CSKA Fulham
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Chelsea TV – everything you don’t want to know. In the spring of 2007 the Director of Communications at Chelsea decided he didn’t like the way Chelsea TV were interviewing some of the stars. (After all one in seven of the people on the planet are Chelsea supporters according to the chief executive, so their players deserve a little respect). As a result reporters from Chelsea TV were barred from the training ground. (Honest, that is really true). Naturally they protested – it is hard to carry enough stories about the club to fill the channel if there is no interview material available about the parties, the urinating (see below), the porn (see below) and so on. In the end the reporters were allowed to do interviews on the phone. John Terry – runner up in the idiot of the year award 2007 The man who “built up to the Euro 2008 games by visiting a strip club with other members of the England team, dancing on stage with lap dancers, urinating on the floor… then being driven home by your wife at 4am.” The Observer 23 December 2007. Terry was however closely followed by the third placed Wright Phillips. The Sun said, “Shaun Wright Phillips is indulging his favourite hobby with his massive wages – PORN. The England star has ploughed £20,000 into porn channel Babe Central. “Shaun has been dropping in at Babe Central with his pals,” says an insider. “The girls writhe around for the cameras while Shaun drinks his champagne.” In May 2007 the Chelsea manager – The Special One was arrested and received a caution from police, who were trying to quarantine his Yorkshire Terrier, Gullit. They believed the dog had been taken out of the country and brought back without the proper vaccinations. He wasn’t the only person at Chelsea to be investigated. The activities of A Cole are legendary – as are those of his wife (although A was only investigated by football authorities – and his wife). But in January 2007 Glen Johnson and Millwall’s Ben May, were caught trying to steal a toilet seat and some tap fittings from the Dartford branch of B&Q. The England right back, on £30,000 a week, had slipped the classy seat, no doubt fitting for a mock Tudor mansion, into the box of a lower priced one. One B&Q staff member said at the time: “We all recognised Johnson. No one could quite believe a bloke like him, with all that money, would be moronic enough to nick a toilet seat.” The pair were given on-the-spot £80 fines for their bungled heist. When Chelsea signed Wright Phillips from Manchester City they must have thought they were onto a good thing – and so must the young lad. He was scoring goals, getting ready to pull on the England shirt each time they played – it all looked good. Chelsea got a terrific player with the world ahead of him. Then in 2005/6 it fell apart, By mid-January he had not scored a goal for the season, was hardly starting, and maybe only half in the squad. This benefited Arsenal enormously, because from that point on, young players everywhere who were looking for a big club move started to see a move to Chelsea as a move into the backwaters, rather than a chance to star. And so, by 2006 we were starting to see the same comments appear here there and everywhere. “The player doesn’t really want to go to Chelsea…” Which of course makes everyone benefit – but mostly Arsenal who have a record in bringing on young players which is so far ahead of everyone else, the rest of football is not even on the map. But even more to the point we can see what has gone wrong – with the exception of an obscure Norwegian who signed for Man U and had to be bought back at quadruple the price to avoid legal action, Chelsea in 2006 did nothing but buy proven internationals – the youth policy had gone. Not because they didn’t want any youngsters but because none would sign for them. To conclude, take a look at this…
Need I say more? Perhaps not on that, but it is worth thinking about the Chelsea pitch which was relayed in January 2007. By February 2007 it was in such a terrible state it needed relaying again (that’s right, one month later). Chelsea blamed the contractors, who blamed the weather. Funny how these little clubs can’t get the little things in life right. Like this one… The Chelsea manager suggested in February 2005 that he would, as a policy decision, always play some English players in his team, ahead of players from other countries. As such this suggests an employee selection programme that ignores all the basics of equal opportunities and selects people according to their country of birth – something that is illegal under various parts of EU rulings, and something frowned on by the Equal Opportunities Commission. And in case you thought that was enough, try this lot May 31 2006 Shevchenko signs Chelsea pay £30.8m for Andriy Shevchenko although it is widely assumed Jose Mourinho did not want the striker and the transfer was pushed through by Roman Abramovich. Shevchenko becomes a shadow of his former brilliant self. August 18 Boulahrouz joins Chelsea buy Khalid Boulahrouz. He is seen as a Frank Arnesen signing and another example of Mourinho being undermined. On the same day Mourinho says: “We don’t have second-line players like we have had in the last few seasons.” August 31 Cole in, Gallas out Mourinho finally gets his hands legally on Ashley Cole but has to sacrifice William Gallas and £5m in return. Cole subsequently has a very poor season. By January 2008 he was not even on the bench for games, even though he was fit. October 14 Goalkeeping Peter Cech fractures his skull and Carlo Cudicini is concussed at Reading. Mourinho says it was “a very bad challenge” on Cech. October 17 Mourinho scorned Mourinho claims Cech could have died at the Madejski Stadium and criticises the response of the NHS and Reading. His comments are scorned by Reading as containing “very serious factual inaccuracies”. November 5 Mourinho sees red Mourinho gets angry with Graham Poll after John Terry is sent off in a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham and Didier Drogba has a goal disallowed. January 11 2007 No more players in Mourinho announces Chelsea will not be making further signings in January, despite the Portuguese identifying targets. January 25 Backroom cull Reports surface that Chelsea are letting the contracts of Mourinho’s backroom team run down. March 11 Pardon his French During a 3-3 draw with Tottenham in the FA Cup, Mourinho calls referee Alan Wiley a “son of a whore”. “I say these kind of words 10 times in every 15 words,” he insists. April 13 No assurances Mourinho admits he has had no assurances he will be at Chelsea next season but adds: “I have forbidden my agent to speak to other clubs.” April 26 Ronaldo attack Mourinho verbally attacks Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo.: “If he says it is false that Manchester United have conceded penalties that were not given, it’s lies.” |
