In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was print. James A. Catton was the earliest significant figure in football journalism, writing for the Preston Herald in 1875. Forty years later, he recalled “”In days long ago when Association football players wore beards and breeches, instead of being clean shaven and donning shorts or running pants, newspapers, as a whole, took very little notice of matches.

The reports were brief, and there were none of the personal paragraphs, garrulous items, and more or less sensational news which are now part not only of weekly periodicals, but of morning and evening newspapers.” In 1886 James A. Catton began to write for the weekly “The Athletic News” under the pen-name “Ubique”, later calling himself “Tityrus”. He subsequently became editor of The Athletic News and was acknowledged as the most important football writer in Britain.

As interest in Association Football increased, so did the coverage. One of the most important sources of information for supporters were the Saturday evening “pinks”, with their emphasis on local teams. Sadly now a dying breed, these were often the only way of finding out how other teams got on and were usually printed within minutes of the final whistle being blown at games.

A technological revolution was born in January 1927 when BBC radio broadcast its maiden commentary, featuring a game between Arsenal and Sheffield United, with the FA Cup Final being broadcast for the first time that same year. By 1931 the BBC was broadcasting over 100 games per season. Radio ownership was in its infancy at this time, with only approximately 30% of households owning a “wireless”. The Alan Green of that era was George Allison. He devised a system to help listeners understand what was going on, consisting of a diagram with a football pitch divided into squares which was published in the Radio Times.

Allison’s broadcast assistant would call out the number of the square where the ball was being played, and when the ball was deliberately passed back to the goalkeeper (a legal if time wasting tactic up until 1992, for the benefit of younger readers), Allison would announce “and it’s back to square one”, thus originating a phrase which would become part of the English language.

The horrendous economic conditions and poverty of the late 1920s and early 1930s led to a fall in match going, and radio coverage of league games was blamed. As a result, the Football League banned live commentary of their games, a dictat which continued until after the Second World War. However, the FA Cup Final continued to be broadcast throughout the 1930s, with the fixture becoming part of the fabric of the nation, due in part to increased ownership of radios, with over 70% of households owning a radio by 1939. Football broadcasting resumed after the Second World War, with the BBC showing the first non-Final FA Cup game between Blackpool and Bolton in the 1947 5th round.

The early 1950′s saw British audiences treated to their first taste of overseas football at the 1954 World Cup, and in 1955 the fledgling Independent Television broadcast games from the first season of the European Cup, which might have featured Chelsea, had it not been for the club caving into the FA over their participation. In the same year, BBC started showing highlights from First Division games for the first time in Soccer Special.

It was however in 1964 that a seismic shift took place with the birth of a national institution – Match of the Day on BBC2. Originally broadcast in black and white, colour transmissions of football hightlights started in 1969 and by the time Chelsea faced Leeds in the 1970 FA Cup final, the game was played out before a record audience of 20 million. By the early 1980s the Football League had signed a contract for regular live games on TV, but the broadcasters weren’t to know that the decade would see an unparalled era of crowd trouble, and that poorly maintained grounds all over the country would eventually claim the lives of scores of fans.

By the middle of the decade, football fans were generally perceived as scum, especially by the Government. The Minister for Sport, former Olympic rower, Colin Moynihan, and originator of a proposal to bring in compulsory ID cards for supporters, described fans as “the effluent society”, and a leader in The Times of 18 June 1985 described the game as “…a slum sport, watched by slum people”.

It was around this time, inspired by the culture of music fanzines which had sprung up in the 1970s and early 80s, the first football fanzines emerged. “When Saturday Comes” was launched in 1986 and is still going strong over 25 years later, with the same editor. Suddenly, if you had opinions and had access to a photocopier, you could start a fanzine yourself. All you needed was a few mates to help distribute it. And some of the titles were, and remain glorious – WSC used to list those available such as Gillingham’s legendary Brian Moore’s Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium, which is still going, albeit online these days. There used to be a wonderful shop in the Charing Cross Road called Sportspages, where you could buy fanzines, and whenever I was in London in the late 80s, I’d go there simply to read.

And as befits a club which has long had a creative, imaginative, talented fanbase, Chelsea fans were swift to embrace the concept of the fanzine. “The Chelsea Independent” was launched in 1987 and was a fixture on the Fulham Road until 1999, being replaced in 2000, in the very early days of the internet, by CFCNet. However, after the print version of The Chelsea Independent ceased, help was at hand for those seeking a physical fix for the tube or the train with the launch of Matthew Harding’s Blue & White Army, which subsequently became the legendary and much loved CFCUK (which is, as everyone knows, is still available on match days for only a pound. Urry up).

At the dawn of the digital era, one of the single biggest changes in how football fans interact was created by the BBC. In 2003, they put together a collection of internet forums for each club in the Premier League, togethe with forums for the lower divisions and Scottish football via the BBC website under their “606″ banner. This provided a first opportunity for many football fans, including myself, to publicly put forward their views, not only on their club, but on other clubs too. It is fair to say that 606 changed my own life as I started writing about football for the first time since my early teens, when I used to sit down at my Corona typewriter on a Saturday evening and write my own slant on the day’s scorelines.

However, due to the BBC’s strict moderation rules, and the fact the boards closed at 10pm, just minutes after midweek games, dissatisfaction set in quite early, and as a result those fans with the necessary technical know-how began to drift away to start their own forums, where membership could be denied to those perceived as “numpties” (numpties of course being the forerunners of trolls). With relatively low running costs, independent forums, run for fans by fans, sprang up all over the place. CFCUK launched their own website, as well as remaining in print. CFCNet remains the behemoth of Chelsea forums, with membership running into thousands. The After Hours Football Club was one of the first descendants of 606, started by an enlightened Gooner, but with sections for individual clubs.

This site hosted a particularly lively Chelsea forum, many of whose members congregated in the So Bar on matchdays, at the end housing the toilets, dubbing themselves “Bog Enders”. The BBC 606 forums sadly closed their doors for the last time on 31st May 2011, at a time when blogging has become increasingly popular. Organisations such as “Word Press” have made it possible to produce highly-professional websites at minimal costs, and “TheChels.Net” is one such blog that’s benefited. The beautifully-titled “Plains of Almeria” is the home of the cerebral blogger, attracting some of the highest calibre Chelsea writers around, and the fledgling “Mowing Meadows” has in a short space of time become a hugely-respected part of the blogging scene.

And of course, it’s not just the written word that’s available to Chelsea fans. Regular readers will recall that I spent a memorable evening in Putney recently with the Chelsea Football FanCast team (other pods are also available), and coupled with the club’s own in-house TV channel and media outlets, you have to ask yourself where the future lies for traditional media.

If you’re a Chelsea fan, with all the above options open to you, why should you waste your time on old media? Why listen to the bile on TalkSport when you can listen to your fellow-fans talk about the action on a podcast?

Why should you read what are still known, even online, as “the papers”? Why subject yourself to the bile of, say, Patrick Barclay, when you can read Joe Tweeds or Tim Rolls? The latter gentlemen are as informed about the club as Barclay, and what’s more, they care. And they’ll have paid for their own match tickets.

Why is Martin Lipton more relevant than Dan Levene of the Fulham Chronicle? Dan is a paid journalist, but at least he genuinely cares about the club and is the only professional worth following on Twitter.

Basically the difference between a journalist and a blogger is money. A journalist gets paid. A blogger does it for love and enjoyment, in their spare time.

The problem with the self-appointed righteous brothers of the former Fleet Street is that they believe they are still running the game. Hence the witch-hunts against those they perceive as sinners (certain players, certain club) and the paeans of praise for their favourites (again, certain players, certain clubs).The sole remaining area in which the hacks still have any kind of real influence is the England team, simply because there’s fewer new media resources dedicated to the national teams. The traditional journalists are dinosaurs, and extinction is coming. Another 50 years, and like the Saturday evening “pinks”, they’ll be consigned to history.

Acknowledgements
Contrary to popular belief, I do occasionally research these articles and I’m grateful to the following resources:

Spartacus Educational for background on the early history of football journalism and broacasting

The next web.com for a potted history of the now-sadly defunct 606

Soccerlens.com for Hugo Steckelmacher’s excellent article on the evolution of the fanzine on March 27th, 2008

Recommended Links

There’s a lot of good reading out there:-

 plainsofalmeria.co.uk

mowingmeadows.wordpress.com

www.cfcnet.co.uk

transparentsport.com/cfcuk

Recommended Forums

ahfcchat.com

chelseafancast.com/forum

Social Media

AHFC and ChelseaFancast are both on Facebook. ChelseaFancast are also on Twitter, where you can find bloggers referred to above (@mowingmeadows @JoeTweeds @tim_rolls ) and many more, together with Dan Levene’s account, @BluesChronicle.

You can also follow me @BlueBaby67

What a difference a week makes in the world of football.

Our captain, legend, leader now thinks we can win the title again – I was merry after our win on Monday but didn’t go that far, JT – Man Utd showed what would have been described ‘The Spirit of Istanbul’ had it happened 30 miles down the M62, and next year’s FIFA branded computer game will need a new commentator.

What a team performance on Monday. Following a shaky opening ten minutes, Dids silenced the critics who claim that his dip in form following a bout of Malaria signalled the beginning of the end for the talismanic Ivorian were eating their words with a nice side of humble pie.

My frustration with the re-tinted spectacles of the press can be summed up with the case of Didier; he now has ten in the league this season and sits joint 4th in the goal-scoring charts, but is ‘finished’, whilst Wooney has three all season but is still England’s saviour.

Cheryl Tweedy/Cole gets malaria and is at deaths door, Dids keeps playing and is slated for it. All we ask for is even reporting, lads (and ladies – I don’t want to be accused of sexism).

Back to Bolton, as confidence grew, we were doing that passing thing we have struggled with lately quite well, were looking dangerous on the counter, and even got a goal from midfield with Lamps absent.

My most recent observation noted that Ramires looked a goal away from looking like a very good all-round midfielder – let’s hope I was right. The bad moment has passed into a good moment, the corner has been turned Carlo said so himself.

The customary three points at Bolton, our 18th goal there without reply, and a first away win since October, as we keep being told. A chant last heard en masse at Villa Park, during Guus Hiddink’s first game in charge, rang round that corner of Lancashire: “Chelsea Are Back”.

On to Tuesday night and an evening of ignoring the footy to try and bring good luck, and to appease the long-suffering Mrs Morris Minor. When I received a text telling me it was 2-0 at half time, I didn’t get carried away, experience told me that it would be a 2-2 draw, how right I nearly was.

However, having watched the highlights, the penalty incident has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. In 2011 alone, there have been ‘stone wall’ penalties at West Brom and Blackpool not given against the refs XI.

Compare the barge on Varney to the penalty given at Salford Industrial Estate against Liverpool in the FA Cup and tell me which on sees more foul contact. I know we are told that these decisions even themselves out over the year, but that means there are already three to go against United based on the past four weeks.

Their fans have tried to even it out on forums and chat sites by saying Adam should have been sent off for his elbow on Evra. Two points on that; it wasn’t deliberate, and if it were, he would have been due a knighthood, not a red card.

The ‘it all evens out in the end’ theory also means we are due one following the penalty not given for the foul on Nico on Monday. Even if we are 4-0 up, it’s still a penalty. Sian Massey would have given it.

My personal gripe against United getting decisions stems back to the 1994 Cup Final and Mr Ellery’s decision to award a penalty at 0-0 despite contact on the half way line. Being only just out of short trousers, I couldn’t understand why such a poor decision could be made in a Cup Final – I have come to believe that such decisions earn officials a free seat and complimentary half bottle of wine at the Old Trafford end of season dinner and dance. They will need to hire a bigger function room at this season’s rate.

However, trying to find positives, at least we no longer have to listen to Mr Gray’s pro Fergie bleating on the travelling football fans worst nightmare – Sky Sports.

It is clear that Keys and Gray were not very well liked within Murdoch Towers, as the amount of YouTube footage appearing featuring them making less than wise comments will soon send the net into meltdown.

I for one think, as Keys himself said on TalkSport yesterday, that they have been slightly hard done by. Given the resignation of Cameron’s PR guru last week due to phone tapping, using a recording of a private conversation to remove someone from their job seems to me, at best, dubious.

I do not condone their comments, but fully appreciate that ‘industrial’ language is part and parcel of any male dominated workplace, it’s just that not many of them have microphones and cameras catching what gets said.

Note to self, don’t ask female colleagues to ‘tuck it in’, or discuss ‘smashing it’ with the lads if I’m being filmed.

I do think it’s a bit rich that pundits can slate male referees and their assistants for making poor decisions every week, and as soon as gender is bought into the matter, it becomes a national talking point. I know it was the manner in which it was said, but I stand by my point. In fact, I may start a petition against that ‘Loose Women’ programme…

So a vacancy for an expert analyst is waiting to be filled. Who else but Raymond Wilkins would suit such a position? Likable? Definitely. Knowledgable? Of course. Impartial? Well 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, and it would be nice to get some positive spin from a Chels point of view.

An important point to note is that the big decision Ms Massey made was correct, the real talking point as far as I was concerned was that Liverpool got three points, and following last night’s result against Fulham moves them up to seventh.

With the season they’ve had already, and we’re supposed to be the ones in turmoil?

So by now you’ve seen the image of the banners hung outside Cobham this morning, allegedly placed by a disgruntled Chelsea supporter.

Yet I’m sat here thinking there’s more to this than meets the eye.

Why was the banner a day late? If the supporter in question was fed up with the Wolves result, why didn’t they place it the morning after the match?

Ok they could have been late back from The Midlands, but still…. wasn’t it placed during the early hours anyway?

Equally, it’s a little convenient that there was a press conference due only hours afterwards, where the country’s media descended onto our training ground for the build up to our FA Cup match.

The predictable ‘supporter protest’ questions came early and Carlo handled them in good grace; “If it’s only one, there’s no problem. In Italy, it’s different. You can find outside the training ground 1,000 people not happy. It’s difficult to fight with 1,000. With one, you can manage.”

Echoing sanity, Carlo reasoned; “For a manager, it is important at this moment to have the support of the club, of the players, and obviously of the fans – minus one.”

What’s also fishy, is that almost all of the mainstream, and not so mainstream media have almost identical stories on what we’ve called ‘Bannergate’. Check out NewsNow, seriously, it’s almost as if they’ve all been written together.  As ever, the football is secondary to the headline.

You won’t find any Murdoch titles there, because he threatened to sue NewsNow and such sites for aggregating ‘his’ news, then cut them all off anyway and hid his content behind a paywall. Suits me, you’ve got to be a special kind of idiot to read that trash AND pay for the privilege.

However having played the media game a while, I’m all too aware of how it works. The journalists at the conference do exchange notes, and agree to a common theme for the next days news.  There are notable exceptions, but most are like pack animals, and they move together almost in unison, in all that they do.

It was especially apparent when Jose was manager, as his words could be snipped and quoted to fulfil any journalistic desire, yet Carlo is more coy and until recently, they’ve not really been able to get at him.

It’s widely known that the headline hunting tabloids will stoop to any depth in order to print something sensational. Phone tapping, entrapment, theft, coercion… in order to grab a few headlines, would you put a staged protest past them?

I certainly wouldn’t.

Making his writing debut for TheChels.net, son of Chelsea legend Alan Hudson and MLS coach with a growing reputation in his own right; Anthony Hudson.

It’s very evident to the world and certainly to the people in America that the game of soccer is growing at such a tremendous pace.

It is fantastic to see this amount of kids playing the game; more and more interest from the ‘other’ bigger sports’ fans and most encouraging of all is the amount of live games covered on US TV from all over the world.

I can watch more ninety minute, live English, Spanish and Italian games now; than I could when I lived over in England, thanks to the likes of ESPN, Gol TV and of course the Fox Soccer Channel. This great sport that the world is in love with, is taking over America.

But let’s not be fooled by what we are seeing, and even more so by what we are hearing. The glitz, the commercials, the talk shows and the ads are all over the place and people love them. But let’s face it, they are not the game.

And all these gimmicks and bright lights overshadow a deep seated, un-earthed and unlooked-at problem that threatens to turn this young, novice, ‘rookie-like’ (as they say Stateside) and slightly naïve nation into a very dark footballing hole….one that my home nation finds themselves in right now, as we see the ‘great’ England team headed home early from South Africa to leave the world’s greatest competition to the real footballing nations.

So what is this problem? I’ll give it to you in one sentence: The people in the media who are at the forefront of the game in the USA, the people that the whole nation hear on a weekly basis, the ‘expert’ opinions that are thrust into our living rooms everyday are under qualified, lack real football experience and have connections in the game that make their commentary and opinion bias, weak and hopelessly false.

And if that’s not enough, any real personality or character is very much, few and far between. These are the people that are educating this great nation on the principles of the game of soccer, when the country is in such a fantastic, yet critical moment in its development.

On a much smaller level, here’s how it compares; asking a 16 year old kid to teach you how to drive; hiring a man with no experience in the field of food and cooking, to open and run your restaurant that you have your whole life’s worth of investment in; a football manager asking his wife on a Friday night to help pick his team…hhmm…that one might not be so un-common.

Only this is a whole country, not a car or a single business….the whole country’s future in the game being shaped by a handful of sub-par, supposed ‘experts’.

In America, 370,000 people watched Man Utd’s 3-1 win over Arsenal in January last season on the Fox Soccer Channel. That’s a lot. And here’s another one – 23.4 million people watched the 2010 World Cup final, setting records for a game of soccer on TV in the States (according to Nielsen data). It is growing! And with growth, comes huge responsibility.

The Chosen Ones (why….I’m not sure?)

I feel sorry for any kid that may happen to turn on the TV and catch the Fox Football Phone In, a show presented by two Englishman, Steve Cohen and Nick Geber. I am 100% positive that these two gentlemen would never be allowed anywhere near a show over in Europe to comment on football.

Both sit and give their strong opinions on the game and neither of them have ever kicked a ball in their lives, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve never really watched one, judging by what they come out with. And yet, the following day, people who don’t know any better hear what they say and regurgitate the same old nonsense in their own footballing circles. It’s dangerously contagious.

Nick Webster is a regular, and it seems whenever you get comfortable to watch a game, he’s right there, like clockwork, telling us what is happening, what needs to be done, why this manager is doing things the wrong way and this player is not doing what he supposed to be doing and on and on. Mr Webster, another Englishman whom I don’t think would get anywhere near a football show in his homeland, is the Head Boy’s Soccer Coach of Windward High School (the height of his football experience).

Now, there is nothing wrong with this at all, I’m sure he’s great guy and he does a fantastic job with the kids. But, please, he has the power to affect the whole of the USA every time we turn on the TV to watch a game of football. Is this the best there is? A high school coach? And what type of standards are being set?

Been There and Done It

When you look at other sports, let’s say Tennis or Rugby for example; they always seem to have top ex professionals as pundits. People that have performed at the very highest level of that sport and have been successful. They’ve been there and done it. They have weight, experience and value in their opinion.

The highest footballing achievement of the former pundits I’ve mentioned, is what, a Youth Tournament, or a high school championship maybe, at best. Is that good enough? Is that good enough to be presenting and commenting on soccer, to this country? Why don’t we have real experts on TV?

So we look at soccer in America, and for the life of me, I cannot find anyone who has been there and done it at the very highest level. The best I could offer, at a real stretch, is Alexi Lalas, whom I think we can all flat out agree is not one of those. Christopher Sullivan played 52 league games in a ten year playing career for clubs most of us have never heard of, yet commentates weekly on most games, talking like he was Maradona!

Keith Costigan played in the United Soccer Leagues, second tier of American soccer, with the highlight of his career being a trial with the LA Galaxy, yet Mr Costigan is at the forefront of punditry on TV. I could go on and on. Is this good enough?

And Where’s the Character?

They all seem so afraid to say it exactly how it is, and exactly what is going on. It becomes quite obvious when you start listening to these guys and you soon notice, not just that they are incompetent when it comes to their subject, but what friends they have in the game. There’s no way they’ll say anything against them, whether players, coaches, clubs or whoever.

Shouldn’t we see pundits who know what they are talking about, that have experience? And not those who are afraid to say what’s needed, because they might upset someone, or they may bump into them at a party or a game the following night.

These are the chosen ones that are the face of soccer in this country and are educating everyone about the game in its youthful development at such a grand level.

Now for me, Brian Clough is one of my heroes and there are no way any of the names above should even have the right to be in the same article as this legend, but I have to say this. What he did as a manager was out of this world. Now there’s your experience.

And as a football pundit, he was phenomenal. He said it how it was. He saw things the way real football supporters saw them. People could relate. And he had personality. You learned about the game when he spoke. You learned about life when he spoke. He was honest. Clough was a one off; but we’re not even getting anywhere close with where we are now. In fact, we’re moving in the opposite direction.

Imposters in The Game….

When I first came to America, I was amazed at how, and I don’t want to say ignorant, but it’s the only word I can find to describe it; maybe uninformed, or lacking in knowledge is easier to stomach; but this was the response I got from the majority of people I spoke to surrounding the game – based purely on the fact that I had an English accent and therefore I ‘knew what I was talking about’.

It was, and is, amazing. Scarily amazing and yes, I have to say it…unbelievably ignorant! This naivety has almost caused an epidemic in the game out here.

Thankfully, Americans are more educated and are wising up to it now, but what I saw and still see is people on TV, coaches in clubs, working their way into nice little, cushy set ups, based upon the fact that they are from a different country and speak in a way that most Americans, blurt out ‘oh he’s from England, or Holland or Brazil, so he must know what he’s talking about.’ It is a disgrace that so many are draining the money out of the game, taking from un-informed, none-the wiser, bosses, parents and clubs.

I know if you’re a coach and your reading this, your either one of those and this makes you feel very uncomfortable right now, or you know many of these people taking from the game and it has to frustrate you too. This is getting away from the subject, only very slightly and it’s a whole separate problem that, if I get started I may get myself into trouble, but the country seems to be blinded by it.

Whether on TV or on the training ground, just because you are from a country like England, doesn’t mean that you know more about the game than people in this country, but unfortunately, that is how it is right now.
Too many people in the game, too many imposters, do nothing but take from it. And if we are in the game for the right reasons we have a responsibility to say something. So, what gives me the right to say all this? I’m certainly no expert when it comes to TV punditry. Why don’t I just leave the US if I feel this way?

Well, because I care about the game. I am a young professional football manager making my way in the game. I don’t yet have a list of statistics under my managerial record or big trophies and medals, but I can assure you – very soon I will!

But, the most important thing is, I care enough about football to want to voice a concern that I feel so very strongly about. I’m passionate about the game and on top of that I know what I’m talking about.

If I had a child growing up in America, and he loved the game the way I did as a kid, I would be very concerned about what he was hearing whenever he turned the TV on to watch a game football. I’d also be concerned with the qualifications and experience of the people doing the educating out on the field. And that’s not good for the future of this sport in America.

If only we could see a little further down the line, I wonder what direction this blinkered-going about our own business-type attitude, could take us in the years to come.

It’s been a funny week already, and it’s still only Wednesday. With the World Cup thankfully over, silly season is now fully upon us.

A quick look at Newsnow for the past 24 hours see us linked with no less than ten players; Torres, Aguero, Kaka, Alves, Coentrao, Suarez, Pazzini, Balotelli, Annan, and Lukaku. There are more…

The scattergun approach in selecting our potential transfer targets currently seen in the media is indicative of only one thing. That they certainly DON’T know, who we may yet sign.

However, the majority of us seem to recongise a shift in the transfer policy at Chelsea in recent years, away from the big signings and large spending sprees, towards sensible signings and working towards a budget, whilst reducing the overall age and cost of the squad.

Therefore we can discount Chelsea taking a ‘Man City’ type approach to signings this season, or for the foreseeable future. That said, the break even plan and recent departures do give us more of an indication of those who may be leaving, than those coming in.

Belletti is reported to have gone today, with Deco not far behind him, add to this Ballack and Joey Cole, and we’re looking at a saving already in the region of £300,000 per week, or £15 million a season, on players past their prime.

Then there are rumours who else may be leaving, there’s Carvalho, Deco, Ash Cole, Drogba, Hilario, and any one of a number of ‘failed’ youngsters soon to be shipped out the door too.

Incoming transfers are a different story however, and the press love to speculate more on us splashing the cash, than saving it.

Ancelotti is playing the clubs hand perfectly, with sound-bites that have the journo’s rushing to file headline copy the moment he mentions a players name, to us however, this is classic misdirection, and they are falling for it hook line and sinker.

All of our recent transfers have been quick, and without fuss, with little in terms of media ‘exclusives’ days before the deals are announced.

So who are we going to sign? Sadly we don’t know, but nor do the main stream press either.

We’ll all just have to wait and see.

Nasty, evil, vindictive, horrible and hated.

Funnily enough I’m not talking about Ashley Cole, but the red top rags that seems intent on driving him out of this country.

The worst offender by far is The Sun, who today today stoop to a new low, digging up old school reports on Ashley, in order to ‘show’ what a nasty man he is.

Not only is this publication a breach of the Press Complaints Commission’s Editors Code, the Sun have also broken the law in publishing it.

Obtaining personal information unlawfully is a crime, as is the subsequent publication of such information.

The PCC editors code states;

Section 3: Privacy.

i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.

ii) Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent. Account will be taken of the complainant’s own public disclosures of information.

Section 4: Harrassment.

i) Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.

iii) Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources.

If you too are as fed up with the witch-hunt as we are, led primarily by The Sun, and you wish to register your disgust at their conduct, then please join us in registering a complaint with the PCC.

We’ve registered ours, please do so too. It only takes ten minutes, and you can do so by visiting the PCC website here.

Football’s magic isn’t it? Yes, even during the close season.

Is it called the close season because everyone keeps their cards ‘close’ to their chest I wonder? Story after story, rumour after rumour. Very few pieces of hard fact.

And the scope for Fleet Street’s finest – oh sorry, you can’t call them that anymore can you? That would imply reporters’ gathering real news, informative journalism at its best; opinion and comment based on fact…. Aah, those were the days….

Now where was I? Oh yes, the scope for Fleet Street’s finest to do a spot of fantasy writing. So, the facts of the close season so far. What do we know? That is, KNOW, as in fact?

One or two minor to middling transfers have gone through already, and Carlo is holidaying at the same place as Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Neither Joe Cole nor the club have gone public about the player’s future, oh and Rafa and Liverpool have parted company.

And so, on the basis of “if yer can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, lets copy the press and see what house of cards we can make from those last two facts.

Rafa first. He didn’t look overly convinced at the end of last season, when he spouted the oft-used “I’ve got four years left on my contract” phrase, but I didn’t expect him to leave this soon. There’ve been many times during the George and Tom debacle when he could have, and perhaps should have, walked. But he had a close bond with the club and especially the fans, and so stayed. So why now?

Obviously something has happened behind the scenes to make him feel enough is enough, and given what he has put up with so far, that can mean only one thing.

Liverpool are drowning in an ocean of debt, and have been thrown a lifeline with offers for Ickle Stevie and Fernando Torres – and they have grabbed them with both hands. There is no way that Rafa would tolerate the sale of either of those two – and that may be the reason he has left the club so suddenly.

Now we all know ‘The Special One’ likes Gerrard, and I for one think he would do well under Jose, such is the Spanish league, he would have a maximum of three or four tough domestic games all season. The rest of the time he could show off his undoubted talent. Coupled with alleged domestic strife, my feeling is that he would welcome a move and he’ll go.

So what of Torres? Is our reported interest in Benayoun and Mascherano just a clever smokescreen for a behind-the-scenes bid for one of the best strikers in the world? Get the deal done quickly George, avoid the fan’s backlash and get the cash! Right you are, Tom.

And Joey? Well, I don’t know. Chelsea like to go about things quietly, behind closed doors, with the minimum of fuss. So while the club are sealing their deals with Torres, Ibrahimovic or whoever may be wearing the famous blue next season, the press are diverted and enthralled by the smoke and mirrors of Joey’s on-off, will he-won’t he saga.

With those deals complete, Joe Cole’s part in the ploy is over and he signs with us again. The ruse is a success, and the magic complete!

It’s all up in the air at the moment, and that’s the way it should be. Devious manoeuvres by clubs and agents, sleight of hand, trickery and misdirection …. they all serve to divert attention from where the real action is.

And that really is magic.

As someone who has followed Chelsea Football Club for a considerable period of time, I find myself in a strange and unfamiliar land.

There was a time when one had to buy half a dozen papers on Sunday and then spend lunchtime down the local hunched over a hair-of-the-dog Stella trying to find something interesting about our beloved and at times, somewhat beleaguered club.

My, how times have changed. Ne’er a day goes by without something being written about Chelsea in the papers. What’s changed though is that nowadays people actually appear to hate us. We’ve never been liked of course, something that many of us wear as a badge of honour. It may be hard to swallow, but it means we’ve arrived.

Our cousins down under will be familiar with this phenomenon; it’s called Tall Poppy Syndrome. The term itself is around two thousand years old, being accredited to a Roman tyrant named Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, who on receiving a request from his all conquering son on what to do next, took a stick and swept it across his garden, cutting off the heads of the tallest poppies growing there.

The messenger took this to a be a symbolic gesture and reported back to Tarquinius’ son, Sextus, who upon receiving the message took it to mean that he should put to death the most eminent of the people of the ancient city of Gabii. If you made it this far, here endeth the history lesson.

In summary, someone who suffers Tall Poppy Syndrome is generally over-critical or downright envious of another’s social or economic standing. Why this syndrome should be particularly attributed to our Australian descendants I have no idea, because don’t we in this country also love to back the underdog? Don’t the press in this country have a nasty tendency to lionize celebrity and success only, at the first available opportunity, to attempt to shoot the individual down in flames?

Yes they do, we see it every day. We’re living it right now as fans of the champions, both incumbent and elect, of the Premier League. In spite of this obvious envy demonstrated by the press, our so-called rival club’s fans and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, I’m not about to excuse their behaviour, there’s simply no point in trying to deal with something that is so deeply ingrained in their behaviour that it has become endemic. In short, there’s simply too much of this shit to wade through, isn’t there?

The biggest problem with it is that none of these people are prepared to be held accountable for their comments or actions. For example: when was the last time you heard of a newspaper retracting obvious untruths? When was the last time you heard a newspaper apologise for taking a Premier League manager’s comments out of context and printing them in such a manner as to make them appear more arrogant than they already are? Quite, it simply won’t happen, because Chelsea Football Club once again is in the minority, but this time for very different reasons.

The next time you feel the need to get into an argument with a foetus-worshipping scouser, or something written in the papers makes your blood boil so much that you fire off a soon-to-be-regretted email from ‘Apoplectic with Rage of Battersea’, take a few seconds out. Take a deep breath, and then smile.

Think carefully about how well we’re doing at the moment, think about how well we’ve done over the last few years. If you weren’t smiling before you should be now, because it doesn’t get much better than this. I’m living the dream here; after almost forty years I’m looking down on the rest of the top flight teams in England and abroad, and it makes me smile.

Remember, this can’t last forever, so enjoy it. I really mean enjoy it; revel in it, embrace it and save all that joy for the next time some half-wit rival fan has a pop. All you then have to do is smile, remind them that all the while we’re making history and breaking records, their so-called history accounts for naught.

Remember how long you’ve waited for this day, then smile again and walk on by.

Carefree!