News round up again. FA questions Grant over his comments on referees, why this final is big for Africa, a rare Steve Clarke interview and of course you can travel to Moscow without any help from BlueChampions. And yes, I admit that this picture was hand-picked by me with malicious intent.
After some deliberate attempts to be on the good books of the Press and rivals, Grant finally lost it in the post match conference after the match at Goodison park in April. Many football journalists felt insulted after his monosyllabic interview and they are not going to forget it very soon. And then now, he might feel the wrath of the FA after his comments on favoured refereeing for Man Utd. FA has asked him to explain his statements.
There is one thing about complaining that the referee did a bad job and questioning his integrity being entirely different. When JM bad some scathing remarks about Anders Frisk, I thought it was very bad. He could have filed an official complaint behind the scenes but, to talk about it in the Press and to tarnish a referee’s reputation was indecent. The referees frowned upon JM then. May be that’s why, Chelsea never got any kind of sympathy from the referees and we always started each game with referees who did not see Chelsea very positively. After all, they are humans and the Frisk incident would certainly be in every referee’s mind when they officiate Chelsea matches.
I realise that in continental Europe, to question the referee’s integrity is a very common thing. It is nothing unusual there. But it is my belief that football in the UK is more clean and regulated than in the continent. Grant has been playing this card for quite some time. He questioned Curbishey’s integrity and Bruce’s commitment and now finally the referees.
As a fan, I have mentioned before that referees seem to be soft on our rivals but I guess that’s what every fan feels. For the club official to go on public on such things is not very smart. Every team has had their share of fortunate and unfortunate refereeing decisions. Even Man Utd were crying about it and even got Fergie and Quiroz fined for the outburst. But they complained about bad refereeing but did not question the referee’s integrity. From Grant’s side, to quote that after losing the league title shows a very defeatist attitude. Out of the top four teams, I can confidently say that Chelsea have been the most beneficial from refereeing decisions this season.
Okay then, moving on to champions league news. Drogba talks about his motivating factors for winning the champions league finals. Reading this quote from Drogba, you still wonder what he has in his mind about his Chelsea future.
I love these kind of games. I am very excited about another one and I want to play, I want to perform and I want to win because when you lose these kind of games, it stays in your mind for a long time. It is a big opportunity for us to win this cup and offer it to the boss [Roman Abramovich]. The final is going to be in his country and we want to make him proud.
I get a feeling that this time Europe has a Russian link to it. We saw the Russian club Zenit win the UEFA cup and now Chelsea is on the brink of winning the champions league. Oh and Zenit were brilliant at the City of Manchester stadium. I was totally impressed with the way they played. I don’t think Rangers could have complained. Zenit were very deserved champions.
Salomon Kalou talks about his memories of watching champions league finals and why this final is very important for him. He believes that whole of Africa would be watching their sons of the soil on the night of May the 21st.
I watched Madrid against Leverkusen and that goal from Zinedine Zidane, 2-1, that was a great goal and a great game to watch and I really enjoyed it. I watched it on TV and I was dreaming to be in that situation, to be in the Champions League Final, so it is a dream come true and it will be a better dream if we lift the cup on May 21st. I was back in Africa. The Champions League Final and the World Cup Final, that is the big events. Ivory Coast is a country that loves football, it is a big, big thing and when it is the Champions League final, everybody tries to get in front of the TV. So I can tell how many people will be watching us on the 21st because Africa will stop and watch us with Michael Essien, John Mikel Obi, Didier Drogba. It is a great thing that we get to this level in such a big competition.
Ever wondered why there are not prominent websites or magazines for African football? I have. Here is a magazine dedicated for African football – New African Soccer. They cover anything that combines football and Africa in any way. They track the African leagues, international competitions in Africa, African players playing in non-African leagues such as the premier league and everything else that touches African football.
They are launching an online subscription programme. Sign up and you could get fre stuff such as signed shirts from Drogba, Essien, Mikel & Kalou and even the chance to meet one of them at the African Premier League Player of the Year awards later in the year!!! How fantastic would be that? Go on. Sign up here.
Steve Clarke talks about this the successes and failures of this season. He says that this strong group which has been together for four years, has proved themselves this season.
I’m not surprised; when you have got great players, anything is possible. This group is still together, it’s been a good four years now. If you look at the success starting from the first league trophy, the group is strong, the group is together. They have proved that this season. We have had a lot of things go against us this season, but we’ve hung in there with everything. The reward is the Champions League final, but only if they win it. These players are not happy just being in the final – they want to win it. It will only be a great season for the club if we win the last trophy that is up for grabs. Obviously we’re disappointed that we haven’t won any of the three previous trophies. You can’t say we didn’t make a big effort in all of them. Unfortunately, we came up short and now we focus our attention on probably the biggest prize of them all. I can only speak for myself and I am disappointed to finish second in the league. The players have made a great effort, but we came up a little bit short. These players deserve a trophy and they have got one more chance to win one.
Let me say, I agree with every single word that he has uttered in the above paragraph. Don’t you think he insists so much on the players, their quality and their strength and their bring a group for four years being the reasons for Chelsea finishing second and reaching the champions league finals? You can tell me to remove my tinted glasses but it is kind of too obvious that he does not want to mention those two words – Avram & Grant – even by mistake.
Times says on Steve Clarke that “Clarke was as shocked as anyone when the unassuming Israeli succeeded José Mourinho in September last year. He gave serious thought to leaving the club immediately, an option that he is likely to take at the end of the season. The pair’s relationship is troubled, despite success on the field, with Clarke frustrated at the first-team coach’s limited involvement in training, and it is instructive that he gives all the credit to the players for the club’s remarkable recovery this season.”
Some more from Steve Clarke:
We’re peaking at the right time. You’ll see that if you look at the end of last season when we played a lot of matches. If you look at the group over the last four or five seasons, there’s not many games we haven’t played in that have mattered. We have been in every game, every competition to the death. Last year, if you look at the number of matches that the players had to play, we had five or six players who played over 50 matches. This year we have only got one player who has played over 40 matches – Joe Cole. The rest are in the thirties. Physically they are good, they are fresh and they have come right at the right time. Unfortunately, it was just too late in the league – we gave ourselves too much to do.
That’s a very very interesting statistic. Of course, towards the end of the last season, Chelsea appeared very tired and I honestly thought that if Liverpool were also in the league race until May, we would have demolished them in the champions league semi finals. Not just physically, even mentally, we were quite exhausted by April last season. This time around as Steve stated all (except Joe) players have played less than 40 matches each and that means a fit group of players with fresh physical and mental readiness.
I keep getting emails and seeing comments on offers about accommodation, travel and tickets for the champions league final at Moscow. I try my best to block the spam. If something still gets through please remember that I DO NOT endorse or support any of these offers. You’ll do best to ignore these unsafe offers. Those who travel to Moscow, please share with us your account of watching the champions league final experience.
FA Cup final today. Here’s wishing Portsmouth win the cup. I just want Diarra to get a winner’s medal. It’d be nice to say that he quit Arsenal and won a trophy with Portsmouth. Even if he does not win, reaching the final is something Arsenal would not have done anyways! Go Diarra!
@BC
I stated just when avram was installed that roman was not a fool and businessman for nothing.
i mentioned the coaching setup in my view[it should be in initial avram era's posts]
1.avram grant-the ceremonial head[indian president for example] who just sees that others do their job.
this is a job well done though.
2.steve clarke-to control the players outbursts and keep the player focused…………oversees training and stuff.
3.ten cate-gives european experience and oversees the requirements playing flair footy and try to oversee our new style and which players fit in that.
i was quite right as confirmed by today’s interview
ten cate mentioned
“You have to be realistic,” said the Dutchman, who was recruited from Ajax last October. “We have fantastic players but for a certain way of playing football, you need a certain type of player and we just don’t have them. It’s as simple as that.”
The playing philosophy introduced here a couple of years ago was very different from the way Barcelona plays but it doesn’t mean that Barcelona is a better than Chelsea,” said Ten Cate. “It is just a different way of approaching the game. We are trying to do it in our way and even different from the people who worked here before us.”
There is no specific dynamic,” said Ten Cate. “Steve and I run day-to-day training and we speak with Avram about the players, the team and about the opposing team, how is the best way to play against them. We work together very well.”
no wonder some big names are meant to go as even confirmed by players[hopefully carvalho will stay].
That’s a very weak management set up at Chelsea. This is no sustainable. This idea of ceremonial head etc would be a big flop. Like Clarke said we are simply running on the engines of the players. If Clarke and a few other quit, we could be in real trouble. Grant is not someone who can create or establish things. He strikes me as someone who can only cash in on what he has. He is quite of an opportunistic nature. He is one among those who wants to have his bite at Roman’s money. Let him run out of luck. He’d come up with a new excuse.
Roman made a big mistake by appointing Grant and it would be bigger is he continues with Grant as manager. Look at what football history has taught us. Many clubs have reigned well and have fallen off to disgrace. All such declines did not start overnight. They normally wear down slowly but surely.
I’m not saying Roman is a fool or a bad businessman. I’m just saying he is a human. he can very well make mistakes like you and me. That’s what he did. You can bookmark this comment of mine and I would remind after we’ve gone down.
@ TBF, going by your logic, why should we have grant at all? why do we need a ceremonious head. why don’t we have clarke (in black suits) or ten cate (in black suits) as the manager and save Grant’s salary? What does Grant add to this team/club that Steve and Ten Cate won’t be able to?
@ 2 – completely agree. you hit it on the head. many plastic fans who joined us late are contended with the champions league final and some recent wins. while real fans like us are looking at how the club will evolve in the next decade and are we sowing the seeds for the same?
i won’t care a hoot even if we win the champions league with a 20-0 score. i have see too many successful clubs collapsing due to the owners’s mistakes and stubbronness to admit their mistakes. those were all businessmen, they were not businessmen for nothing and still they made a mistake. don’t you see big organisations (like Enron etc) falling apart? Aren’t they big business people? Didn’t they go wrong? Being a billionaire does not make you God, it just makes you rich.
If Roman stays away from football management related decisions at Chelsea, we’ll be better off.
@bc
Ten Cate said. “Steve and I run day-to-day training and we speak with Avram about the players, the team and about the opposing team, how is the best way to play against them. We work together very well.”
i have always respected Steve Clarke…and i think he should have been the manager after JM left … the player respect him and knows football and tactics and from these comments
its stevo and Ten Cate who are running things. Im not dissing grant but he is just not the guy to take chelsea forward.
@2 I agree with Steve Clarke……. why don’t we have clarke (in black suits) or ten cate (in black suits) as the manager and save Grant’s salary? What does Grant add to this team/club that Steve and Ten Cate won’t be able to?….!!!!
if grant is not the man planning the tactics…. he should not be there then….Im second guessing bring in Rijkaard now because it seems we have the right men for the job in Ten Cate and Steve Clarke…… Dont get me wrong i would love to see Rijkaard at chelsea… but were would that leave Stevo??
There is a rumour that Steve Clarck is leaving Chelsea, and a Spanish and a German club are after his services. Just wonder if Steve Clarck speaks german, what i doubt but anyway doesnt matter most german players speak english.
If Steve leaves Chelsea this is only second to Mourinho leaving, but then again he must be another Mourinho after being with him for 3 years.
I must say this is only a rumour can’t see confirmed by any other press, but will talk to my friend in Chelsea lol.
@BC article
But thats what i said before, the injuries played a benine factor for chelsea.
Only Joe Cole played so many matches as the ManU players.
The Chelsea players have far less kilometres in their legs than the ManU players, a very important factor for the final. Now after crying so much about injuries Avram Grant may have to thank for them as Cheelsea players are fresher than ManU. Now is this luck or is this good man management? you tell me BC.
@ 5. GermanFan are u a German fan too?? cause germany is my team and they are gong to win Euro 08!!!! German is a tournament team, they show up when it matters!!
Thats true but I dont think we have the players to win it my bet is on Portugal and Spain, followed by Italy and France, but with Germany you should never discard them, our players are very technical and skilfull but the attitude of playing for 90 minutes or until the referee stops the game is vanishing, they are becoming more and more like southern european teams in their attitude.
But my bet is for Portugal, and the TV commentators here also reckon that Portugal have a fantastic team, if only the discipline prevails .
I think we should be looking to try and sign Adriano….. in case Drogba leaves…
so up top it would be:
Adriano
Gomez
Anelka
Kalou
Dos Santo
Micheal Laudrup just announced hes leaving getafe at the end of the season, get him roman. Hes a master tactian and plays exciting football. Wonderful manager
@GermanFan
germany is a very well balanced team which has a wonderful combination of flair,discpline,winning mentality………portugal basically lacks discpline and are more south american sort of side which loses it when the going gets tough.
spain is a very creative team which lacks a decent defense though i rate them as 2nd fav.
viva la germany.
@BC
A good post on CFCNet which basically tries to explain what has been happening this season
He said: “The playing philosophy introduced here a couple of years ago was very different to Barcelona.
“But it does not mean Barca is a better team than Chelsea, it’s just a different way of approaching the game.
“You have to be realistic. We have fantastic players, but for a certain way of playing football you need a certain type of player — and we just don’t have them.”
I don’t think he’s wrong on the first or second point I quoted above, we did have a mentality introduced into the club and I am still thankful that it was – I don’t even think Henk meant it as a slur – obviously there are those football purists who despise the mentality we have used, but I’m not going to comment on them. I am eternally grateful that the mentality was introduced, we have had an unprecendented level of success for our club mostly down to this (the money has been thrown at clubs before who have failed to win).
I take immense pride in some of the qualities that our side shows and do not wish these to be lost.
I do not believe that he is being detrimental to the players or at least their talent anyway. We have some splendid players at the club, the mentality that they have taken on here has required to play a style of football, if they changed their mentality – with possibly the exception of JT I believe the overwhelming majority of them could slot in in any side in the world and play any style of football that was expected of them – it boils down to mentality, they have the talent to stroke the ball, to play quick one touch stuff, etc etc.
What concerns me is what this is advocating and I will have to delve a little bit into unfounded rumour and speculation here but, if the players are to blame for not playing beautiful football, and we know some are looking elsewhere, then I believe the purpose of this is to prepare the fans for a small exodus (Starting certainly with Drogba, who is the biggest reason we play the way we do – even though I strongly believe he has many many more stings to his bow) this then prepares the way for new players in, and eventually these will produce a style of football more pleasing on the eye apparently.
I do however have one point. – returning to my assumption that our players have enough talent to play in a variety of ways, Who’s role is it to change the approach? – the coaches.
What may have happened (again pure fantasy and only a hypothesis) is that the coaching staff attempted to change the style of football, they have encouraged players to play a different style to get them thinking on the pitch in a different way, to look for different passes. BUT it comes down the players believing in what the coaches are telling them (its Joses great trick, and the same for SAF and Arsene too), I think the fact that so many of our players had bought so deeply into the Jose mentality COUPLED with the two new coaching faces brought into the club – one of whom there was a lot of speculation about why he was there has left some sceptical about leaving the appraoch that has served us so well and embracing this new way. I now think at this stage, Avram and Henk realised this and left it alone a little bit, they haven’t tried to change things with a group of hesitant players too much, they are earning the trust and then in the next season or so if they are still here I expect the players to warm to the new approach that Avram / Henk etc have spoken about and many people seem to want.
I think the failure of a lot of teams like Valencia or Newcastle under Big Sam this season has been that the players have not believed and bought into the approach that the boss is advocating and encouraging them to embrace, thus their hesitancy has spilled onto the pitch and made it worse. If these men Koeman, Big Sam, etc had come in and worked on it gradually then they would have been far more successful. Avrams been wise in this, he needed time to win the players over to his thinking, he realised they had one view of how to play currently which had been successful, if he had changed it with so many question marks about his own ability then he wold almost certainly have been rejected and the side would have failed, so to build his credit with the players he hasn’t changed all that much, and we have been successful, thus I would say he has earned enough credit to be allowed to tamper with their approaches to the game.
mancini linked with chelsea????????
does his inter milan play sexy football????
ask any inter fan
they ll frankly say he is not a great coach
he ll just break chelsea into pieces
luk at th teams he hve managed
roman pls go and get laudrup
regarding the frisk incident i remember jose said that a member of our team saw the refree with the barcelona coach and after that our player got a red card. and he got fined because the refree told that frank did came to him but he sent him away. What jose said had an effect but what grant said no one except for FA has taken seriously. thats the magnitude of grants talk u see.
Everyone bow to grant who has former ajax manager as his assistant and chelsea faithful clark to handle players egos, PA representative to tell him what to talk in press, psycologist to improve team morale and a world class squad who do not even need a manger now.
We are represented by a person who has to tell and explain the press about his substitutions across the season. amazing.
we are going no where next season if he stays and a few core members leave. he will be exposed soon and will be runing for bushes.
the dream team next seonson if lamps, drogba leaves:
———–cech————–
richards—–terry—carv—–A.cole/drenthe
????—–essien—-mikel—-G.Barry
———torres—–bojan——-
its stupid to get dos santos he lets get bojan he is 100% better
Grant lack of vocabulary gives him problems. He meant to say the same thing as Fergi is saying occasionally and what JM said and others. I think his point was made in relation to the sending off of Mikel in the game against MU.
I was watching the MU -Wigan game and AG’s observation is 100% correct. Schole had a yellow card and his next foul deserved another yellow! He tackled badly from the side a Wigan player that was charging freely towards MU goal from the right . The commentator was sure Schole is going out ,yet the referee only warned Schole. Your are warning a player first ,than give Yellow card not visa a versa.
AG is 100% correct that Wigan deserved a penalty. I mean it was so clear. Ferdinand clearly handle the ball intentionally .He leaned sideway with his hand in order to stop the ball!
If Galas deserved a penalty this was a much clearer case.
But what is also clear is that Wigan was not hungry in this game. They played free, nice football at times and at times were close to scoring ,but they didn’t give a fight .
I am not trying to say Chelsea lost the titel,they should have beaten Bolton irrespective what MU were doing.
My point is AG is correct in criticizing the referee of the MU/Wigan game. The terms he used in doing so were wrong .
I am sure if Chelsea would have beaten Bolton and you people were watching the MU game as I did (moving occasionally to watch the CFC game to see the score- I thought that the result of MU game was the key to the final standing)and I am sure you would tolerate AG words and even agree with his rough assessment.
I’m disappointed that a few weeks pass and again so much negativity towards AG. Look at how ManU react to their coach (who almost cost them a title with his team selection a few weeks back). I would expect that Clarke praises the players, it wouldn’t be very diplomatic to talk about what a great job him and the rest of the managers have done, especially as 95% of winning games is obviously the players
Honestly if we consider the form of Ronaldo & the injuries to Cech they are the biggest differences between 2004-06 & 2006-08. That AG and the brilliance of Cole, Essien & Ballack almost won it for us this year was amazing! Plus we’ve never been in a final b4. Please just support the coach. If you want to talk about under-performance go speak to a Liverpool or Newcastle supporter. Go Blues for Moskva
for all thoses Dos Santo fans out there… it seems he will only come if Rijkaard is there….because he respects Rijkaard, so if we are after Dos Santos that means we are after Rijkaard too thus, we can expect Dos santos therefore. Chelsea is working behind the doors on this one just like bosingwa….
@15. BlueFan nr:1 come on guy we dont need Bojan and we wont get him also we wont and cant get torres… ok. they would be too expensive.
Brian – I know how Man Utd fans reacted to their coach for his faulty team selection. They completely ripped him apart. His team selection was ridiculed and blasted and some even claimed that he dropped the title. Some said he is become too old and he should go at the end of the season.
We don’t need your preaching here about supporting the coach. We are making constructive criticism. You don’t have to be blind because you’re supporting someone/something. As regards Liverpool, as far as I know their fans are totally behind Rafa. And Newcastle fans consider Keegan as their messiah. Just check if it’s true. It’s not about under-performance. If you think so, you’re completely missing the point.
It is a shame that the real player who saved our season is not being given the accolade he deserves. The difference betwwen this season and last is the fact that our team did not collapse anytime terry or carvalho were out. essien did not have to be pulled into central defense which curtails his ability to surge forward. The single most important factor that ensured that none of this happened this season is that man called Alex the Tank- for me, alex is the silent hero. Our last season was ruined cos we had no such capable man to hold the fort and keep the shape of our team intact when either terry or riccy was off.
Kudos to alex- shame that you have in front of you two stalwart defenders- i sometimes wonder why we did not try him at right back because alex actually started playing at the right back- some say he lacks pace to cope there- but what pace he lacks is largely accounted for by his near perfect reading of the game. Alex is my unsung hero of the season.
@20. MourofEssien (MoE) your right on that one….. he did his bit in that xmas period….!!! we forgot about him, he is a good player.
Guys whats your line up on wednesday?
I will go for-
- ————-cech—————
-ferreira—Riccy—-Terry—Cole
————Mikel————–
–Essien—Ballack——-lamp
———drogs—–Kalou——
We need two guys in front- i will start Kalou with drogs and later bring anelka. I will opt for essien in joey’s place and use paulo at the back cos he always does very well against his countryman Ronaldo. I would rather have Mikel than Maka. But I am sure Grant will rather go for his conservative-
—————Cech—————
Essien–Riccy—–terry—A.Cole
—————Maka—————
——Ballack——lamps—-
—joey——————Kalou
————Drogba————-
well lets hope we win the champions league …it is quite obvious that serious changes will be made this summer and that changes starts with Grant that I am sure of so no one should bother himself/herself about him
@ 22. MourofEssien (MoE) you got that one right… don think hel will start with Drogba and anelka up top. it will look like this
—————Cech—————
Essien–Riccy—–terry—A.Cole
—————Maka—————
——Ballack——lamps—-
—joey——————Kalou
————Drogba————-
subs to come on : Anelka(joey), Mikel(maka), Malouda(Kalou), unused subs…. Carlo, Alex, Sheva, Paulo.
to finish with a :
—————Cech—————
Essien–Riccy—–terry—A.Cole
—————Mikel—————
——Ballack——lamps—-
—Analka——————Malouda
————Drogba————-
Denver@ 23, depending on the going on though, i will not be surprised if we throw in sheva rather than Louda in the second half to give us three in attack- Anelka, drogs and sheva.
I will be too ecstatic if sheva scores the winning goal.
“I realise that in continental Europe, to question the referee’s integrity is a very common thing. It is nothing unusual there. But it is my belief that football in the UK is more clean and regulated than in the continent”
What a statement, do not know if it is naivity or “some nacionalism” creeping under.
I was going to leave a”no comment”, however I must voice my opinion about your belief.
The difference between UK and the Continent is that continentals are more individualists, and in the UK people follow mor the “herd” mentality. Hence the reason that since your Margareth Thatcher your society has lost almost any social and human rights you have earned over yourt democracy, without any complain, that would never happened in the Continent.