Chelsea Quick Fix #4

So. New close season, new manager for Chelsea Football Club. Or so thats the way things seem to occur at Stamford Bridge these days. Chelsea's fifth manager in five years will have much pressure on his shoulders. The man who will follow in the foosteps of Jose Mourinho, Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti.

  



At first glance he seems to be the perfect fit for Chelsea. Young, budding manager, Portuguese and having just led Porto to a domestic treble in his homeland. As Mourinho did...

But lets take a look at the evidence....

Historically, but certainly more recently, Chelsea have had a precursor to attacking managers, but one way or another they have all ended up becoming increasingly negative. Take Mourinho for example. In his first season Chelsea seemed to be scoring goals for fun. seemingly without care. However in the second and particuarly third years of his tenure in southwest London, he seemed to opt for a more defensive style, with Lampard and Makelele holding back. By the time Mourinhos time was called by Roman Abramovich, his side was struggling for goals and points.

Scolari was similar. Although he had far less time to make a real impact, after the initial honeymoon period was over, the goals dried up. and he went. Ancelotti in a similar vein. Despite many already handing the title to Chelsea last November, a mere 3 months into the season..

Andre Vilas Boas, as mentioned, comes to the blues on the back of a hugely successful season with Porto FC; Portuguese league champions, domestic champions and finally Uefa Europa League champions, beating fellow countrymen Braga. During the season, Porto scored 136 goals in all competitions, conceded only        

25 and had 7 men sent off.

That I feel doesnt tell the story. In the last part of the campaign, when they and their strike force came to my attention more, whenever i watched them, they seemed pretty suspect at the back. They also did score more goals than they did though; the old Real Madrid philosophy. The combination of a front three combining the Columbian Radamel Falcao, Brazilian Hulk and the Portuguese Varela was more than sufficient to compensate for the lack of a defensive nouse.

This is my problem with the appointment. I really like Boas. He is a very talented guy. He speaks fluent english, thanks to his english grandmther and his time working under Jose Mourinho but also Sir Bobby Robson, for a time at Ipswich in the early 2000's. He is a great coach. BUT he is a very attacking style of manager, which has put Chelsea in trouble in the past. My concern is that he may score more than concede in the early stages but with a goal shy Fernando Torres of late and a Frank Lampard out of sorts, is there anyone who can really lead the team in the way Villas Boas wants?

There is talk of him bringing Falcao and Moutinho (a player who i very much rate) to the London club and there will undoubtedly be a real Portuguese and therefore Brazilian flavour to the side, with Luiz, Alex, Ferreira and Ramires already in situe.

I just cant help but feel this another move by the ever flaky Peter Kenyon to get the success that he and Chelsea crave, most pertinently the Champions League


something even Jose Mourinho failed to do.....Jurys out........  

Transfer Ramblings...

evening. its been over a week since my last post. well things have been a bit hectic, and then all of a sudden not so; i digress.....

Lets begin the Jordan Henderson (above). without question a talented player. But 20m? from Sunderland. hes has a breakthrough season for the Black Cats, and is now a mainstream of the England Under 21 set up. I cant help thinking though that Henderson is a above average sized fish in a medium sized pond....

Now Phil Jones; he impressed me very much for Blackburn in his first full season until injury sidelined him for the last 6 months. 17m is the fee this time. similar money, similar quality player, perhaps slightly better. but this guy is just 19 years old. thats almost one million pounds for every years hes been alive. im sorry thats not right.

Other transfers across europe that have caught my beady eye include,

Andrea Pirlo: AC Milan to Juventus (free)
Philippe Mexes: AS Roma to AC Milan (free)
Yohann Cabaye: Lille to Newcastle
Miroslav Klose: Bayern Munich to Lazio

more to come....

Beautiful Barca...

afternoon. before I get on to what i thought of last saturday nights exploits at Wembley, check out the highlights for yourself: Queen to boot...



I have to be honest here. prior to the final, I was a bit torn...

Despite loathing Man Utd as I do, essentially due in no small part, to their moronic, idiotic, neanderthal fans, I was of the view nonetheless, after watching Barcelona's three recent outings versus their great spanish adversaries, Real Madrid - in which much of their personnel cheated and dived all over the field and generally behaved disgracefully - together with my bitterness of our (only short) shortcomings versus Barca, not to mention a certain scandalous Van Persie red, I felt a slight, slight persuasion towards United.


Thankfully, after just 5 minutes those feeling went out the window. I think it was the sight of Wayne Rooney's aesthetic features, (i cant be sure)...From the off, the beautiful encapsulating side of the Spanish champions came to the fore. Slick, graceful, elegant; everything good about them. It was clear, right from the outset, that United would be chasing shadows from large portions of the game.

Even so, after 25 minutes it reamined goalless and my thoughts began to come to pass; Utd could soak up the pressure and break on the counter. Then though, with 27 minutes elapsed, David Villa released Pedro Rodriguez into yards of space on the right of the penalty area. The (other) diminuitive forward kept his composure and gave Barcelona the lea with a placement low into Van Der Sar's  corner of the net.

For which I celebrated...

In the conflab, Nemanja Vididc appeared to be asking questions of who was marking Pedro. But Evra was well off the pace. For the next 10 minutes or so Barca dominated possession, with the Red Devils seemingly clueless as to what to do about the claret and gold tide.

Until, out of nothing, a glimpse; a throw in from Ryan Giggs, to whom Wayne Rooney made a nice interchange to set Rooney out wide, passing infield to Giggs, in turn allowing Rooney to switch over and the welshman to supply a beautiful weighted pass a Rooney to send an effortless curling shot into Victor Valdes' top left hand corner.

The red half of Wembley went berserk. This highlighted my fear of what could happen. Before the game my chief concern was Javier Hernandez and how Gerard Pique, but particularly his namesake, Mascherano would handle him. In my opinion 'Chicharito' is the most unique striker in European football currently. In this game however he was largely anonymous throughtout proceedings. Indeed, Rooney's goal was the high point for Manchester United.

As the second half began, Barca seemed to double their work rate, certainly upping the tempo, at least offensively speaking. Predictably then - but perhaps earlier than postulated - Barcelona regained the lead on 50 minutes....Who Else....

LIONEL MESSI. Magic Messi. There are simply not enough superlatives to describe this man. Now was the time for his moment of inspiration to come. Slightly outside the penalty area, the little magician collected the ball and then proceeded to feint Michael Carrick and then, with little or no backlift, lash an effort, but which - and I have to say - was not unstoppable. For me Van Der Sar was at fault.

Regardless, Barcelona's players celebrated with extravagant jubilation, indeed it was the Messi's first goal on English soil, which is quite extraordinary. That would appear to be his only taboo subject. Or at least was...

No. Messi aint no pony....(thanks Ol ;))

From then on the game was not far short of a procession. United's defence was constantly overrun,erhaps lacking another man in midfield, characterised bu David Villa's third and clinching goal, delightfully curling into Edwin Van Der Sar's top right hand corner.

The game was done.....Xavi was his usual sublime self. Andres Iniesta was almost invisible the way he in and out of the game. Pique was nothing short of a tyrant in the Spaniards engine room. Abidal, who I am not the greatest fan of, was exemplary. Yes for an average player; let alone someone fresh off the operating table for a brain tumour. Extraordinary. It was a nice touch for Guardiola to give him the captains armband.

Well Done Barca.....now get your mitts of our players....except Denilson..