The Special-Needs-One

[chatterji]

Not since watching Wendy Taylor in Ben Dover's classic have I enjoyed a come-upance as much as last night.

I pray that Barca have finished Chelsea in Europe for this season. Wonderful to see a true flair side come out on top.

I cannot stand what CFC has made football into. No matter what they win, it's all worthless. Their only achievement is snagging a billionaire who's happy to launder his money in the UK. By this I am not of course implying any financial impropriety, merely that Roman likes to put his cash into a washing machine, full of Persil, so that the coins come out gleaming.

[diplodocus]

the sending off and the subsequent maoning about cheating really made me laugh, if there was ever a case of 'what goes around' this is it.
pity it wasn't Robben who was on the receiving end

on a side note i'm surprised Robben isn't going to be out for a year after his 'assault' by Reina, he looked in a lot more pain than Alan Smith did the other day!!

[MegaTon]

spot on, diplodocus!

[eduardo]

I agree in that I really don't see back to back League wins after having spent ?285m in the transfer market as much of an achievement.

However we better get used to it because if Abramovich stays around for a long time (and I believe he will) and is prepared to spend ?60m plus every summer on players then Chelsea will almost certainly keep winning the Premier Lge year in year out.

As for Morinho's comments about Lionel Messi then I heard a good quote today which was "Personally I don't know what the Catalan is for cheating. I'd prefer to know what the Portuguese is for hypocrite".

The last bit says it all.

I don't hate Morinho. When he first came here I thought he was a breath of fresh air as he broke up the cartel of Fergie and Wenger but (like last nights comments) he's proved that he can talk complete twaddle with the best of them.

[jaybo]

I think it's the down side to foreign players , i know some are really talented players but the falling over bit is lame compared to some of the english players , would the likes of Gerrard or Smith been rolling around like that if it was them ? no look at Reyes in madrid rolled back onto the pitch , so much for fair play . The ref' kept letting barca' number 23 keep tackling Robben from behind and never even booked him , i'm not a chelsea fan by the way . JJ .

[fudgeflaps]

The good thing abut Mourinho is that he now makes Hairdryer and Wenger at their most bitter seem like good losers.

As for Chelsea spending/ football policy in general....they have contaminated the game of football. The situation is analogous to playing a football management game on cheat mode- with infinite money. The machine that is Chelsea is not dominant through football, but via a bottomless chequebook; Abramovic gets his own way, by hook or by crook- he has manipulated Russian politics, pulled nefarious stunts to acquire significant oil and aluminium stakes- the guy is a capitalist, exploitative gangster. I'm glad Shevchenko recognises he doesn't want to be part of football's mafia, I hope Eto has similar sense and doesn't sell out and become a highest-wage-in-his-postion-on-the-planet lifer.

And the Chelsea fans chant his name, sucking the cock of a false god. Are there any fans actually from Chelsea?? The club has NO identity anymore: with a none-the-wiser toffee-nosed cosmopolitan crowd and fly-by-night just-recently-on-the-bandwagon halfwits, Chelsea FC are the game of football's in-joke. We all ridiculed Man Utd for the same thing- now Cheatsea FC are thrice as bad.

Sad.

But true.

[Ace]

Before anyone starts to berate them, lets just clear a few things up........
I thought the score was a fair result, not that 11 v 10 didn't help....but I, as well as many other fans, didn't like the underhand tactics Chelsea went to to have the pitch looking an absolute disgrace.....so that did come back and bite us on the arse.
Secondly, I readily admit that Robbens 'dive' against Liverpool was a disgrace, and many forumites on the OFFICIAL chelsea website thought as much, so for Messin diving to have Del Horno sent off was again, retribution as far as Im concerned..........admittedly, the ref had one look and on first impression, it was a hard challenge.......but thats history now.
Next up, we missed Essien, but he was banned for a nasty challenge that at the time, didn't go punished, so again, fair enough, he got charged after the game and subsequently misses the next Barca match.........again, no complaints from me.
I found the substitutions a little strange, I wouldn't have sacrificed Joe Cole, and I certainly wouldn't have swapped Crespo for Drogba.
Over the 2 legs, Barca will win it, no doubts about it.
For Mourinho to be classed as a whiner is a little harsh. He has an on going fight with the most corrupt official ever in Sepp Blatter, and subsequently, feels UEFA are out to undermine anything he says or does.
Finally, again, I think there should be a cap on how much you should be able to spend on players in a season. I'm not a fan of what Chelsea HAS become of late, especially as real fans like myself cannot get a ticket anymore.

[fudgeflaps]

I was a bit too vitriolic about your beloved club, Ace.

As you say, though, it is an indictment on your club that the real fans, like yourself, can't get reasonably priced tickets, or tickets in general. It's a pity tickets aren't awarded in terms of passion for the team, instead of the size of one's wallet- there are too many toff-business types who have to be SEEN to be watching 'the game' as opposed Blue-blooded hardcore fans who would die to be there.

[chatterji]

How do you see the cap working though?

I quite like the idea of draft picks, like they have in the States with the NFL. Crap teams get to choose the cream of those players about to turn pro, or they can sell their draft option to a richer club. It spreads talent and money around. I think it'd work well in The Prem.

[eduardo]

.......but would it work well with the EU and their employment laws.

I very much doubt it and somebody would be shouting restraint of trade very quickly.