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One of Chelsea’s poorest performances at reserve team level in 2011-12 saw the Blues fall to a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Arsenal on Monday lunchtime. A team featuring just two of the eleven which beat Fulham last time out failed to impose themselves on a more experienced Arsenal eleven and goals in either half from Chuks Aneke and Hector Bellerín secured three points for Neil Banfield’s Gunners….
Shortly before Christmas, off the back of a poor run but following qualification for the last 16 of the CL, this column wondered if the season could turn out to be something special (see Special Ones Too). And it certainly has, but not in a good way. A slew of defeats, players who don’t seem to be bothered about putting in a shift but are only too happy to collect…
Gael Kakuta has been front and centre in The Loan Report for much of 2012 and the young Frenchman continued his fine spell at Dijon this week with another goal. Kakuta’s fourth strike of his brief stay in Burgundy had threatened to cause a major upset as the hosts led table-topping Montpellier, but a late equaliser deprived Patrice Carteron’s side of all three points. The game offered little to write…
Chelsea’s Under-18s staged the latest in an impressive series of comebacks on Saturday morning to earn a point against Tottenham Hotspur. The Blues found themselves two goals down at the break and whilst they weren’t quite able to finish the turnaround, second half strikes by Lewis Baker and Ismail Seremba saw them take a deserved share of the spoils. Some regular faces from the youth cup run were absent ahead…
“They seek him here/they seek him there/those Frenchies seek him everywhere/Is he in heaven?/Or is he in hell?/The demn’d elusive Pimpernel” The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Emma Orczy The arrival of The Special One in London this week on a not so secret visit has sparked a frenzy of speculation amongst the media, who are linking him with not only every post at the top end of English club management…
Chelsea’s 2012 summer excursions will take them to the United States as they prepare for the 2012-13 season. The Blues return stateside for the first time since 2009, having remained in central Europe during 2010 and touring Asia last summer. Early reports indicate that matches will be played in Washington (D.C.), New York and Seattle during the second half of July. It remains to be seen exactly how many of…
Ian Ridley’s “There’s A Golden Sky” is about as wide ranging and comprehensive a look at the state of football today as it is possible to cram into 260 odd pages. Ridley writes extensively on football with a style that is fluent, lucid and very easy to read and this, his latest book, is both fascinating and informative. Ridley’s first book, “Seasons In The Cold” written all of twenty years…
Chelsea have been linked with a move for fifteen year-old Colombian striker Joao Rodriguez according to reports in South America this week. The forward, who will turn 16 in May, is amongst the most prolific goalscorers in his age group in the entire continent and particularly caught the eye of Blues scouts last November, when he scored four times in the Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-15. That was the latest in a…
The recent hive of activity on the loan front cooled somewhat in the last seven days and the latest instalment of The Loan Report is, as a consequence, a much lower key affair. Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had the highest profile week of anyone temporarily away from Stamford Bridge as he first kept a clean sheet for Atlético Madrid against Lazio to see Los Colchoneros into the last sixteen of…
After coming back to win from three goals down on Wednesday night at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea played the role of comeback kids once again on Saturday morning as a brace from Amin Affane and a late winner from Patrick Bamford saw them twice come from behind to win 3-2 at Arsenal. First half strikes from Josh Rees and Anthony Jeffrey had Steve Bould’s side in the ascendancy but the Blues…