Lots of stuff to write about. Some interesting transfer news and rumours. Some pre-season friendlies. Some continuing ‘situations’. In that order. Chelsea is seeing. Chelsea is looking. Chelsea is monitoring. Chelsea is considering. These are the things press say to involve Chelsea when there is complete silence or indifference from Chelsea. I’m toning down my expectations and talking to myself – ‘We’ve got time. It’s only July. Why so serious?’

The biggest news is Adebayor’s move to Man City. That news is relevant for Chelsea because he was also supposed to be ‘monitored’ by Chelsea. I hate Adebayor. He is a decent striker and has a good record in the premier league. I don’t like him though. For two reasons, I’m very happy that he’s joined Man City. One is, Chelsea are clear of Adebayor. Two is, Arsenal are merely strengthening their direct rivals. With the purchases of Barry, Tevez, Adebayor, Santa Cruz etc, Man City are a serious threat to Arsenal’s fourth place. That’s what puzzles me. Why would the old man sell a key player to their direct rival for their fourth place. It’ll be funny if Adebayor scores 20 goals and Man City grabs the fourth spot from Arsenal this season. Wenger has this track record. He sells players like Ashley Cole and Adebayor to his rival English clubs and gets only players like Gallas and Silvestre. Poor.

Rumours say Chelsea are now pondering a move for David Beckham. That stay just as a rumour because I don’t think we need David Beckham in our team. I’m a big fan of David Beckham, the footballer. I have a lot of respect for his dedication towards the sport and his true talent which are always unfortunately overshadowed by the glitz and glamour. But let’s admit. Even as a midfielder, compared to the ones that Chelsea have, Backham has his limitations but he is way too strong with his strengths. In the system that we play, I don’t see a role for Beckham. But wait, how do I know which system we are going to play this season?

Some interesting pre-season results. Warning: This is pre-season and these are friendlies. Arsenal were held to a 2-2 draw by Barnet. Arsene Wenger then said that Barnet played a very physical game and that he is worried about the progress of modern day football. Man Utd beat a Malaysia XI 3-2 with Michael Owen coming on as a substitute and scoring a winner. That’s a dream script for a debut. I have a feeling that the Owen signing could be a masterstroke by Sir Rednose. The biggest challenge for him is to stay fit. If Owen plays about 40 games, he would surely score 10-15 goals, minimum. That’s his class. Let’s see if he stays fit until the community shield match against Chelsea next month.

Meanwhile in the United States, Chelsea beat Seattle Sounders rather comfortably. The score was 2-0 with goals from Sturridge and Lampard. I did see John Terry on the pitch in a Chelsea shirt and he had a white band around his arm that had this capital letter C on it. For every moment I saw him on the pitch, he looked every bit ours. Deco’s performance was surprisingly good. As far as I followed football, he was unhappy with everything from Chelsea to London City to Premier League. And now, he turns up for a friendly match and plays like this. But, the ones who know the new Deco will know that he is a great passes when he is unchallenged. Seattle have just been promoted to MLS and they hardly were a threat. Hilario made a second half presence and you know what, he didn’t look comfortable. Di Santo came in too, in the second half, and was inches away from scoring a great goal. He created a chance with a sublime touch to beat the keeper but was denied by a last ditch tackle by the last defender. Great skill by Di Santo though.

The star of the show was19-year old Daniel Sturridge. This was his debut and he scored this brilliant goal. He makes a nice onside run and receives this high ball so comfortably with some soft touches and beats the defender and from amost the diagonal edge of the box makes a sweeeet finish along the ground to hit the far post net. Amazing finish. It was in fact, very Anelkaish. For the second goal, Sturridge provided the aid (for the newbies, ‘aid’ is the pass to the asssist). Sturridge’s pass to Anelka was sublime and I’m surprised at the way Anelka read it and laid it off for Lampard. And you know, this man Frank Lampard is known to be at the right place at the right time. He was there and it was 2-0.

Daniel Sturridge, after the match, talked exactly the kind of words you’d expect a young player to utter after a great match:

It doesn’t matter if anyone thinks that I played well, I know I didn’t myself and I know I can show the fans more of my ability once I get used to the playing style of the team. Obviously it is going to take time. I am a young player and I am just learning the game. I don’t think I performed too well today but hopefully I can show the fans a little bit more and maybe score a few more goals. It is not any one thing in particular but I just want to show that I am a better player than I showed today. I know I can prove to the fans that I am a decent signing.

I am very happy to play for the team for the first time in front of a big crowd with a good atmosphere, and I was very happy to score the first goal. For the second it was a good run by Nico and a good pass from him to Frank who finished very well. There was a lot of space behind the defenders and it is a lot different here for me. I have to get used to playing with the team because the playing style is a lot different to what Man City’s is. You get the ball in positions where you can cause problems for the opposition more and it was a very good experience for me today.

Good for him. While I’m pretty pleased for Sturridge for a great debut, I felt sorry for Di Santo that he couldn’t score that goal. Sturridge’s signing is a threat for Di Santo as he would start playing the Argentinian’s three minutes towards the end of the match. Sturridge and Di Santo seem to be entirely different players. Di Santo plays like a centre forward through-and-through while Sturride might take a second striker type of role. We might have the next generations of Drogba and Anelka there. For the cup matches, we should let Sturridge and Di Santo partner the attack upfront. That would be some sight.

That was also Ancelotti’s first match in charge of Chelsea. He played a 4-4-2 diamond and used about 20 players. I did realise that we did not have too much width in our play. I’m not sure if it was because of the formation or because of the type of players he used. Anyway, for a first match, it is the result that matters and he got that. I’m more impressed with Ancelotti’s post match comments. I don’t know if he said this in English or this was translated.

On Sturridge the new star he said:

Sturridge now is not a star. He is a very good player, he has to improve with the work and he started well. For a young player these are good things, and I like his game because he scored one goal and worked for the team.

On Mark Hughes’ trail of John Terry he said:

Mark Hughes has to stay calm, because John Terry is a player of Chelsea and will remain a player and a symbol of Chelsea. I think there is not a question for Chelsea, maybe for other people. I am not interested in this.

Lovely.

So, is the Terry story over? Once again, in the last week, we had dozen other people saying why Terry should not leave and will not leave. So he may not leave. We saw Terry being pictured in the Chelsea photoshoot. A leaving player won’t normally do this. So he may not leave. We saw Terry going to the Unites States for the pre-season matches. Why would he go there if he were to leave? He may not be leaving then. We have a lot of situations and circumstances from where we are made to infer, guess and judge Terry’s stay with Chelsea. As I’ve said a million times before, the simplest thing I’d expect is Terry calling the press and laughing it off. I don’t have the mental strength to go through another heart-in-mouth last transfer day with Terry situation still not clarified. Please.

Why am I always ending the posts with a sad tone surrounding Terry’s situation. Let me do something else this time while retaining the sad tone. Chelsea’s away kit was unveiled a couple of weeks back. It does not look impressive. And I thought it makes common sense to have light coloured away kit if your home kit is of a darker colour. My suggestion for Chelsea away kits – if it has to be lighter, make it white, if it has to be darker, make it black. Just don’t play around with no sense. I feel that there should be some theme or some mood while designing the kits. That’s what is missing with these kind of kits. Honestly, the away kit just sucks and looks so un-Chelsea. Damn these horizontal stripes. Well, I’m getting my new Chelsea away kit sometime next week. When are you getting yours?