Here I am, back again. Blame it on the lack of proper football, lack of Chelsea transfer news and well . . my laziness and my gaming hours. The last few days I’ve been into retro gaming. Having got tired of football games on my PS3, I did the unthinkable of getting a PS2 along with the classic pro evos such as Winning Eleven 9. They don’t look so great on my 40″ HDTV so I did the one more unthinkable thing of going to 25″ SDTV. It wasn’t over. Since it’s PS2, I had to get wired controllers too. As I don’t have max drive or such stuff, I couldn’t patch my WE9 on PS2. So here I am. Playing an unpatched WE9 with wired controllers on a PS2 on a small SDTV – all this for a good game of football. I must tell you the outcome was priceless! If you couldn’t understand any of this, you’re perfectly normal, so let’s move on.

Since the last blog, Chelsea have been beaten twice (how often has this happened, I mean between two blogs). The first one was practically with a Chelsea youth team. Losing one pre-season friendly match with your youth team should not mean anything to you. The later one was a proper defeat but still in a pre-season friendly. Look, we don’t step on the pitch to get beaten but in a pre-season match, you can get on the pitch with a ‘let’s play and get ready for the season’ than ‘we need to win today’. There’s a world of difference between both these approaches. That extra effort in that tackle, that dribble, that shot and that save comes when you play with a determination to win. Apparently, we were more focussed to playing than winning. I think that was the right approach, given that the season has not started yet. While we were keen to getting a kick-about, our opponents were keen to win these matches. It’s not very often these teams get to play a top team like Chelsea at their back yard and they might want to give their all and beat Chelsea in front of their fans. Good for them. Good for us too.

I’m saying good for us too because I like losing in the pre-season matches. While playing pre-season friendlies can get the players back to good physical shape, losing these matches can also get them back to good mental shape. I think it would make them sharper and get them to focus more in the coming matches. I think we’re clear by now – let’s forget about the pre-season friendlies. So what if we’ve lost? Many other top teams have also lost their pre-season matches. When I tell you that Arsenal have won a pre-season trophy you would know how much to disregard the pre-season and how they are unreflective of the season ahead.

Finally some concrete transfer news involving Chelsea. Ramires is expected to have his medicals at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. Just when it looked that we only had to cross the t’s and dot the i’s, there was this news on the work permit and all that. Ramires is ‘owned’ by the famous Joorabchian and premier league is not happy with this. As per the premier league rules, the transfer fees is always paid to the selling club and never to an individual but in this case, Joorabchian ‘owns’ Ramires or part of him or whatever. I’m sure we’ll find a way out and I really hope for that. I think Ramires is a very good buy. I know he could challenge the growth of Mikel but if Carlo wants him he will have a plan for both of them. Let’s speak more about him after he’s seen smiling with Carlo, with a Chelsea shirt in the mix.

The scoop on Fernando Torres is all over now. Unless he was misquoted by astronomical proportions, it’s clear that he wants to stay at Liverpool. Good luck to him. Meanwhile, Man City could soon create a world record for the number of players in their squad. If Torres joins them, he will have to wear the No.74 jersey or something. Anyway, with the new premier league rules, they can register no more than 25 players for the premier league season. So, we can soon expect a yard sale at Manchester. There is also a rumour that Robinho may not make it to the 25-member squad. I’d take without blinking an eye, if you ask me. He is a top player and he is just what we need on the right flank and he is young.

Unsurprisingly, we have a goalkeeper crisis now. If you remember that blog where I talked about my wishful transfers, I did mention how precarious our goalkeeping situation is. We only need one injury to Cech to find ourselves in trouble. We need a good, young, understudy keeper – which I’m not sure if Turnbull is. He can step in for a match or two and that’s all he can. We need to still buy that good, young understudy and Carlo should have access to the youth and reserve teams in Milan, Turin and Rome. Let’s hope for something to happen there.

I did touch upon the new premier league rules. Let me as well take you through – not the rules but my opinion on them. Well, this is the rule in short – only 25-member registered squads (ala champions league), 8 of this squad should be homegrown. This is very interesting and would add some more tactics and strategy in football management. That’s a new challenge for the managers. Will it help the cause? I doubt. The definition of ‘homegrown players’ will not help the future of England national team. May be, we’re starting light. Let’s see.

Finally, we have a world champion at Chelsea this season. All hail Gael Kakuta. The boy has gone and won the U19 world cup. He has had quite a few scintillating performances throughout the tournament, including some very good goals. He has also won the golden player of the tournament award. Gael is crying out loud to Carlo: “I’m ready. Count me in!”. Enough’s enough. Let’s get the boy in. He’s really good.

That’s it for now. Catch you ahead of the weekend match. Bye!

Great start to the pre-season, isn’t it? What better could have happened in this match than Michael Essien scoring a superb goal! It was a good game with an opportunity for most players to get some time on the pitch. While the world cup bunch stayed away, Essien must have been dying to step on to the pitch. That was a very well taken goal built up by Sturridge’s pass and Josh McEachran’s smart lay off to Essien. It wasn’t so easy. Essien still had to beat a man and score with his left foot with a sweet finish. Next up is Ajax.

Chelsea have still not done a great deal in the transfer market. Ancelotti has said that he doesn’t need to bolster his attack to retain the title. While it is worrying on face value, this could just be mind games behind the negotiations. Definitely, Carlo doesn’t sound like someone who’s desperate to buy. Honestly, we do have to bolster our attack to retain the title. Our attack is highly reliant on Didier Drogba. Even Man Utd is relying heavily on Rooney. The difference is Rooney is about 7 years younger than Drogba and these details determine the proneness to injury and recovery time. It’s high time we’d got an understudy who is also a fairly established player.

Jeffrey Bruma is on a year long loan to Wolfsburg. I see mixed reactions for this move. Some of us thought that Bruma would get into the Chelsea first team this season. This move also indicates that Carvalho could be staying after all, which is a good thing too. If Carvalho is going to stay here this season, Bruma’s loan to Wolfsburg could end up being a very good move for Chelsea. Wolfsburg are a good team (were champions a season back) and are now managed by Steve McLaren. I’m certain that Bruma would return to Chelsea as a much more matured defender. It is in places like Germany and Italy where you can learn your trade and sharpen your skills as a good defender.

In other news, Joe Cole joins Liverpool. I’m confident that Chelsea did the right thing by letting him go. Also, I’m happy that he didn’t join our ‘rivals’ just in case it turns out to be otherwise. Liverpool have got weaker by replacing Benayoun with Joe Cole. I have no animosity towards Joe Cole ‘the Liverpool slayer’ for joining Liverpool. It’s his career and his choice. Hope it works out well for him and not for Liverpool as such.

The Capello Index is back! I must say that this index is pretty interesting. There are a few indices and models that rate players but I think this one seems to be an improvement over the other existing models. At least it gives me such an impression. The website is not complete yet so the minute details behind each score could not be seen. The legal battle would be on between Capello/FA and the Capello Index website. The website could be removed from the web but I hope this comes with a legal-friendly version with probably no direct reference to Capello. Anyway, check it out while it lasts.

Finally, we’ve started seeing premier league clubs banning vuvuzelas in their stadiums. Some have made it clear but some are still undecided. There is still no news from Stamford Bridge yet. Personally, in Stamford Bridge, I wouldn’t want vuvuzelas. In South Africa, it would have been unfair and even foolish to have banned it there because it’s part of their football culture.. In England, it’s not. It is the chants and songs that are part of the football culture in England. I would hate if the sound of vuvuzelas drown our chants of ‘can we play you every week’ when Arsenal plays . . .

Catch you later!

Okay then, Iker Casillas has lifted the world cup trophy to knock my last piece of prediction. Congratulations to Spain. I feel sorry for the Dutch. They could have won it as well but they didn’t. I thought it was a very good match. Yes, there were a lot of stoppages and yellow cards but when a match of this intensity is being played, it’s understandable. I liked the match. It was very tight, there were very few mistakes in midfield and defence. Despite this match being tight, there was certainly a lot of desire and ambition from both sides, which made it a very intriguing game.

I also feel sorry for Howard Webb. He is a good referee but on this occasion he got quite a few crucial things wrong. Netherlands should have had de Jong sent off and Spain should have had Iniesta and Puyol sent off. With just 3 minutes to go for the shootout, he got a big decision wrong at that crucial time. The free kick from Sneijder in the 116th minute should have resulted in a corner for Netherlands but he awarded a goal kick for Spain and that attacked ended the Dutch hopes. Looks like a very minor detail but at the 116th minute of a world cup, for a 10-man team, every bit of possession would have helped. Anyway, this is not meant to suggest Spain didn’t deserve or anything. It’s just that Netherlands deserved to be champions as much as Spain did.

Andres Iniesta was always on my ‘great footballer but a despicable character’ list. It’s just that he improved his ranking yesterday. I thought Robin van Persie was the most useless player on the pitch yesterday. He looked like he didn’t want to be there. His useless presence meant Netherlands were always a man down against Spain, which is not an easy proposition. I won’t blame him though. In his kind of form, he’s never going to get anything against Pique and Puyol. RvP shouldn’t have played or he should have been subbed very early.

Thomas Muller wins the golden boot of this world cup, thanks to his three assists which were the tie breaker. I’m happy for Muller to win it than the incredibly lucky David Villa. He is made out to be like the striker of the tournament or something. He’s been poor but lucky while Torres was poor and unlucky. If Villa had won the golden boot, it would have rivalled Anelka’s golden boot in the premier league. Diego Forlan wins the golden ball for being the player of the tournament. That’s a great choice, I must say. He’s not only brilliant and consistent, he’s been pulling his team along and made them punch above their weights. Truly deserved the prize. I wouldn’t have complained if Schweinsteiger got it.

The most important thing is: the world cup is over. And that means: the glorious world of club football is back!

The transfer mania would set in now. So many top players have been linked with Chelsea but you and I know that we’d buy none of them. There were some strong rumours about a Chelsea bid for Fernando Torres, who wants to play in the champions league, which is not possible with Liverpool this season and hopefully a few more seasons. I like Torres. I’d love to see him in a Chelsea shirt. Yes, he’s had a poor world cup but which Chelsea had a great world cup? The fact that he has had a poor world cup can work to our advantage as his price should be most certainly lower now. See, Torres is a top class striker and if he plays for Chelsea, he’d get great supply from everywhere and he should love playing with a selfless striker like Drogba. All this is fine, if he comes at a decent price. I happened to see a piece of news (or junk) about Liverpool slapping a £100m price tag on Liverpool. That’s beyond a bad joke.

Meanwhile, our eternal target Sergio Aguero is still on the look out for ‘a top club that would help him achieve his ambitions’. Quite expectedly, he made a reference to Chelsea and said this:

To be the strike partner of Didier Drogba is a thing many players would love to be. But it’s not just Drogba – it’s Lampard, Terry, Anelka, Essien, and maybe even Fernando Torres. They have quality players everywhere.

That’s nice – the intent and the slip. Happy that he is still intent on playing for Chelsea. He has been in this ‘come and get me’ mode for a few seasons now. And then the slip – see how he drops the name of Fernando Torres, his ex-colleague and friend at Atletico Madrid. Looks like Aguero knows something and I hope he didn’t get that from the tabloid rumours.

Torres wants to go. That’s bloody clear. But where can he go? He wants to play in the champions league, having played for Liverpool he might want to continue playing for a top club and he does get paid a handsome package. Having raised in / played for Atletico, I don’t see him going to Barcelona or Real Madrid. He may not want to join his Rafa at Inter. Out of the other clubs that can afford him, Man Utd don’t seem quite keen. Juventus? AC Milan? They’ve got Pato. I’d be happy if we end up getting either Torres or Pato. We need to wait and watch.

Ancelotti has kind of clarified that we’re not buying Kaka, though he would love that proposition. Having replaced Joe Cole with Benayoun, we’re still looking to find someone to fill the boots of Ze German. Strangely, not many midfielders get caught into these rumour stories. About three-fourth of the rumours are always about the strikers, forwards and wingers. While we are looking for a very good midfielder, Ancelotti gets some joy as Essien and Mikel return to full training. If Essien gets to start every single match next season (ala Frank Lampard), we could have a fantastic season and would help a lot in defending our title and progressing in Europe.

Happy to be back with proper football where the champion is decided over 38 matches across 10 months. Happy to be talking Chelsea.