I’m confused… It used to all be so simple, clubs would have an owner, a board, a sponsorship deal that slapped a logo of some sorts in the middle of our kits. Add to that a squad of players assembled one way or another, who generally did what the bloke on the side-lines in a tracksuit with his initials on them shouted out. From the then newly established Premier League,…
Andreas Christensen played the full ninety minutes for Chelsea in their surprise FA Cup defeat at the hands of Bradford on Saturday. He did well regardless of the result, as he did in the League Cup tie at Shrewsbury earlier this season. Remarkably though, he was only the second academy player to start an FA Cup tie against an opponent from the third tier or below in the last ten…
For most of the Stamford Bridge faithful, the real start of the season will come at the weekend, when Chelsea play Leicester in their first home Premier League game. For 4,000 lucky (and hardy) souls, the trip to Burnley on Monday night was made well worth their while by a sparkling 3-1 win, with the Master of Cesc winning plaudits from pundits and fans alike, and the big beast Costa…
Well, that wasn’t too bad. Thanks to the World Cup and an early pre-season opportunity to watch the boys in blue, compared to other years the close season has positively fled. And that can only mean one thing. TheChels.Net’s resident Old Crone, Gypsy Rose Baby, looks into her crystal ball to predict the future and also looks back to last year’s predictions. Arsenal The spreadsheetists and latteistas have been bigging…
We’re now heading towards the 2014/2015 football season with all the speed of Usain Bolt trying to get away from Glasgow. The summer’s main sporting occasions are behind us, and pre-season friendlies are beginning to dominate the sport pages. And at TheChels.Net, we’ve been keeping up with not just pre-season matches, but supporter-orientated events taking place. Pre-season Travels With The Chels There was a rare opportunity for supporters to attend…
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”…
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…
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…
The football season may be over, but over the summer there’ll be a trickle of events that will keep the denizens of SW6 in touch with each other. The Chelsea Supporters Tournament will be held in early July, some low-key pre-season friendlies at Wycombe Wanderers and AFC Wimbledon will provide relief to those desperate for a footy fix, and, even more importantly, the Fans Summit, organised jointly by the Football…