The Blues paid £250,000 for the Geordie hit man in August 1991 after finishing the previous season as top scorer in Division Four. The dressing room joker never made an impact at the club and was sold in December 1992 for £275,000. Since retiring he has worked on local radio in the North East and had a spell on the coaching staff at Leeds United. He is now a director…
Zhirkov Goal Marks Happy Return To Moscow
Chelsea returned to the Luzhniki Stadium, the venue for the infamous 2008 Champions League final, for the clash against Spartak Moscow. Carlo Ancelotti said at the beginning of the match that ‘today is going to be a different day’, and so it proved to be, as Chelsea put the records straight and came away with a 2-0 victory. Both teams went into the game unbeaten, with Chelsea leading the group…
Blues Aim For No Slips On Moscow Return
Twelve yards, a ball, a goalkeeper and a defender, John Terry vs. Edwin Van Der Sar, this for the European Champions League, the run up and then in slow motion the slip, and as if in slow motion, the ball cannons back off the post and United go on to steal the Champions League from Chelsea. Two years, three managers and another semi final heartbreak later, Chelsea return to the…
Travels With The Chels – Stuttgart
It’s an irony that the media perception in this country is of Joe Public hating the Germans, which is generally untrue. You still get the odd soul for whom the mantra; “Jerry bombed my Grandad’s house” has coloured their view for the majority of their lives. Then there’s those who gorge on right-wing press stories of bad mannered Germans’ holiday traits, but most people born after the 60’s, and whose…
The Loan and International Report: October 4-17
This week’s report is a bumper fortnightly look at not only the young Blues out on loan, but also at those who represented their countries at junior youth levels over the recent international break. We’ll kick off with the national team action, which was headlined by England’s Under-21 team qualifying for next summer’s European Championships in Denmark after coming through a tough two-legged tie against Romania. Michael Mancienne captained the…
A Point Gained Or Two Lost?
Never an easy place to go, Villa, as our record over the last ten matches shows. Yet with two strikes of the woodwork in the second half, should we have come away with all three points? The team lined up as Ancelotti had stated a day before kick-off, with options for changes limited at best due to the withdrawal of Didier Drogba due to a virus, Lampard still not recovering from his…
No Drogba For Villa
As the injury problems at Chelsea finally looking like we’re over the worst, yesterday brought more bad news in the shape of our super striker, Didier Drogba, due to a fever. With Benayoun now looking like he’ll miss the majority of the season, and with Kalou, Alex & Lampard all still not yet ready for first team action, the Villa match sees us play something of a ‘weakened’ team for…
Injury Blow For Young Blues Duo
For Philipp Prosenik and Jeffrey Bruma, the 2010/11 season started with much promise. Recent news on the injury front has, however, threatened to de-rail their plans for the campaign, one more seriously than the other. With John Terry and Alex both already battling problems which could keep them out of the weekend trip to Aston Villa, Dutch international Bruma may have been in line to partner Branislav Ivanovic for his…
Under-18s: Chelsea 0-3 Arsenal
Chelsea’s sluggish start to the Under-18 season continued into the month of October with a 3-0 home defeat against Arsenal on Saturday morning. Second half goals from Kyle Ebecilio, Alban Bunjaku and Josh Rees put a gloss on a scoreline not wholly deserved by the Gunners, who had goalkeeper Damian Martinez to thank for keeping them in the game in spells. After using such a settled team for much of…
Didi Does It Again
Sometimes I wish I was a betting man, because Drogba scoring against Arsenal is now, it seems, pretty much a forgone conclusion. It was no surprise then, that in the 39th minute, up stepped our super striker to do it again, and deflate Arsene Wengers pre-match bravado that this would be the year they beat us. Every season it’s the same, it’s becoming as iconic as Liverpool’s ‘we’ll win it…