Michael Essien made his first appearance in a Chelsea shirt for over six months and scored what turned out to be the winner, in the seasons first pre-season match, against Crystal Palace. The afternoon didn’t get off to the best of starts for Essien who accidentally injured a child with an off target shot during the warm up. Putting the incident aside, Essien, one of only four recognised first team…
Under-18s: Chelsea 1-2 Plymouth
The World Cup is all well and good, but normal service has resumed. Domestic football is back, not only at first team level, but in the Under-18 team. Whilst Carlo Ancelotti’s boys were stretching their legs at Crystal Palace, Dermot Drummy’s youth team opened their pre-season with a closely-fought defeat at the hands of a talented Plymouth Argyle outfit. Drummy chose to operate with a squad of 22 players, who…
Blues Visit Palace
Chelsea’s first pre-season game of the 2010-11 season comes this weekend by way of a trip to Crystal Palace. Bucking the trend of previous seasons in keeping the tours to the UK and Europe, Chelsea’s campaign will see the lads play away matches against Ajax, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Hamburg, before meeting Manchester United in the Community Shield. But to Selhurst Park we head first, a short trip to the deep…
Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
Going on loan has become almost a rite of passage for the developing footballer. He makes his way through the youth team ranks, impresses in his late teens, and then looks to bridge the gap to the first team by taking in a temporary spell at a professional team, pitting his wits against fully grown adults. A cursory glance at the England World Cup squad reveals that eleven of them…
So Who Are We Going To Sign?
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…
Leave Ashley Alone
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…
Introducing Tomáš Kalas
A few weeks ago, Chelsea’s latest signing Tomáš Kalas gave an interview to deník.cz in his native country. The 17 year-old defender, capable of playing at centre-back or full-back, impressed during the summer’s European Under-17 Championships and sealed a move to Chelsea in June, with most media outlets breaking the story on Wednesday. As a means of introducing him to his new fans, here’s the interview transcribed. You must be…
Blues Capture Kalas
Chelsea have signed highly rated 17 year old Czech defender Tomas Kalas from Sigma Olomouc, for a reported £5 million. Kalas however, will not be joining up with the club until 2011, as he’s been loaned back to Olomouc for the coming season as part of the deal. Neil Bath spoke today, confirming the transfer and also giving his opinion on the latest Czech player to join the club. “Tomas…
Mesca Joins Chelsea…At Least, We Think So
Every so often, you get a youth team signing which is largely unannounced, and generally lacking in great detail. It’s the nature of the beast – clubs are understandably protective of their young, and of their actions at academy level. However, news always eventually comes to light, and after a few months of uncertainty as to the strength of claims in the Portuguese media, it would seem that Chelsea have…
Torres Rumours Gather Pace
I’m not one for idle gossip, especially in the badlands of the transfer silly season, however one story has been doing the rounds for the duration of the World Cup, and has gathered pace aplenty today. Yes, Torres to Chelsea seems to be the story on every hacks laptop right now, with rumours of Roman jetting out to the World Cup to talk personally with him, about a deal that…