TheChels.net – All Articles
Chelsea’s Under-21s will begin the defence of their Barclays Under-21 Premier League title at home to Manchester City. In a repeat of the first ever fixture played in the ‘new’ Under-21 league back in 2012, the Blues will take on the team they edged on penalties in the Semi Final stage of last year’s competition as they open up the new campaign with a marquee fixture. It will be played…
One of the biggest issues in football in recent years has been the emergence of the “brand”. Whether this applies to an individual, as in “Brand Beckham” (arguably the first brand of its kind), or a club, the brand, and potential damage thereto, is often cited at the first hint of trouble. When Luis Suarez was sent off for this third snack on an opponent, he was immediately dubbed “toxic”…
Chelsea’s first team may have to wait until Wednesday to get their pre-season schedule of fixtures underway but their junior counterparts at Cobham are well and truly back in the swing of things as the first Saturday of the new campaign brought about a return to action for the Under-18 and Under-21 teams. Both sides are under new management for 2014-15 with Adi Viveash stepping up to replace Dermot Drummy…
It’s early July, which means it’s once again time to welcome a bunch of new faces into the Chelsea academy as the 2014-15 class of first-year scholars officially begin full-time work at the Cobham academy. How new they are to you however will be determined by how often you tuned into their FA Youth Cup winning campaign last season, and in reality, the full-time work has long since been a…
With the World Cup hurtling towards its conclusion more and more days of the week have become freed up with no live football to watch. Attentions have duly turned towards the return of club football for 2014-15 and whilst Chelsea’s first team aren’t set to return until Monday, the younger generation are already back and raring to go. At this time of year the potential stars of the future can…
I was doing the ironing last Sunday afternoon. No, don’t laugh. And whilst doing the ironing I was listening to Test Match Special, the perfect accompaniment. During the tea-break, there was a segment called Ask Swanny, in which the former England spin bowler Graeme Swann answered questions submitted by listeners, many of which came via Twitter. The session was such a success that it carried on into the evening session, and one…
Late June during a World Cup summer might seem an unusual time to be catching up on Chelsea loanees but the 2013-14 club season in Spain extended well into the summer as two Blues youngsters went in search of promotion. The playoffs in both the Segunda Division and the remarkably unforgiving Segunda B structure called for a long and tiring schedule, but one which ultimately successful in both cases. For…
A quiet Tuesday evening in June. The nation awaits the next instalment of World Cup games later that night and the publication of the fixture list for next season the following day. Then, out of the blue, a statement is published on the Chelsea FC website announcing that Roman Abramovich has commissioned a “study of the area from Fulham Broadway town centre to Stamford Bridge and beyond … This study will…
The last few years have seen an interesting shift in how footballers and managers are prepared to be openly critical in their feelings for certain clubs. There was a time when you’d never see a footballer criticise another club in print, with the result that the press would magnify what was simply a polite answer such as “Barcelona are a fantastic club and have great players” into “PLAYER X SET…
As you may or may not have seen from other media sources, the results of the Safe Standing Survey, carried out by a number of websites, fanzines and supporters’ groups, have now been published. You can read the full report here, together with the thoughts of CST Chairman Tim Rolls, but the headlines are:- Over 96% of Chelsea supporters surveyed are in favour of implementing Safe Standing at Stamford Bridge 90% stated…