Chelsea 1 – 2 Liverpool: Mourinho outwits himself as his wingless wonders fall to earth
Losing to Liverpool is much like a trip to the dentist. Irritating and occasionally painful, but you can take comfort in the knowledge that the experience is over fairly quickly and doesn’t happen that often anyway.
It says much about the power of football that in the 21st century the game has created a new and previously inexplicable emotional state; disappointment at not being able to spend a day in Cardiff. But possibly the only thing stranger than a slight feeling of envy at a convoy of caravans spending several hours stranded on the M4 in May was Jose’s team selection on Saturday evening.
As fans we spend much of our footballing lives in the smug, uncluttered hinterland known as hindsight, but the Chelsea team sheet presented on Saturday was nearly as baffling as the original Ronaldo-less piece of paper that appeared before the World Cup final in 1998.
What on earth is he playing at? Ferreira in midfield? No wingers? Essien at the point of the diamond? Has Claudio staged some sort of military coup and seized control of the changing room while Mourinho is gaffer-taped up in a locker somewhere?
Further debate on the assignment of roles and formations could rage for days but in truth the outcome is usually the same; when tactical switches work the manager is lauded as a visionary but when they fail he is a tinkering buffoon. Gameplan not working? Make substitutions after twenty minutes and you’re rash and impetuous, leave it for an hour and you’re stubborn and egotistical. Such is the life of Jose Mourinho.
The line-up was picked with a specific plan in mind and looked fairly strange to the average Chelsea fan, but it was arguably no stranger than the team named against West Ham recently. Both selections were about as easy to understand as Jamie Carragher reading a takeaway menu in Latin over a Network Rail PA, but while one worked spectacularly (even with ten men) and sent a message to our closest rivals that we weren’t about to concede the title, the other didn’t and cost us the chance of a Double. Funny. Old. Game.
As is often the case with Chelsea v. Liverpool games you brace yourself for what seems like days of goalless tedium, viewing anything else as a bonus above and beyond the usual football equivalent of a beer and tranquilisers cocktail. Thankfully, the opening exchanges hinted at a contest more likely to entertain than many of the previous encounters.
Chelsea started brightly, creating two chances for Drogba in the opening fifteen minutes. The first came from a Crespo flick which arrived at such pace the Ivorian probably knew little about it when heading wide, the second a glorious (and wrongly called onside) chance from the edge of the area which he pushed wide of the oncoming Reina and the post. But the chances were coming.
Despite the positives the sight of Harry Kewell skipping up and down the flanks was becoming more ominous as time passed. Both Geremi and Del Horno were frequently left chasing shadows which subsequently dragged Makelele out of position to cover, disrupting our natural game and allowing Liverpool a foothold in midfield.
With twenty minutes on the clock, the main pre-requisite of any Chelsea v. Liverpool contest reared its ugly head – the controversial refereeing decision. Terry and Luis Garcia challenged for the ball just outside the area; the Chelsea captain won it cleanly only for Graham Poll to inexplicably award Liverpool a free kick. Poll, one of the most mediocre referees in the game clearly didn’t want to be outdone by Mourinho in terms of bizarre decisions made.
Like Jose, we might point to the decision making as the reason for our exit from the FA Cup but we would be wrong to do so. This does not alter the fact that (supposedly) one of the country’s top officials put in a largely poor performance in terms of the key decisions he was asked to make.
If the decision was bad, the Chelsea wall was worse and far more culpable in terms of our downfall. It looked to have been constructed by a builder slightly less competent than the one currently scratching his head and mumbling “at least another six months, mate…” under the arch at the new Wembley stadium. Lampard and Ferreira were confused by the interplay between Riise and Gerrard and parted like a pair of moody teenagers; the ball sailed through the gap and left Cudicini completely stranded. 1-0 Liverpool and the ominous feeling that whatever we might think of them, the Red Scousers are very similar to Chelsea in that they don’t give up leads easily.
If the initial team selection had provided the surprise, the removal of Del Horno at half time was as predictable as the Liverpool fans singing about history. Ferreira to left back with Robben ahead of him. At the very least it looked a little more like a Chelsea team that might do some damage.
Within minutes the Dutchman looked to have made the difference. His free kick from the right was met by Terry who, temporarily using Riise as a piece of ginger scaffolding, headed the Blues level. But in his second crucial (and probably more accurate) decision of the game Poll indicated otherwise, with the relative lack of complaint from Terry and his team mates speaking volumes. A nagging doubt and the feeling that it might be one of ‘those’ days crept in.
Then as is the way of things, sod’s law struck the killer blow. Ferriera and Gallas both missed headers from a Liverpool throw which left Luis Garcia free to float the ball home from twenty yards. 2-0 Liverpool and the Double was rapidly becoming a single.
The line that divided the teams from there onwards was fairly thin. Mourinho removed Crespo and Geremi for Duff and Cole, switched to three at the back and finally went at Liverpool. Benitez countered and bizarrely made a change that aided Chelsea’s cause and on another day might have proved to be his undoing. The removal of the often maligned Peter Crouch for Djibril Cisse proved how valuable England’s beanpole is to Liverpool’s game. Cisse may have the pace to punish a team pushing forward, but without Crouch’s aerial presence, ability to retain possession and distribute to the midfield Liverpool found that their hopeful balls forward were coming back at an alarming rate.
With twenty minutes remaining and the pressure on Liverpool building, it was Riise’s turn to fluff a defensive header. Drogba beat Reina to the ball as it fell and nodded into an empty net. 2-1 with enough time left for us to hope; easily the worst thing about being a football fan in such situations.
With the injured Kewell replaced by Traore, Chelsea attacked in numbers for prolonged periods in search an equaliser and extra time. The dying seconds summed up the unpredictability of the FA Cup that makes it both fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Robben chipped the ball into the box and found Joe Cole six yards out with the goal gaping; the collective breath was held only to be exhaled in frustration a split second later as Joe fired into the stands. Last season it was Gudjohnsen at Anfield, this year Cole at Old Trafford; game over.
The aftermath of the game provided more soundbites and sparring for the media to feast upon. Mourinho’s assertion that in the Premiership marathon Chelsea are Felix Limo to Liverpool’s Jade Goody is a fair one as there was little on display to suggest that the league table is inaccurate. The Benitez-driven Anfield renaissance may allow Liverpool to challenge for cups but over the course of the season they have fallen some way short of a credible title challenge, a fact that the Spaniard himself acknowledged.
While opposites attract, the similarity between the two managers might go some way to explaining the fractious atmosphere that develops when the two Iberians lock horns. Both are alike in terms of their cautious, thoughtful and often defensive football that is more about a hard work and a solid team ethic than flair and brilliant individuals. The reporting of football is built upon rivalries and grudges and the one between Mourinho and Benitez shows no sign of abating. With any luck there will be fewer meetings between the clubs next season, but this particular serial drama looks like it will run and run. If nothing else, it makes a change from Ferguson and Wenger.
In an attempt to summarise there was some truth in Jose’s assertion that on the whole missed chances had cost Chelsea, however bullishly he may have expressed the sentiment. But his one glaring error was simply that he chose to try and counter Liverpool’s strengths rather than play to his own. Quite why he abandoned the tactics that had seen Chelsea unbeaten and 6-1 up on aggregate against Liverpool in four meetings this season was near unfathomable.
Jose has long looked like a man in need of a holiday and his approach to the battle at Old Trafford means that he will be on the beach earlier than his Anfield counterpart. While he takes his well-earned break, he might consider that his Chelsea has the ability to play its own game and has done to great effect, often brushing aside the opposition irrespective of their tactical approach. Saturday may have been disappointing, as was the defeat to Barcelona but on the whole both he and his men have coped well with the unique pressures of spending a season in the firing line as champions defending their title. For all his protestations, the realisation must now have dawned that the football that wins you the league doesn’t always pay off in the cup competitions.
The season moves towards its conclusion with our final home game of the season against Manchester United. A point or better for the Blues will give us our second consecutive Premiership title and a lurch back to ecstasy on the ever-changeable Chelsea emotional barometer. Come midday at the Bridge on Saturday, the irritating nasal dentist’s drill whining of Gerrard and Carragher will be long forgotten. No trip to Cardiff? We’ll cope with the disappointment.
What is it with you chelsea supporters?
dont take defeat very well do you?you have a manager that moans like a little bitch cos he got his tatics wrong!You lost get over it!
what makes me laugh is that fact that you all you lot said that you would win every trophy?
how wrong are you!
and for all you critics garcias goal definatley crossed the line,in fact you see your goal keeper picking the ball from the back of the net!
As a Liverpool fan thats the most accurate reporting of the match from the Chelsea side that i’ve heard. All this bitching between Reds and Blues fans is boring me to tears at the moment.
You lost get over it,you only wish you had Gerrard in your team!
They’re here…
Such originality in their comments too…
Every time Chelsea lose to Liverpool,there seems to be an abundance of “genuine” excuses
rather than “we got beat and deserved to”.
Benitez did not create the tactics for Chelsea, he just played against the tactics that were created by Maureen “O” which clearly flopped.
Chelsea must learn to be graceful and takes there licks like men, not spoilt brats who just got grounded.
In fact, there more than likely will be more licks meted out next season so get used to it.
Chelsea - no top league championship, no Euro cups (even now) wins in 50 years and then a Russian billionaire comes along as their saviour. How pathetic can you get? It’s all the little Russian’s money - that’s why Chelski will never be as respected worldwide as Liverpool or MU. I would say to Chelsea fans to stop talking as if they are club football’s best team after only two years at the top. All u guys can really do is buy, buy, and buy players and let them rot on the bench. We are not envious of Chelski because wins u buy in football are not really wins at all.
Oh Dear the muppets from the 606 boards are having a day out!!
Scousers: not only do they sound as if their balls haven’t dropped, they write like 12 year olds as well.
Liverpool fans are just so banal and tiresome. Why not comment on what Jonathan Dyer’s written rather than something they’ve read in the press? They don’t seem to be able to think for themselves. At least Artful Dodger had the grace to leave a positive comment.
Another great post, Jonathan Dyer. I’m hoping Jose doesn’t select a similar team on Saturday in an effort to prove that he’s always right. I wouldn’t put it past him.
Cheers Mark - I was going to respond to the masses that have descended but as they’re just spouting the usual nonsense having clearly not read what I’d written, I can’t be arsed!
And fair play to Artful Dodger indeed.
I think the question on everybody’s lips is, will Scousers v Pikeys be the scruffiest FA Cup Final ever? Wall-to-wall tracksuits, earings and bad facial hair. A festival of nylon and dandruff. Cardiff won’t know what’s hit it.
God, the nylon - I’d not thought of that. Imagine the static electricity - you could probably power the Millennium Stadium with it…
You lose. Take it like a man and move on. Stop whining like a little girl will ya. Forget history, you ain’t got one. Cheers!
Jonathan - I am a Liverpool fan and read your piece with great amusement. I can only say that I agree with nearly everything you say and found it refreshing that there all still some people out there that can see beyond all the rivalry to be honest about what they saw.
I thought Kewell was superb in the game and gave Geremi all sorts of trouble, but that was mainly because you seemed prepared to sit back and let us attack you. The final 15 minutes showed what you could have done with the right team selection and tactics.
Anyway - we will enjoy our moment of glory against you for this season as I am sure you will enjoy retaining the title.
Well Done!
Wonder if Abramovitch is beginning to realise his manager is quashing any possibility of building Chelsea as a global power.
Once again the graceless post match comments of the Spiteful One did nothing to hide his own shortcomings (as a manager that is - though he IS a well respected translator) or recomend Chelsea as a team anyone would want to be associated with (outside the narrow confines of SW London anyway).
The only thing Chelsea have is imoney. Very attractive to mercenaries like Ballack and Essien it seems but a big turn off to most sports minded fans.
With the likes of Mourinho and Kenyon, there’s no charm, romance or class - that’s all
A fair up-sum, indeed, although I thought “the irritating nasal dentist’s drill whining of Gerrard and Carragher…” was a little out of step with the overall tone. Maybe, since you do so much winning, you don’t do so much whining, but boy do you - that is, Mourhino - make up for it when you lose. Anyway, you can’t make puerile, sniping little comments like that and then get all high-minded about the tone of the replies.
I can understand why the issue of money might be a sensitive one to Chelsea fans, but it’s just a little unrealistic to pretend that the virtually instantaneous success of the club has nothing to do with the fact that it has been achieved on the back of the largest amount of dosh (which will continue to rain down on your club, like an eternal cataract) ever seen in the history of the game. Which means, also, that whatever your direct competitors achieve, they achieve on a fraction of your budget, which makes those achievements all the more cherishable. And yes, you’ve got a great - if occasionally irritating - manager, but it might be fairly argued that he is as much a part of what Abramovich has bought as the £multi-squillion squad of players.
I don’t claim, as some detractors do, that Chelsea is no more than an excercise in cheque-writing, but let’s not go into complete denial, eh? If rival fans tend to evaluate your achievements in the context of how much has been spent to attain them, then that seems pretty fair to me. And if you don’t think it’s fair then you’ll have to accept that it’s inevitable. And it’s not even as though it’s a question of diligent spending and clever deployment of resources. When you can pay 20-odd million for an iternational class winger and then stick his career in the deep freeze, you can hardly claim to be operating in the real world.
Scouse Nick, do you think your lot will be ready to make a title challenge next season? Be nice to have some competition in the big one!
This is linked on a liverpool supporters site now, so you might get even more morninc comments from the more intellectually challenged posters on that site…..just a bit of advance warning
But, the link brought me to this article, and as a Liverpool season ticket holder I think that is probably the fairest summary of the match that I’ve read from a Chelsea fan. There is always very little between the two teams these days when we play. You might cite the 4-1 at Anfield, but even then you had one of those days where everything went in, whereas our strikers were in that “struggling to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo” phase from earlier in the season.
As you rightly pointed out, tactical changes can make you look a genius if they come off, and an idiot if they don’t. I think Jose was trying to be too clever by half on Saturday, and you are right that he was too pre-occupied with stopping us than playing to Chelsea’s strengths, but I don’t think the tactics are the main reason why you lost. You need a bit of luck in these games, and you need to take your chances when they come along. On Saturday you had neither the luck nor the clinical finishing, and that (along with a couple of mistakes) is why I think you lost. Both teams are good at punishing mistakes, and the state of your wall for Riise’s goal along with the two missed headers for Garcia’s goal were poor mistakes to make in a game like this. Luckily Riise’s defensive header was our only glaring mistake of note.
So, you’ve already won the league, and hopefully we will get the cup. We need a couple of players if we are going to seriously challenge you for the title next year, but no-one can deny that we are getting closer - most clean sheets in the league this year, second only to you in terms of goals conceded, just a shame we’ve got a load of deadwod up front. A couple of strikers and a winger and next year could be interesting…..
Cheers for a good article!
Cheers Nick, appreciated. We do try and keep it balanced on here, despite what some might think!
Great article Jonathan…look forward to reading more stuff from you, and thank god I’ve found another liverpool supporter who shares my pain. Under normal circumstances, i would refrain myself from posting on a rival’s website but i honestly find chelsea fans who share their thoughts here to be much more sensible. I’ve read a lot of nonsense, and I am getting bored of liverpool fans who keep repeating the same issue over and over again. History would be quite insignificant to us if we were playing in the second division right now, would it? You can be die hard liverpool supporter who can stick with your team through thick and thin, but stop bragging about it! Yes, we beat chelsea…but its only a game, we got our tactics right and they didn’t and paid for it. That doesn’t make liverpool better than chelsea. Even in liverpool’s glory days, I cannot recall them cruising to win consecutive titles with such ease, which shows what high standards Chelsea have set for themselves. Liverpool is improving tremendously under Rafa and I feel with the right signings, we can mount a serious challenge for the title next season. My only criticism of Chelsea is the appaling lack of sportmanship and respect to fellow professionals shown by JM. It is getting worse by the day and will lead to his downfall. I would really feel sorry for him if people (apart from chelsea fans) remember him for his misdemeanours rather than the success he has brought to the club, once his reign ends.
Weird how LFCSupporter seems to be able to write but not… ahem… read?
He said
“what makes me laugh is that fact that you all you lot said that you would win every trophy”
Errrr… now I don’t recall anyone with any sense supporting Chelsea ever saying that, and I certainly won’t for fear of re-instating the curse of the bigmouth.
Great article JD, balanced and noticeable for not have large fried potatoes balanced on the collective shoulder. It seems to me that Artful Dodger aside the “sauteed spud balancing” red brigade are en route. GJ
Peter - I’m hopeful shall we say. With the arrival of Gonzales I think we will have a better balanced team which will be able to get down the wings at people. Obviously we need probably 2 very good strikers in the summer so it is really a question of who we buy in the summer up top.
I’m sure you will improve again next year with the addition of Ballack and possibly a couple of others but I still feel that if you keep your current front line then we will have a chance next year.
However, if you go out and buy Schevchenko and E’to then we can write off another year!!!!
Lets hope Roman decides to at least give the rest of us a chance!!! lol
I don’t deny that Jose Mourinho can show a lack of sportsmanship, but he’s certainly not the only one (his being under the spotlight makes it worse). Wenger and Ferguson have been at it for years - I can remember at least one occasion when they refused to shake hands - and Wenger’s behaviour and words towards Martin Jol on Saturday surpassed anything Mourinho’s done in the last couple years.
Norwich’s Nigel Worthington refused to shake hands with Sheffield Utd.’s Neil Warnock during a Championship game this season and got what he deserved: a two finger salute from Warnock! It’ll certainly be interesting to see how Warnock handles the likes of Mourinho, Wenger, Ferguson et al next season!
One of the bookies has to open up a book on how long it will take Neil Warnock to get himself hauled up before the FA disciplinary bods. Evens says its before the August bank holiday…
Ged I also don’t rate JM.
Jonathan mate you have the edge when it comes to inciting debate. kudos to you.
to Jonathan Dyer
This is your private site mate. Why do you let this Looserpool kids to leave their crap here? Just do not publish it and thats it. I afraid that this board might look like 606 dustbean. Just ban them from here. This site is the last place where normal people can normally talk. Let’s keep it this way. I am not interested in any other team fans opinion except of Chelsea. If I have to listen to this gibrish I might go to 606, but please not here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Nick… you’ve also missed out Rafa’s little outburst towards Chelsea last week, with him claiming that Roman had done a good job with his team etc. I suppose it just inflamed the situation with Jose even more, which ever angle you view it from, it was an insult.
I suppose he should have just ignored it, but hey we all know Jose… love him or hate him.
Also it’s good to see balanced views from Liverpool supporters on here, apart from a few.
I also think we give a fairly balanced view (and yes it is biased it’s a Chelsea site) here and like to discuss things like grown ups most of the time.
So onwards to Saturday and the clinching (hopefully) of the Premiership, when the woes of last weekend will be consigned to the past
DIAMOND FORMATION INDEED
To be fair we probably should have wone the league in 1998 before we got beaten by Leicester and West Ham at home in the run in to finish third. As a club we spent the last thirty years working towards becoming an overnight success. People tend to forget that Ranieri spent 50 million prior to his last season in charge and never looked like winning the league. Other fans may not like his style but Mourinho is undoubtely the most effective manager in the English game - notwithstanding the buggers muddle of saturdays team selection.
Organisation, discipline and togetherness are the key attributes for any winning team and Real Madrid, as had been said many times before, neatly underline the fact that simply assembling the most expensive and richly talented group of players together is no guarantee of success. For years Utd have enjoyed the finacial resources that even the megabucks of the Moores family backing Liverpool could not compete with and generally clubs have been attempting to buy success since the game turned professional. I say to the fans of other clubs - we are currently the best team in the country as the league table doesn’t lie, we are there on merit and whats more, if England go on and win this years world cup as they surely can, the back bone of the team will be provided by the champions.
Hey Jonathan! A very fair assessment. I went up to Old Trafford for the game. The Chelsea support was excellent. The Liverpool fans were generally OK - plenty of “Do you know we’ve won it 5 times?” countered by the suggestion that “37 points is quite a lot over 38 games isn’t it?”. No good answer to either claim really.
As I have observed before we all (including Jose) have to get used to the idea that we are playing against the referee as well. This is not intended as a put down to referees generally, but they should never ever be the reason that a game did not go according to plan. Leave them alone Jose, the answers are almost always closer to home.
I didn’t think that either Liverpool or Chelsea defended very well on the day and we had plenty of opportunities to take the game into extra time. If we had managed to do that I’m sure that the momentum would have taken us on to win. But it just didn’t happen.
I don’t know about you but if I could only win one trophy I would much prefer to win the Premiership than the FA Cup.
Redshanks - while Roman’s money is obviously vital, it’s also pretty unrealistic (if convenient) to ignore the fact that since the formation of the Premier League, Chelsea have been one of the New Big Four, matching Liverpool trophy for trophy (i think, off top of my head) and, indeed, pipping you to the key pre-Roman third Champions League slot in 2003. We’re not Blackburn, we haven’t come from nowhere, and we achieved a lot the hard way. The fact we never came close to winning the title in that time - and the fact you didn’t either - shows how difficult it is without lots of money and a very good manager.
Sting - as for sportsmanship. I think it depends what end of the telescope you’re looking through. Most Chelsea fans think Benitez has shown us very little respect after the games in which we’ve beaten you, and can be every bit as graceless in defeat as Jose (cue, ‘he started it’ jibes). They’re both pretty silly. Interestingly, Jose has had some nice things to say about Liverpool, but they’re often tucked away at the bottom of articles or hidden in the Chelsea magazine. The press aren’t particularly interested in reporting them and it’s probably the same with Benitez.
Nick - I don’t think Roman intends to give anyone else a chance quite yet!
Mike - not my site, I just work here :-)
Most of the oppo fans we get on here are pretty sensible and are happy to just talk football, but admittedly there are certain sections of the footy community who can’t quite manage that. Today being a case in point…
But just remember, it’s like a trip to the dentist and will all be over fairly quickly!
Genuine question to the visiting Liverpool fans,
There has been plenty of talk over the years about interest from third parties like Robert Kraft and the Thai PM buying into Liverpool. I think I’m correct in saying that unless the club secures a sizeable chunk of funding then the new stadium won’t happen (I stand corrected if that isn’t the case).
Benitez has clearly done a decent job, but if outside investment meant that the money would become available to him with which he could substantially strengthen the squad and mount a serious title challenge, would you be happy with it?
Hi another scouser, sorry.
it all makes for a good read. Constructive argument is better than most of the turgid dross you read on certain message boards…well mainly one and it has 3 numbers in it.
When it all boils down to it, fans enjoying a bit of banter is part and parcel of the game. The bits that get on everyones nerves are the repeated statements that include ‘50 years’, ‘moanrinho’ (was that ever funny?) and ‘no history’ to name but a few.
As much as Jose winds opposition fans up, and as someone else has said wenger and fergie have been at it for years (oo-er), wouldnt it be a more boring place if he wasnt making these statements? he is just another charachter in a league that has seen so many. And I would rather see CFC go on to win their second league in succession than our friends not 40 miles from Liverpool go on to win their 16th (i think).
With regards sportsmanship, I think JM has lacked a little grace in defeats to top sides, but that is the mentality of a winner - to be a poor loser. It is basically against Barcelona and Liverpool that this has happened. Wenger and Ferguson have been far more consistent whingers and poor losers than JM so far. I don’t think I can remember Wenger ever praising the opposition to the extent that they may have actually deserved to win.
Against Fulham and Middlesbrough JM was glowing in his praise of the opposition when they defeated us.
Last season when we lost away 1-0 to Man City, JM went onto the pitch after the game and applauded his players as they left, so as to avoid their confidence being dented too much, but still gave credit to the opposition. I would like to see him get back to this mentality, as even a team as strong as Chelsea are now, could suffer from fragile confidence at times - maybe this explains the poor form following the Barca games.
Good to see some more sensible away fans on this site - unlike the usual trash from red scousers fans (as per the earlier comments). More recognition for another intelligent article Jonathan.
Anyway, onto Saturday - at least with last week’s FA Cup exit we can now concentrate on the league!
I would rather see CFC go on to win their second league in succession than our friends not 40 miles from Liverpool go on to win their 16th (i think).
KLFC - in that case, it’s nice to be of service, sir…
Am reading a book about Clough at the moment. Now there was a character. Some of the things he said about Revie’s Leeds. Called them everything under the sun, and then he went and managed them!
Im an arsenal fan and just stubbled across this blog,and from a neutral position i do think Chelsea fans will all say they arent bothered about being in the fa cup final,but that complete cr@p!given the chance you would love to be going to cardiff!
But at the end of the day you got beat by the better team on the day!
Benitez is as good a tactician as wenger,i think jose hose what ever his name is can learn alot by being more sporting when his team loses.
Take the defeat to Fulham for example the players wouldnt leave the ref alone after gallas was sent off,fact is that was a bad foul!
like an above comment that was left it will take years before Chelsea can be a worldwide known as Man Utd and liverpool given the history.
No matter how much i hate to admit Man utd are still the biggest club in the world today.
End of
Jonathan - Anyone who says that they wouldn’t welcome investment in to Liverpool are basically not being honest. Of course we would.
If my information is correct I believe there will be some major developments on this next month which will hopefully mean that we can get underway with the stadium and have some descent cash to get in a few good strikers.
You and I both know the jibes at Roman etc basically stem from jealousy, however, although I would welcome investment in to Liverpool from outside I don’t think I’d be too comfortable with it being just one person who could in theory get bored at any time. (it would have to be boredom cos he’s not about to run out of money is he!!!!)
I’m not saying this will happen but I’m sure you would rather be in a position where Chelsea were making a profit every year and could fund their expenditure from within. I’m sure this is the plan but you can surely understand why opposition fans take the mick about JM calling himself the “Special One” etc because no matter how good a manager he is none of what you have achieved would have been possible without Roman.
If I’m right you were pretty close to being in the same position as Leeds before you got the investment and if the roles were reversed no doubt you would join in the banter aimed at them.
Hmm, interesting comments Gooner. Arsenal’s disciplinary record isn’t that sparkling as I recall - we’ve tried to add up the number of red cards, but there are only two of us in the office and we’ve run out of fingers and toes.
Mourinho could indeed be a bit more sporting in defeat. As opposed to being like Mr. Wenger, who can’t even be sporting when his team draw…!
Nick - all fair points.
The time will (eventually) come where Roman’s investment will decrease and the commercial side of things will fund the club, but a new ground might be necessary if that is to happen.
Chelsea and Liverpool are in similar boats when you look at our respective near neighbours and rivals and the grounds they have (or will have soon) - very difficult to compete in terms of income when someone else has 20,000 odd more seats than you. I think Kenyon’s estimates of when ‘break-even’ will happen might be a tad ambitious, but who knows?
I don’t think we were far off being in the same boat as Leeds, but given Chelsea’s location and potential at the time, we were always likely to be a more attractive proposition for potential investors. And we had less goldfish too ;-)
‘None of what you have achieved would have been possible without Roman.’
But Roman wouldn’t have even been here if we hadn’t beaten Liverpool to the third Champions League slot in 2003, which wouldn’t have happened if Ruud Gullit hadn’t put Chelsea on the map and helped make us one of the more successful sides of the era, which wouldn’t have happened if Glenn Hoddle hadn’t brought Ruud Gullit to Chelsea, which wouldn’t have happened if Ken Bates hadn’t bought the club for a quid when nobody would touch us, which wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t run out of money after trying to take on the world in the 70s, which wouldn’t have happened if Gus Mears’s dog hadn’t bitten Fred Parker in 1905.
We can play that game for ages.
Good luck Nick with getting in some good strikers! I think it’s easier said than done. You can probably count on the fingers of one hand the truly top class strikers in the world. And it takes more than investment to be able to prise them away from their already successful, lucrative contracts at other successful clubs.
We at Chelsea will not find it easy to improve on our current strikeforce this summer, if that is the intention of course, and so it is not always about money. Who would you be interested in signing (realistically!) at Anfield? - I would be interested to know for one. I think clubs like ours need to be focusing on scouting top quality youngsters and bringing them through in the long term. I read somewhere recently that Chelsea now employ (not all directly) around 400 scouts worldwide - anyone know if this is true? Fairly phenomenal if so.
I can’t see Eto’o, Adriano, Shevchenko or Ronaldinho coming to England in the summer somehow. Possibly Tevez if someone is willing to pay the £60Million asking price. Ruud VN may move I suppose, but would think he would go abroad. Same with Henry. What are your thoughts?
Jonathan - That’s the funniest thing about all of this rivalry between our clubs, we are both in pretty similar positions.
We both need new grounds, we’ve both got very good young (reasonably) managers, we both have the burden of successful pasts and we both have very good English players at the spine of our teams. It’s funny how you single out Carragher and Gerrard for your little dig when in reality they are probably the two players you admire most in our team. Same goes when we have a go at Terry and Fat Frank!! lol
We’ve had a bit of a head start in terms of trophy’s etc but with the kind of investment in place that you currently have you will make pretty good inroads in to that immediately. Hopefully with the right investment we might be able to give you a bit more of a challenge in the league next year!!!
As it is, come June 10th we will all be cheering Gerrard and Lampard together!! Let’s hope this summer will be a success for all of us!!!
Thanks for a fair round up of the game. This is the first place I’ve seen a decent review from either side.
I dont believe u need to be a bad loser to be a winner. To be a winner and to enjoy success you must taste defeat and to it with good grace. You can’t whine when u lose yet call yourself a special one when u win. my opinion anyway
I also wouldnt think ranieri’s 50 million spent bares any revelence as chelski never went to a euro semi final or came second in the league in a long time. I dont think rafa insulted chelsea when he praised abramovich because he wasnt telling any lies.
On the game the thing that baffles me about mourinho is that i recall him saying before our cl encounters that he never changes his tactics. he said we’ll always play with lampard makekele and one other in mf and have two wingers, duff or robben or cole and have one striker. He was quite boastful when he said this and was kinda bragging that chelski have no need to change the formation. It was arrogant and showing he wasnt scared to reveal his tactics. thats what i took from the press release at the time. I wouldve expected better tactics from an amateur on the weekend but thats only my opinion again
before i finish this i also thought id bring up another comment by mourinho. he said chelski have 45 more points to liverpool in 2 seasons. if history shouldnt count then why say this? i thought it was be good for someone to provide him the points difference between the clubs in the last 50 yrs. its not like liverpool quadrippled chelski’s spending budget in that time either
anyway thats enough from me, keep the good reviews coming mate
george
i realse theres a few errors in there but im very tired so pls lay off chelsea professors
Peter - Fair point, kind of!!! I think you may have got the investment without the CL qualification as the negotiations must have been a long way down the line before that was secured.
Lordmorf - I get your point but I am not saying we will sign any world class strikers. We need to buy very good players who have the potential to be world class, we are not in any position to pay the sort of money Henry et all would require!! I agree that we need to focus on young talent which is exactly what we have done (FA Youth Cup win) but we still need something more up front if we are to challenge next year.
As for Chelsea, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got Eto’o this year with Henry making his way to Barca.
Nick - Stevie and Jamie? Terrible buggers, the pair of ‘em ;-)
This is the most laughable thing about Roman and Chelsea making the Premier League uncompetitive - for 10 years it was sewn up by two clubs. With the right buys in the summer for Liverpool, the Mancs and Arsenal it could well be a four horse race next time round and potentially the closest it has been in literally decades.
Sigh. Oh dear someone mentioned Hillsborough. To all Liverpool fans here, please don’t take that comment as a majority view.
Nick, my point is simply that with names like Morientes, Fowler, Crouch and Cisse, it will be difficult to improve on that without bringing in more big names.
Chelsea’s strikers also get criticised for not scoring enough, but I still think it will be difficult to improve on it. Eto’o is a great player, but I’m not sure he works hard enough to score lots of goals in Chelsea’s system. Sometimes it is more about the way Liverpool and Chelsea play tactically (and very successfully I might add) that leads the strikers to get criticized.
Lordmorf - Cisse isn’t up to it in our style of play - gives the ball away far too much.
If we could replace him with maybe a real poacher (Owen style) we would probably have scored a lot more goals this season and would be a much more consistent threat next year.
Chelsea, I would assume, as a much bigger club, than to be harping on about a referee’s poor decision costing you a birth in the FA Cup final. The wall was a sham - had you stopped Riise’s free kick, there would have been other complaints and excuses I am sure. This goes on all over the league. Wenger’s players bump into each other and he wants all play to stop and cites it as a reason for losing. Please. You are going to win the league - barring a complete collapse and a 15 goal outbreak over 3 game from Fergie’s boys - not likely - so be content with back to back league trophies - quite an accomplishment, considering 1955 was the last time before all this that you hoisted it. You cannot win everything and there are other excellent teams in the equation - Pool, Man U, Gunners, even Spurs now - who may have a say in where you finish next year. In fact, I believe you have to thank Sunderland big time for not having a real nail biting finish to it all. If Man U were only 7 points back - a win on Saturday would have left them 4 back - with 2 draws for you (away to Bolton and Blackburn - quite possible) and 2 home wins for Man U (quite possible, also) for you to give up the title. The Black Cats did you a huge favour. Isn’t that something - the team with the fewer premiership points ever - ensured you the title. And I will not let Fergie off the hook here, either. His assinine comments towards his two starlets - Ronaldo and Rooney - after that draw with Sunderland - the very 2 young players who have been wholly instrumental in their late charge at the Blues - was uncalled for. These things happen in footbell. Take it like a man. People will respect you more for it.
Dumping the Londoners out of another semi-final game certainly brought out the worst of the sulky Chelsea boss who, in his now typical fashion, showed an unwillingness to ever accept a defeat graciously. Perhaps his insults were made in an effort to mask his own shortcomings but this time his after-match rant drew widespread criticism.
Rafa certainly knows how he wants his side to play when these two come up against each other and this time the team stuck to the game plan with perfection. Much was made of the strange Chelsea team selection but, despite that, there is no doubting the Reds deserve huge credit for taking the game to Blues and fully deserved their early breakthrough.
The Old Trafford pitch has forever offered wingers the space they dream of and Harry Kewell, in particular, and Steven Gerrard both made the most of those wide areas. Mourinho’s selection was a curious and short-sighted one in that it failed to include a similar type of threat until the second half. When they did introduce a flair player it caused us a different and more threatening problem.
Days like Saturday are always memorable. If you win, semi-finals are a rollercoaster ride of emotions, starting with the nerves and hopes for that win, ultimately finishing with the celebration of victory. Reds fans celebrate better than anyone and the support on Saturday was yet again incredible. After Luis Garcia scored the second, the chorus of ‘We shall not be moved’ brought back memories of semi-final victories I was a part of as a young fan in the ’70s. Obviously it was disappointing to let them back in with the Drogba goal and we were certainly hanging on for the last 15 minutes but that’s the least you would expect against a side like Chelsea. However, it was far from a lucky victory.
For me, there is something strange about the rivalry we now have with
Chelsea. Mourinho claims to have no special motive for running us down but he can’t help himself making snide remarks about the Liverpool threat. I think secretly there is a tinge of sour grapes stemming from the fact he was never seriously considered as a possible Liverpool manager at the time when Rafa took charge.
Apparently he still feels he’ll be surprised if the Reds emerge as a
serious threat to them but I believe the Reds can and will challenge the Chelsea domination. For him to make those suggestions perhaps indicates an underlying concern. Mental strength will certainly be a key feature in that test. If the Reds are to present a real threat, the strength of character we are now seeing will have to be there, week in and week out. I noticed Mourinho feels his side don’t have the same psychological edge as last season and that is a relevant point - that edge is certainly a feature Rafa will be demanding in his Liverpool side of the future.
Fairplay said…
For me, there is something strange about the rivalry we now have with
Chelsea. Mourinho claims to have no special motive for running us down but he can’t help himself making snide remarks about the Liverpool threat. I think secretly there is a tinge of sour grapes stemming from the fact he was never seriously considered as a possible Liverpool manager at the time when Rafa took charge.
As opposed to Rafa who of course has made no snide remarks aimed at Chelsea or Jose
> Isn’t that something - the team with the fewer premiership points ever - ensured you the title.
Of course, it had nothing to do with the 28 games that we’ve won did it?!
Why do we still have opposition fans from other sites posting without reading the article?
Yes the ref was wrong.
No it wasn’t the reason ‘Pool scored
Yes it was the poor crumbling wall
No that wasn’t the reason we lost the match
Poor tactics aganist a decent opposition and the obligatory missed-sitter at the end were far more influential. The Chelsea fans on this site do, on the whole, see why we lost and are upset but will move on.
…Or beating Liverpool home and away, Arsenal home and away, Tottenham home and away, Bolton home and away…
The reason some of the fans post absolute rubbish on here…. is they suffer from selective amnesia. I suggest a quick phone call to see their GP first thing!!
Or stuffing West Ham 4-1 with 10 men when the pressure was on…
Did you guys catch the Arse game today, so much for the all of that attacking Wenger said they would do, if that had been Chelsea Mourinho would be lambasted for playing so defensively the whole game. However, I would rather watch a final with Barcelona and Arsenal than Barca and Villareal, plus when Arsenal lose it will sting that much more, especially if they can’t catch Spuds for 4th place.
Its funny how people complain on how JM being such a sore loser. Its true, and we as Chelsea fans have never once denied that. Never. But the fact is, every manager with a big reputation like JM, i.e. Wenger, Benitez, Fergurson, had all been guily at taking jabs at other teams and criticising, as well as insulting the tactics of opposition and most notable of all, never, if ever, give credit to the opposition team. Its always a situation of,” I let you win”, instead of the “You deserved to win”. This double standard has gone too long and too far, we Chelsea fans have the right to feel annoyed having to listen (or read) this crappy comments again and again. Especially on a Chelsea website.
To claim that JM is incapable of winning us the league title and the Carling Cup (considering these two trophies were claimed to be bought by Abramovich’s money), is rather an unfair statement, as:
1. To state a hypothesis and make it a fact is unfair to say the least
2. JM is a very much proven and a qualified coach capable of doing so, considering he had won two Portugese titles, UEFA Cup, Champions League in two years
3. We did’nt win the league in a nail-biting finale, in fact we were cruising all the way to the end, all teams had nothing to or do once we scored a goal
4. Benitez is as special, if not less special than JM, as JM did it in his debut in Porto to win the Champions League
To scousers who are complaining that we are playing defensive football (unlike you I suppose), well do you seriously want us to play free-flowing attacking football? Do you really? Even playing in this way had made all of you tremble under our feet, and start complaining of us making the league boring. Had we done pure attacking football, I wonder what more can you spout from your hypocritical mouths? We trashed Liverpool and West Ham and Barcelona to cite a few examples, on how mighty we can become if we wanted to. And here you’re complaining of us making it a one-legged race. And funny and ironic you mention we whine a lot. When its very much the same thing you do too, not to forget the constant requirement to comfort yourselves that its only the history that matters to you now. What I say here may be harsh, but obviously referring to the less intelligent - to say the least, Scouser fans.
And may I add, coming to Chelsea websites to complain about us. Really. That doesn’t count as whining, I suppose?
Eto’o is a great player, but I’m not sure he works hard enough to score lots of goals in Chelsea’s system. Sometimes it is more about the way Liverpool and Chelsea play tactically (and very successfully I might add) that leads the strikers to get criticized.
Spot on, mate! I feel the same way too.I don’t think eto’o can help lampard score goals like drogba does. If you are gonna go out and buy a striker, you might as well spend it on a player who fits the system very well since the transfer funds are more than sufficient. In my opinion, I would think shevchenko is the most suitable player because he does play in a team that plays 4-5-1 and 4-4-2, and he has excellent tactical awareness to bring in other players into the game. He already has a proven partnership with crespo and will have no problems forging one with drogba.
If ancelotti do happen to leave or get sacked, you might have a chance of snaring him from milan.
Yes, we’re bitterly disappointed, but let’s not lose a sense of perspective (or history). Not to have won the Double feels like a season that is less successful than we deserve, even though we are on the verge of back-to-back seasons as champions. That would have been dreamland even two years ago, never mind three, five, ten, twenty years ago.
Onward and upward…
http://football.guardian.co.uk.....14,00.html
Check out this tedous piece of self-serving, insincere hand-wringing. We’re a moral stain apparently. I thought we were Champions! He’s handily left his email address on the end if you want to drop him a line.
I’ve had words…
Ok Liverpooh fans!
If you think you’re good enough, why dont give us some contest in the next premiership. We feel lonely at the top! But as I see it, next year once again, we will lead you by some 20-25 points because thats what you deserve. In knockout tounaments, anyone can win if it is their night. But you can fluke your way out in 38 matches and you wont get 38 liverpooh-friendly referees.
Not for the first time in football, the better team lost! See you in the next premiership!
It never ceases to amaze me how these people get columns in broadsheets. The Sun or the Star maybe, but the Guardian? It reads as nothing more than a rant by a rival fan driven by jealousy, the type of which you can find on numerous blogs daily.
This piece is extremely childish and poorly researched. Do broadsheet journos not have a responsibility to give at least a smidgen of evidence to back up such one-side and narrow-minded reports? I don’t know what team he supports but you can be sure this article would not be written by him had Roman invested in whichever club it is.
Making accusations of morality-staining should only be done by those who are whiter than white themselves (can I say that in these days of p.c?) - and I’m sure there aren’t many journalists around who can claim that they have never done anything immoral.
Let’s stop playing ‘god’ eh?
By the way JD - what is the record number of comments on one of your articles? This must be close!
It may be excessive but maybe the only way we’ll gain acceptance is to have our own plane crash?
I sent him a response consisting of the word CHAMPIONS! repeated 500 times. I thought that was in keeping with the intellectual spirit of the article.
http://football.guardian.co.uk.....14,00.html
I can`t believe what that guy in the guardian have posted. Why someone has to be so bitter about another team being in top and trying to bring them down just for the sake of it, just because the team they support isnt doing so well.
Oh well… Lets see what is that prick going to write in the guardian on Monday, two days after we lift our Premiership trophy.
C`mon Chelsea!!!!!!
Morf - no idea mate! A good strand though - started off with some angry Scousers, found its way to accord and harmony with some agreement on matters Chelsea / Liverpool between ourselves and the sensible visiting Reds, and now we’ve moved on to slating crap Guardian journos. Something for everyone!
So, Lordmorf: 1. it’s not all about money and 2. Chelsea employ some 400 scouts, worldwide. Right.
Jonathan, you asked how content we’d be with an influx of funding and the answer is that of course any club with a hope of competing with Chelsea has to have ever increasing funding, because that’s what Abramovich will provide. Another poster (can’t quite be arsed scrolling back) used the term megabucks to describe the way the Moores funded Liverpool. Well, you can define megabucks however you like, but no team, hitherto, has singlehandedly distorted and inflated the market for players transfers and wages the way Chelsea has and will continue, unabashedly, to do.
The same poster says that the top teams have always tried to “buy the leagueâ€. Well, funny that no-one has ever actually used that expression before. I think most observers will acknowledge that some clubs have always had better resources than others, but feel that the whole question of funding has now veered off into unreality verging on immorality. I mean, there are other things the obscenely wealthy lordling of a dirt poor area of Russia could do with his misbegotten millions, don’t you think? It’s only football, after all. But Abramovich has chosen to make Chelsea his vanity project and you ordinary, lifelong supporters are the incidental benificiaries.
It’s meaningless to talk in terms of how soon Kenyon anticipates the club being self-funding because he could miss his guess by years and Abramovich will keep on forking our as much as you need for as long as you need it. He will continue to up the ante and make it more and more difficult for other “players†to stay at the same table.
Before Abramovich, Manchester Utd used to boast that they would never allow themselves to be outbid for a player they wanted. They would beat people with their chequebook. It was a shameless statement, but at least it was honest.
And the Guardian piece… spot on. Mark, weren’t you exhorting scousers to address themselves to what Jonathan had written? Well, instead of just saying the Guardian piece is “excessive”, why not respond to what the guy has written?
The phrase was buy success. And every club that buys a player is doing so in anticipation of enjoying success. The first team accused of buying the league was of course Blackburn in 1991 and was similarly villified by suporters of Liverpool , Utd and Arsenal.
As for megabucks, remember in an era where the average transfer fee was 100 grand, the club with a million quid to spend on a single player has a decided advantage. In any event, we come back to the manager, be it Busby, Clough, Shankley, Paisley, Ferguson, Graham Mourinho (even Tottenham once had a decent manager though I forget his name!!), succesful clubs are not defined by how much they spend but who is in charge. There is no co-incidence in this and no ambiguity. Liverpools history centers round Shankely and Paisley, 2 sides of the same coin, and once they were gone the aura of invincibility swiftly disappeared. Utd have already had 2 great managers and a whole lot of mediocrity in between. Who knows, perhaps Liverpool have uncovered anther great manager in Benitez and we stand on the verge of one of the games great managerial rivalries… AMEN to that.
Do you really think that Guardian piece was spot on? To those of us who have grown tiresomely familiar with such bleatings It read like the rantings of a middle-class, teenage, Manchester United fan who had just read an SWP pamphlet about the excesses of capitalism and decided to use the poverty of the Russian people as an excuse to attack a rival football club. It exhibited the sort of moral dishonesty at which the Guardian excels. There is a case to be made about the immorality of money in football, but not one which attempts to paint Manchester United as the apotheosis of all that is good, and only a simpleton would think otherwise.
In truth, just about every club is founded on dirty money, because most money is dirty (we all know how the city of Liverpool made its cash, don’t we?). We’ve just got more of it than most. Indeed, you could say that Abramovich’s money has levelled an unfair, set-in-aspic, playing field, forcing opposition clubs to raise their game, hence England having two successive representatives in the Champions League final for the first time since Heysel. (You might not be right, but you could say it, and it would be a damn sight more interesting than the Guardian’s claptrap.)
Somewhere in the blog archives there is an article I wrote on the subject (in response to a piece in the Guardian by footy ‘academic’ Dr. Rogan Taylor) which covers this argument.
Pete is right - look deeply enough into any club and you’ll probably find that the money has come from the few who have made it via exploitation of the many. As is the same with a vast number of the institutions we all buy goods and services from on a daily basis.
The Hill-Wood family (of Arsenal fame) is an interesting one - they made their money in the cotton mills of the north of England (read up on the day-to-day conditions for the workers in them and then think about the comfort of your office chair) before selling up when business dipped and moving down south to invest in Arsenal. It should also be noted that they once funded Glossop Town who reached the heady heights of second in the league in the early 20th century, only to disappear into obscurity when the plug was pulled.
Hasn’t Roman just made a £200m donation (stand corrected if the amount is wrong) to the province of which he is governor?
And one more point on this issue of how one achieves success. Remember - our 2 best players amongst all this are Club Captain, John Terry, a product of the youth team, and Frank Lampard, a product of West Hams youth team and bought by Bates.
Every team buys their success. Look at Wigan, no one’s criticising them, yet. Dave Whelan, the Wigan Chairman, has criticised Chelsea’s spending but he’s pumped loads of money into Wigan, and where would they be now without it, in the Conference probably. The reality is he’s ok with putting money into sport, provided the upper limit is set to the size of his personal pot.
Eventually someone’s going to come along with a bigger load than Abramovich. Until that time we’ll just have to tolerate the jealous bitching.
Mark - I think the last figures I saw for Wigan suggested that their wage bill was about 137% of their turnover!
‘Hasn’t Roman just made a £200m donation (stand corrected if the amount is wrong) to the province of which he is governor?’
I think Putin made him an offer he couldn’t refuse….
Just watched the barca game with Markus ‘the berk’ Merk reffing - just as whistle happy as in the Chelsea game at camp nou. So frustrating to watch!
I really don’t see why The Guardian continue to give column space to Joseph Harker, a self confessed racist. Not so long ago this man was writing articles about how he chose which team to support based upon the colour of the team members skin, black = good, white = bad, and declaring himself “horrified” with the idea that black people in England could support the national team. The man is a complete tosser with no idea about football.
http://www.buzzle.com/editoria.....-20737.asp
Which I suppose answers my own question as to why Guardian Football are giving him room to spread his bile.
Hate racism, support Germany. Clever.
Peter - Iz zis komment meaning zat you zsink zat ze Germans, vee are all wery wery raczist? Surely not. Vee are all wery wery nice.
Anyone fancy joining me and Rafa in visiting Luis Garcia in hospital after he went down like he was shot after Mullins lightly caressed his face in last night’s match?
I think I’ll support Middlesbrough
the debate rumbles on. check out the guy at the bottom who believes all chelsea fans are really arsenal/tottenham supporters! anybody want to help me put him straight?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm.....13,00.html
Personnally I just love the moral outrage of posters like Oldspice on the Guardians page. If hes not an Arsenal fan I’m a dutchman. Its strange that its the Arsenal supporters who are hurting most about the shift in power in English football.
Needless to say I will be right behind them in the champions league final……
Funnily enough I pobably would support Utd if they were in the final, but nothing, NOTHING, would give me more pleasure than watchign Barca win the final and Suprs finish 4th. It would give me almost as much pleasure as seeing us lift the title, again, tomorrow.
Watching Boro last night reminded me a bit of the CWC game against Vicenza. Soaked in the roofless West Stand - Sparky comes on and clatters a few Vicenza players, gets booked then buries one of my favourite Chelsea goals. Mayhem.
Them were the days…
I dont want to go into the discussions of the morality fo the money behind clubs. Well, you cant do it for any organisation. Some might think the whole US money is from immoral means (wars etc).
So, leaving that aside, more money will not result in success. Otherwise clubs would not need managers. Just buy 11 superstars and see what they achieve. To say that money will buy success is very very stupid. It is like saying, more money will bring you more happiness - not necessary!
People who say such things about Chelsea are just purely JEALOUS!
If I had more money I’d be more happy.
Yours stupidly,
Redshanks.
And while I’m here…
I thought Harker’s observations about Chelsea were spot on, not his views on MU. although it has to be said that at least they are an organically grown outfit. Whern Ferguson arrived with a self-styled mission to “knock Liverpool of their fucking perch” he earned the everlasting enmity of Liverpool fans (mixed with just a bit of grudging respect) for doing exactly that. He didn’t whinge about lack of respect, he just went about earning it, over a period of time. And when it comes to it, I doubt he cares what rival fans think of him. He isn’t in it to be liked. It seems nothing will do Mourinho short of being hoisted shoulder high by a grateful nation, proclaiming him the saviour of Enghlish football.
Yes Abramovich has made a donation to the region of which he is - undeservedly and increasingly reluctantly - the overlord. If it was £200 million then I’m sure they’re abjectly grateful, but I seem to remember that it wasn’t long ago that as his term of office was coming to an end, he voiced a reluctance to renew it because he found his involvement with the region “too expensive.” One of your other posters is right: Putin stepped in. And for as impressive and munificent as the figure of £200 million might sound, it comes from a man to whom it is a drop in the whose team is capable of spending £100 million in a season.
The accusation of jealously is just too facile. Believe me, I’d be fascinated to see how the top ten or so teams might fare if they were all restricted to the same budget.
No of course you can’t just buy a bunch of superstars and watch them play, but isn’t Mourinho just as much a part of what Abramovich has bought as the players? And what exactly do you think is attracting Ballack to the club?
Indeed, if it isn’t about money, what’s the point of Abramovich?
I’d imagine that what is attracting Ballack is a new challenge along with a fuck-off sized pay packet. Of course if another club offered him £120,000 a week he’d sign for them because of the club in question’s prestige and history, wouldn’t he?
Harker’s moaning is hilarious because it singularly ignores one simple fact; the culture of greed and money dictating football exists because the ever-loveable ‘Big 5′ spent decades pushing and bullying a weak governing body for a bigger slice of the pie. Eventually they got their way and broke away to form the Premier League money trough without the slightest concern for what might happen to those less fortunate than themselves.
You make some valid points Redshanks, but what you fail to acknowledge is that Abramovich is probably the ‘nightmare’ that English football, rotten with decades of self-interest and greedy money-grabbing chairmen, so richly deserved. To hear Liverpool, United or Arsenal fans moaning about the situation now is quite incredible.
I do indeed acknowledge that Liverpool have contributed to the deplorable elitism of the modern game and to some extent you could say that the situation at Chelsea is simply a case of the greed and shortsightedness of the big five coming back to bite them in the arse.
The original Premiership elite helped to create a situation in which only a handful of clubs could win the league and to that extent they reduced football as a sporting spectacle. But Abramovich has created a situation in which only one team can win, which is a reduction too far, especially since both the size and origin of the pot seem to be of sublime unconcern to most Chelsea fans. I say most because there does appear to be a growing unease among the more socially conscientious of Chelsea fans, such as Francis Wheen, who find that they are no longer cheering quite so heartily for the team they’ve supported since childhood and have given it up as a bad job.
And if Abramovich’s money continues to be decisive, how long will it be before others among the Chelsea supporting intelligentsia - such as yourself, for example - find the cheers dying in their throats? 10 straight Premiership victories? 15? There’ll surely come a point when even you will find yourself thinking “Hmmm… Actually, maybe this isn’t quite as glorious as I thought it was, back in 2006 when we won our second successive title…”
What you say about the actions of the big five is true and I repeat, I deplore them. But it’s purely a matter of scale. My argument against the excesses of the game can be summed up in the phrase “It’s only football.” But if Abramivich has continued free rein to distort the game, it won’t even be that.
‘if Abramovich’s money continues to be decisive’
Despite what the doom merchants predict, that’s a fairly big ‘if’ in terms of the kind of dominance you’re talking about. Yes, we won the lottery. No, we won’t apologise for it. Given the choice between watching my club go tits up and vanishing or what he have now, I’ll continue my tango with the devil, thanks very much.
And it might take a while for us to get fed up I’d imagine. Having watched one team dominate the 70’s and 80’s and then another the 90’s, Chelsea winning a pile of silverware for the next decade is hardly a departure in football terms, is it?
Eras of dominance come to an end in football, as will this one. All the money in the world doesn’t win you everything all the time - just ask Inter Milan or Real Madrid.
Hmmm, well when you allude to Liverpool’s era of dominance that was of course pre-Premiership (as rival fans are never too slow to remind me).
I don’t blame you for enjoying the moment, naturally, but I repeat, as far as funding’s concerned, it’s all a question of scale, but it’s a crucial question and it doesn’t surprise me that some pure sporting types among the Chelsea fanbase have begun to feel a bit queasy about it.
Real Madrid are undoubtedly wealthy, but they don’t have all the money in the world. You do. I suspect that Abramovich doesn’t lack vainglory and for all Peter Kenyon’s cant about Chelsea becoming a self-financing business, I think Abramovich would be quite prepared to write cheques for £500 million a season if he thought that’s what was needed to keep Chelsea on top (with Mourinho shedding many tears over the shocking greed of other clubs when they’re negotiating transfers with Chelsea, Diddums!).
Still, for obvious reasons Chelsea have made themselves the team to beat for the forseeable, so I guess you’ll just have to put up with other teams crowing and celebrating victories over you as though they’re a pub team (hang on, wasn’t that Blackburn?) that’s just won the World Cup.
… And here’s to many more trips to the dentist!