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With the release of the coming seasons fixtures announced this morning, it seems the good old fixture computer has given us a nice start to the season, and a none to friendly finish, on paper at least. Now we’re old enough and wise enough to know full well that football is played on grass, and not paper, yet our opening run of games looks straightforward enough, starts with West Brom,…
Dario Gradi announced Monday that Crewe Alexandra were taking a Chelsea reserve team goalkeeper on loan over the summer with the view to an extended loan move. That player turned out to be Welsh Under-21 stopper Rhys Taylor, and as he prepares to join the Railwaymen for pre-season, he kicks off what is sure to be another busy campaign of temporary moves. Last season saw nineteen different players involved in…
Chelsea Football Club have thirteen representatives at the imminent FIFA World Cup in South Africa, this despite having another three miss the showpiece through injury and the fourth under an injury cloud. It is England, appropriately, who has the highest number of Chelsea representatives. They are Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Chelsea captain John Terry and Joe Cole, who will be released at the end of June. England is in Group…
It had been expected, but it still came as a disappointment when it was confirmed. Miroslav Stoch confirmed on his official website this afternoon that he has agreed a four-year deal with Turkish giants Fenerbahçe and will join the club after the World Cup. The Turkish league runners-up had announced the contract news earlier in the day. The news is a particularly bitter pill to swallow for followers of the…
Joe Cole arrived at Chelsea in the summer of 2003 for a £6.6 Million fee from West Ham Utd. Signed by Claudio Ranieri as part of what was then, a dramatic change in the playing staff, after the arrival of new owner Roman Abramovich earlier that summer. When Jose Mourinho took over in 2004 and implemented an attacking 4-3-3 system that saw his wide men run riot – Joe was…
The current manager of Chelsea, having been appointed on 1 June 2009, during his first season in charge he led the club to the League & FA Cup Double, becoming the first Chelsea manager to achieve the feat, and the first Italian manager to win the Premier League title. Carlo opened the season with a penalty shoot-out win over Man Utd in the Community Shield, ending a hoodoo of several…
Michael Ballack scored 17 goals from 105 league games whilst at Chelsea and scored 27 in 167 games in all competitions since joining in 2006 on a free transfer from Bayern Munich. On the 27 August 2006, Ballack earned his English League début for Chelsea against Blackburn Rovers. In making his UEFA Champions League début for Chelsea against Werder Bremen on the 12 September 2007, Ballack scored his first goal…
Suddenly, Chelsea’s first team squad is a whole lot lighter as Wednesday saw the confirmed departure of Joe Cole, Juliano Belletti, and Michael Ballack. With the club’s apparent new policy of both getting tough on wages and reducing the average age of the side well and truly underway, we’re very much interested in the second part. It opens up three first-team squad berths, and with both Deco and Paulo Ferreira…
Juliano Belletti joined Chelsea on the 23rd of August 2007, when the club officially announced a three-year contract, signing from Barcelona for an undisclosed fee. He made his Premier League debut for Chelsea on the 25th August 2007 when he came on as a substitute in the 64th minute against Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge. He made his first start for away at Aston Villa. Following the departure of Jose Mourinho,…
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…