watching Cheslea score, you dance, you shout, you do whatever your mob mentality dictates you to.”
BC watch it I go often to SB and there is no MOB behaviour only good decent, intelligent, football nous from the cfc fan club.
No longer MOB behaviour, watch for the ban coming to SB if cfc loses in WH.
Chelsea-Barca matches where, in my opinion the best we played, tactical acumen, clss, skill, the best against the best, players and managers, I miss those games Europe was traffic free when those games was shown all over the continent. They knew too fantastic motivated teams, 2 fantastic clubs and managers att each other throat, and why not some rude words and some misbehaving, so what!!! just like a boxiing match, sell the tickets sell the audience and the TV rights, yes I do miss but next year we may have the same, with diff positions managers but with the same clubs.
Just read in MundoDeportivo FL, JT and DD in the list of JM if he joins Barca.
‘Drogba is all power no skills’…Barcito seems to understand and ‘respect’ game of football….
@BC
Ok BC Forget jose……..forget avram……….why can’t jose fanatic open their mouths without 4-2 when the fact of the matter is
1.rijkaard cl 1………….mourinho cl 0
2.barca defeat us at sb……..our only defeat at sb for over 4 years
3.media,rivals everyone love barca much more than chelsea……fact is a fact and now kid yourself with media hates winners etc
and as for the celebrations at camp nou by jose………….to be honest it was biggest disgrace to cfc caus it made barca look like goliath and chelsea like david……..i was watching arsenal vs boro……boro scored 2 goals….no reaction………..arsenal pulls one back at 93+ mins………southgate goes mad and shouts at every boro player on pitch when he knows he has already won……..just compare this reaction with demi-god’s reaction.you will notice why were our reactions a disgrace escpecially caus we had drawn and boro had won.
and last season jose lost by 6 points,rijkaard lost by f*ckin rule of head-to-head and that too on away goal rules and his gd was much superior to madrid which kicked out capello for his f*ckin brand of football and all he was able to get was “we-are-self-created-best”team
*Chelsea kept attacking and Barca kept defending
good joke
*Super Frank. With an exquisite finish
we was just crossing at goal mouth……don’t try to push it as an exquisite finish
chelsea fc’s game play only signified one thing-11 players defending in box
Point #0: THIS WAS NOT ABOUT THE 4-2. READ IT AGAIN.
Point #1: Rijkaard cl 1 ………… Mourinho cl 1
Point #2: Yes Barca beat us at SB after THEIR referee red card us in 30 minutes and even after Chelsea were playing as if we had 11 men and Barca had 10 men. It was only after we got really tired Barca got a sniff of the goal.
Point #3: Of course media etc will love Barca. No one except us will love Chelsea. Nobody likes it when a billionaire buys a club and starts buying big name players. They see it as a bad thing.
Point #4: I l loved JM’s celebrations as did thousands of other Chelsea fans. It’s not about the draw. That’s what you guys miss. A stoppage time goal (that results in a win or a draw) at Camp Nou was always special. JM did not think Chelsea had any rivals in England. He had overwhelmed all of them. He wanted a big challenge and big rival in Europe. He made us a rival of Barca and he made us compete and he made us win them. This draw put Barca’s progression in doubt and they were nearly looking at UEFA Cup. Therefore, this draw was very very significant. All Chelsea fans know that.
You know what, Barca is Goliath and Chelsea is indeed David. Just because we have been successful of late, you just can’t compare Barca and Chelsea. Last season, he finished better that Jose. If Jose got the same support as Rijkaard got at Barca, I’m sure he’d have done better, in fact won the league for the third time.
Point #5: Chelsea kept attacking and Barca kept defending. That’s right. The fact that you call it a ‘good joke’ tells me that either you did not watch the match, or you forgot or you simply don’t want to admit. Watch the match again.
Point #6: Watch the match again. There was no one to cross to. Lampard was in a different horizontal than the rest. It was an exquisite finish. If it was even some bloody Flamini or someone you’d accept but it is your own player Frank Lampard, so you don’t want to.
Point #7: In the said match, you beloved Barcelona was defending 11 men (boys) in the box. I loved that fear in their eyes.
And TBF – Should we all formally agree that AVRAM GRANT is your DEMI-GOD? If yes, fine. Otherwise, stop calling anyone as a demi-god.
yea i can see your point. fantastic match tha was. i did JM slider myself lol. if we play barcelona now, we’ll get beaten 10-0. how many guys here think we stand a chance against barcelona today? we won’t even play as good as celtic played barca. we’ve lost it.
Point #5: Chelsea kept attacking and Barca kept defending. That’s right. The fact that you call it a ‘good joke’ tells me that either you did not watch the match, or you forgot or you simply don’t want to admit…
I also watched that match…to say that Barca kept defending is sort of exaggeration….
“JM was on his feet shouting and pushing his players while keeping the referees on their toes.”…I remember quiet vividly that except that sideline celebration it was the quitest Mourinho I had ever seen..infact for most of the match he was inclined against side bar of dug-out like Reading’s coach,with clear expressions of a person who had given up…please put the facts right…I admit you are a fan of the club and Jose but there are many others out there too who also wake up at ungodly hours to watch their team play,so some things can’t be relative and hence can’t be distorted…
I agree Barca players were scared for last part of the game…
good post bc. i loved it when drogs scored. exhilarating moment. ecstasy!!!
Point #5: Chelsea kept attacking and Barca kept defending. That’s right. The fact that you call it a ‘good joke’ tells me that either you did not watch the match, or you forgot or you simply don’t want to admit…
This was after Barca scored the goal. I didn’t say this was the story all along the match.
Of course JM was animated in the dug out, i have the DVD and keep wathicng it guys. Unless Chelsea FC edited to get some other match clipping into this match, JM was very very animated on the lines.
Thanks for accepting “I agree Barca players were scared for last part of the game…”. That’s one thing I’m very proud of. Barca are a massive team and to put them to the sword and make them fear is a great feeling than any trophy. We did that many teams in England / Europe then.
@BC
About lampard finish………..mark my words if ronaldinho had put that at the back of net………..still i would have called it a cross.
who is flamini[that le'arse import]?????
and for other points……….heads you win…..tail i lose…….so no point.
even rijkaard is not a demi-god for me……..so who is avram????
“Of course JM was animated in the dug out, i have the DVD and keep wathicng it guys. Unless Chelsea FC edited to get some other match clipping into this match, JM was very very animated on the lines.”
there is a big big difference between being animated from dugout and keeping the referees on their toes which u mentioned in article…no way Mourinho was his usual self that day..I have bought that match from UEFA and have watched it several times…never could I see Mourinho doing what u mentioned(untill and unless ur video and UEFA’s have captured different moments)
You don’t expect managers to hard tackle referees right? The sight of managers like JM, Fergie etc being animated on the sidelines, was always going to add pressure to the referee to call things correctly. But if the referee had already made up his mind to screw Chelsea FC, no amount of pressure can do anything.
I have the DVD from published by Cheslea FC (not by UEFA). Wish I could upload the video but it’s gonna eat up a lot of space and the uploading would be terribly slow.
TBF
On Lampard’s goal – I had written a post on this then. Please see this youtube video or this one. Do you still think it was a cross? I’m sorry then, let’s end this pointless argument now.
tbf well, this is not about the 4-2. let me say we won’t quit talking about the 4-2 either. because that was the biggest european night in Chelsea FC’s history. how many teams can score 4 goals against Barca in champions league? how many teams have done it? how many more teams will do it?
It is a massive thing, stop talking as if teams do it every season.
“You don’t expect managers to hard tackle referees right?”…when I say animated Mourinho I expect the Mourinho who was sreaming at linesman who disqualified valid goal againt Rovers at Bridge earlier this season….one leaning against dugout can never be an agitated Mourinho…
Guys,
I for one think that Roman was sort of a rescuer of Jose by sacking him. Because Jose was on a downhill but the early sacking of him made most people to believe that that was only a temporary slip, but for me it was not. We started to fail to beat opponents like Reading without changing players and formation in half-times. We couldn’t beat Liverpool in the league anymore, we struggled against good oppositions like Aston Villa, we couldn’t beat Rosenborg. If Jose stayed in charge we would see that he cannot win the league again, he cannot win the Champions League, maybe he would win Carling Cup and/or FA. By his early departure we were not given the chance to see that and now everybody remembers Jose as a guy who always won tropheys, especially now when we have a clown as our manager.
Mourofessien, Man Utd too last year were in contention with three major tropheys till the end of the season, they just do not rate Carling Cup and that’s the reason why they get eliminated early from that cup every year. Good managers can chase all tropheys at the same time till the end of a season with a good squad, Jose is not unique in that achievement. As for the injuries, every team has them, you just have to think of them before the season starts and take your precautions against them. Jose didn’t take his precautions, so he failed in the end. Look at Arsenal now, they lost 2 of the finest strikers of EPL because of injuries – Van Persie and Eduardo – everyone has injuries – no excuses please.
To conclude, you have a right to like Jose and I have a righ not to.
Bring Rijkaard please.
M_d Same can be said about fergie at the start of the season. So was he going downhill?
@16…I totally agree with you…going had become tough for Mourinho…he was struggling against lower teams…but I would had preferred him to stay…first, changing manager in midst of season is not good…more importantly,I wanted to see how Mourinho would had reacted to this ordeal…I am sure he was also aware that he was no longer numero uno in league and Manu,Arsenal etc were up with stiff competition..I really wanted to see his character in these testing times and whether he would had tried to evolve his direct approach or become more stubborn in his thinking….but it couldn’t be so…I think he quit when going got tougher rather than giving it a fight…
How intetersting when we describe a spell consisting of two or three draws and a loss as constituting a manager going downhill?
M_D, it is said that form is temporary but class is permanent. Every manager does experience difficult moments and a patch of not very encouraging results. even managers like SAF and wenger have gone through such season after season. the Rijkaard you are glaoting about has gone through pretty bad spell this season so far- are all these therefore going downhill?
To open up the discussion a bit more- there are many on our ranks and even on this our beautiful blog who make definitive pronouncements on players based on a couple of performances- lets say, terry has two or three poor matches, and you will hear some conclude that terry last lost it. essien, an otherwise great performer, after a couple off colour performances, is immediately judged as not very good by some of us.
serious judgment can be made only after seeing on a consistent basis, a decline. SAF, would have been sacked in his first season with Manure if the owners of the team thought like you.
Jose is pure and proven and tested class. he has shown it again and again. let him play ten different matches against teams managed by other top coaches, and i bet you he will prevail against more than they will against him.
Are you saying that if Jose had stayed, he would have fared worse than Grant, this season? On what basis are you saying that? On the evidence of a difficult beginning when the Duthc-Israeli cum russian mafia were in overdrive trying to undermine every single one of his steps?
mister@17, is spot on when he said that same can be said about fergie at the start of the season.
So will you answer whether he as well as Rijkaard were going downhill?
BC, thanks for that clip on lamps’ goal- If that is called a cross then God help us. I have seen no greater guile and intent to outtwit a goalie watching that goal.
And BC, you are right- if Messi, or C Ronaldo or henry had scored that, our friend would not have described it as such.
Can TBF and M_D check jose’s head to head against the following key rival managers and tell us who came off better?
Jose vrs Fergurson
Jose vrs Rijkaard**
Jose Vrs Wenger
Jose Vrs Rafa
** In the case of Rijkaard, do a little more precise head to head by checking who prevailed more when both teams played 11 agaisnt 11.
@17. Mister
“M_d Same can be said about fergie at the start of the season. So was he going downhill?”
The case of Fergie is irrelevant. Fergie has long ago proved his true calibre. As for Jose, his going downhill is apparent in the last 3 years. The first year his team (read Ranieri’s team) played very fast attacking and counter-attacking football mostly thanks to Ranieri’s wingers and Ranieri’S Gudjohnsen. Then slowly Ranieri’s team started to disappear and with that Chelsea’s attacking power too. In the 3rd season Chelsea completely turned into Mourinho’s dull, boring machine with its details (read injuries) falling apart. Fast pacy attacking (though not so creative) Chelsea had transformed into Labour force with long-balls. Everyone will agree that Jose’s best year at Chelsea was his first year, and “coincidentally” that year’s team was a legacy from Ranieri, who also got to CL semi-final and finished 2nd in the league where was ONE UNBEATABLE TEAM.
Two times in 3 years Jose had a chance to play the CL Final with Chelsea and on both occasions he failed to beat Rafa’s Liverpool. Jose didn’t learn his lesson in the first encounter and I believe should Jose’s Chelsea play Rafa’s men this year in the semis again he would lose again. Einstein once said: “Smart people are not those who don’t make mistakes but those who don’t make the same mistake twice.”
As you see, Jose’s downhill was longer and steeper than that of Fergie.
@19. MourofEssien
“Are you saying that if Jose had stayed, he would have fared worse than Grant, this season? On what basis are you saying that? On the evidence of a difficult beginning when the Duthc-Israeli cum russian mafia were in overdrive trying to undermine every single one of his steps?”
Did I say that? If you are asking those questions including Grant then you must be debating with yourself, not me.
M_D,
Am still waiting for the Jose vrs others head to head.
Tell me M_D, if you claim Jose had great attacking football cos of ranieri’s squad, then how come ranieri could not use his own squad to dislodge Arsenal and beat manure and liverpool home and away like Jose did in his first seaso?
You see, in that particular case, it was not the ingredients available that made the meal so delicious but the wizardry of the great “cook”. Jose instilled the winning spirit- brought the aura of awesomeness and brought the confidence of champions into a team that was good. he made a good team turn into a word class team.
If Rafa were that much better than Jose, how come jose so outclassed him in their head to head? You see M_D, even barnley can knock out a liverpool at anfield in a crucial decider (forget about fact that liverpool never really scored a goal against us in that first CL season, and were lucky not to have received a basketfull of goals in the first led at the bridge in last years CL)- barnsley does not therefore become better than Loserpool and neither their manager better than Rafa.
M_D, for the umpteenth time, let us state the fact that the only reason chelsea lost that fast attacking ability in jose’s third season in particular was because we had no wingers at all- both robben and cole were injured and SWP was still struggling to find his form.
How can you blame him especially when roman was not willing to spend a dime in the January window?
So fergie was going downhill in 03-04, 04-05, 05-06? So he must have been sacked?
MourofEssien,
Sorry mate but I will not bother myself to count Jose’s head to head’s with other guys. I myself know very well that Jose is ahead on that but that was deteriorating too. For instance, Jose outclassed Rafa in the league in the first two years but then he lost it to Rafa in Europe. In the 2005 semi-final there was a goal that should not be given but then there would be a penalty given to reds, so in any case Liverpool deserved the place in the final. In Jose’s 3rd year Chelsea started to struggle against Liver even in the league: at the Bridge we beat them thanks to Drogba’s terrific goal though the display was far from convincing. The second game we lost 2-0, ok you will say injuries but to me we would lose in any case. This year we were outplayed by them again at Anfield and actually lost that game by 1-0, the penalty that rescued us should never be given, you know that. Downhill again.
MourofEssien, you miss the whole point of our debate. I know that Jose is a very good motivator and leader. I don’t even say that he’s not a good manager. He’s a good manager. But that’s all.
We had all of our wingers at the start of this season but did we play attacking football????!! Hell no.
Roman refused to give him money because his signings apart from few were ridiculous.
Period.
@23. MourofEssien
“Tell me M_D, if you claim Jose had great attacking football cos of ranieri’s squad, then how come ranieri could not use his own squad to dislodge Arsenal and beat manure and liverpool home and away like Jose did in his first seaso?”
If you bother yourself to look up for the team Ranieri’s Chelsea beat and eliminated at Highbury in the 2004 CL quarter-finals you will find out that that team was UNBEATABLE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND OF THAT YEAR.
It seems you started to follow Chelsea after Jose’s arrival.
@24. Mister
At least Fergie entertained.
M_D, no I became a blue fan when the italians (my favorite players) started arriving in England and made Chelsea their new home. Till then i had no interest in the EPL apart from enjoying a few great stuff than Cantona did for Manure- EPL was crap for me at the time- serie A was my thing.
arsenal was still all conquering when jose arrived and set up a hotpace- but you know what, jose ovehauled with virtually same team ranieri had. that same team beat ranieri’s chelsea home and away the previous season if my memory is right.
M_D, Jose was not going downhill- he had raised the bar higher on his arrival and other teams were compelled to up the stakes to catch up. why do you think loserpool will play above themselves to hold us or even beat us only to crash to less fancied teams? rafa, fergie and all were striving to catch up. So rather than going downhill, they rather catching up.
why did jose not play attacking football this season with all his players? This is the answer- In pre season, Jose had a compromise with roman- he agreed that he will change styles in order to suit his crave- that was why he decided on the 4-4-2 with two wingers as opposed to his traditional 4-3-3 with wingers or last season 4-4-2 (diamond)- naturally any such new system would take a while to settle in- but you see unlike Arsenal, liverpool, and Manure, Chelsea’s Jose was considered a superhuman who cannot have a bleep- he is expected to deliver trophies at every turn and win always when his rivals can have the luxury of several seasons with nothing to show.
but hey, that is the lot of legends- and by the way, you say fergie is a legend? i agree. But Jose whipped his but again and again- so who is the master?
(sorry about typos- hardly pause to read thro.)
MourofEssien,
Ranieri spent only a year with Roman’s money and built a very good attacking team who reached CL semi-finals and finished the league as runner-ups after unbeatable Arsenal. What would happen if he wasn’t sacked? Maybe he too would win the league with his settled and matured squad with few world-class additions the following year, how do you know? Jose came, took Ranieri’s squad and made them champions. Ok, his motivation and leadership are undeniable reasons that lie behind that success but you can’t say that Ranieri would not win the league if he was not sacked.
All in all this debate is going nowhere. If Jose is the best manager you’d like to see to coach your team that’s fine with me. You convinced ourself that he is the best, I did not.
Bring Rijkaard.
@18. Mourinho_Is_Boring
I agree with you that Jose himself prefered to quit than giving it a fight.
Like you I too would like him to stay for the end of the season and see how he can handle the pressure that he is not anymore the best in the league.
M_D and MIB
jose is a genius and he is an incredible champion. of course he lost to liverpool twice in champions league semifinals (once to a goal that never was & next in a penalty shoot outs). fergie managed to win champions league once in 20 years in man utd. what would you call that? how can he keep failing in europe consistently? so is rafa a better coach than fergie?
you guys should learn football before you can come and as if you know. now stop your piss poor arguments.
Hi guys,
One of the earlier posts said something about man utd not interested in the carling cup..
2004/05 season..Chelsea played man utd in the CC semi finals..thats a 2 legged affair..man utd played people like roy keane, giggs, scholes n the lot..not KIDS..n LOST
2005/2006 season..man utd WON the carling cup..again playing the likes of rooney, ronaldo n all their stars consistently..not KIDS
2006/07 & this season, they played their kids..n got kicked out in the 1st game they played
so its not right to say man utd,liverpool etc arent interested in the CC..they fight for it when they feel its necessary..they boast of 30 plus trophies n all..a decent part of that count comes from the cups
(CC & FA)..just bcos the FA cup is older than the CC doesnt make the CC any easier..a CC win gets u decent prize money n gets u into europe..almost all premiership teams field their best 11 for the CC..u have to go out on the field n play well over 90 minutes to win a game..be it CC or FA..people just make the CC sound like a walk in the park..U dont simply turn up n win a CC game
I think arsenal is the only team who regularly give their up n coming stars a run out in the CC..but its not all 11 kids..its a good mix of experienc n youth that AW puts out..
as for Mourinho, Grant, ranieri debate..makes no sense..Mourinho is way better than the other two
Jose ran away scared rather than stay n fight…???..Jose was paid compensation in the range of 15 to 20 million..U DONT GET PAID COMPENSATION IF U RUN AWAY FROM UR CONTRACT..COMMON SENSE..U GET PAID MILLIONS ONLY IF U ARE FIRED MIDWAY THROUGH UR CONTRACT
I dont worship Jose Mourinho, but i know what he did for chelsea n
i ll always respect him for that..People can love or hate his brand of football…personal decision..but PLEASE dont make silly comments like he ran away scared instead of facing the challenge from Arsenal n man utd..Ur talking about one of the best managers of the modern game..a tactical genius who knew how to win..u call the football ugly or beautiful..but he knew how to win..
Jose got scared after 6 games into the season..After 6 games arsenal had 16, chelsea had 11 n united had 11..anything scary there???
please guys..I understand u hate Jose..but jose got SCARED n all..way too much
2004-05 season..Arsenal started off much better than chelsea n was leading chelsea in the title race till arsenal lost their unbeaten streak to man utd at old trafford and lost momentum..that was in october if i m not wrong..WHY Didnt Jose get scared of Arsenal in 2004-05 when they looked like they would go that season unbeaten as well???
Jose didnt get scared of the invincibles in 2004-05..but he got scared of a new look arsenal team n man united team in the early stages of the 2007 season..fantastic logic..
TrueBlueInd – Fantastic post!!! One of the best I’ve read in recent times. You’re talking too much sense for M_D and MIB to understand. You’re a star TrueBlueInd. Take a bow!!!
@32. TrueBlueInd
None of what you wrote have convinced me that Mourinho is a genius. I have answers to everything you write (because I know what to expect from Mourinho fans) but I’m not going to bother myself to continue the debate because it’s been more than a year the debate started on this blog (maybe you were not around at those times) and it’s just a waste of time. You consider Jose a genius? That’s fine. For me he is not better than Sir Alex, Wenger, Ancelotti, Rijkaard and even Juande Ramos. Period.
News on ESPN says JM’s gonna /might manage Barca next season .
JoseHoliday here !
One thing is for sure and that is Chelsea is on a downward curve !
TrueBlueInd @ 32 – brilliant comment. You made my day. Drive those football illiterates out with your logic. Be around mate. Why don’t you participate more?
Ashton @ 31 – MD & MIB have conveniently skipped your comment. You made a valid point, may be, that’s why!!
@38. Mister
How naive!!!
I remember watching that match, all alone, in the afternoon. I lost my voice and felt overjoyed as I screamed my lungs out in an empty house.
Good times.
Ashton @ 31 – MD & MIB have conveniently skipped your comment. You made a valid point, may be, that’s why!! Nice try M_D.