Vesper

Conor Gallagher recall could damage his development – Staying at Charlton is the answer https://thechelseablog.org/2020/01/14/opinion-conor-gallagher-recall-could-damage-his-development-staying-at-charlton-is-the-answer/ Reports are suggesting the young loan star is set to return to Stamford Bridge. The 19-year-old has shown great progess with his talent being nurtured at The Valley. Gallagher joined Charlton last summer. In 26-appearances, he has six-goals and three-assists to his name. The Addicks form has dropped since an impressive start. However, the Blues academy graduate is one of the first names on the team sheet every week. Football.london are exclusively claiming the youngster will not return to stake a claim for a place in Frank Lampard’s starting line-up. Instead, he will continue his development by going out on another loan. Last month Burnley were linked with a potential move, and Norwich are another premier league club showing interest. Another spell in the Championship is a possibility – West Brom, Milwall, QPR, and Swansea are reportedly keeping an eye on Gallagher. A premier league move would be a step up, and aid his development. However, the 19-year-old will not be guaranteed first-team action. A move to another championship club would seem like a step sideways. For me, Gallagher has learned a lot from his time with Lee Bowyer. He’s a first-team regular, and settled at the Valley. Once the youngster has a season under his belt, he will then be ready for a step up. Whether than be a premier league loan, or a place in the squad at Stamford Bridge. snip

‘It isn’t a statue of Zlatan anymore, it’s a symbol of betrayal and greed’ – How and why the Ibrahimovic divide has flared up again in Sweden https://theathletic.com/1530393/2020/01/13/zlatan-statue-malmo-hammarby-sweden-ibrahimovic/ Half-past three, Saturday afternoon in a south Stockholm bar on Folkungagatan — the street of the People’s King. Fans sporting green colours are sipping Kennedy beer while watching Cagliari versus Milan in Serie A. The bar is busy, but the atmosphere is sedate. Suddenly there are a few oohs. Milan have just hit the post with a header. The screen fills with the face of the player involved. Everyone knows his name, the would-be people’s king. In the bar there are knowing looks, quiet smiles. This is Hammarby-land and Hammarby IF is the Stockholm club Zlatan Ibrahimovic stunned Sweden and football by buying into in late November. That was considerably less predictable than Ibrahimovic hitting a post, even at 38. A few minutes later he scores, the first goal since returning to Italy from LA Galaxy a fortnight ago. Zlatan is back, says his statuesque celebration. The punters’ murmurs of approval are a little louder now. Yet there is a discernible hesitation. As longtime Hammarby fanzine writer Pernilla Olsson explains, who Ibrahimovic is and what he has done by investing in Hammarby rather than his native Malmo, makes him “this bomb.” All of Sweden is nervous, awaiting the fall-out, including Hammarby. There has, of course, been collateral damage already some 400 miles south in Malmo. There they erected a statue in honour of their hometown hero on October 8th. Ibrahimovic unveiled it and declared to his 6.3m Twitter followers: “We are Zweden!!!” The capital Z; the people’s king; Ibrahimovic felt like a unifying figure. His contribution to Swedish football and Swedish life over the past two decades has been huge and mostly positive. Then, seven weeks later, out of nowhere on his Instagram account, Ibrahimovic posted a new football message. This one was rather more cryptic. It was a hologram of Hammarby’s green and white jersey, which revolved to show his name on the back. A third image, of Hammarby’s crest, then emerged and Sweden went into meltdown. “WTF! is what I thought,” says Olsson. “I thought it was a joke. “Then we had 24 hours of speculation. Zlatan’s brother, or brother-in-law, is very into e-sports and we thought maybe it was him joining. Then this bomb blew up. “I’m a teacher. It was parents-teacher conference day and every parent — the fathers — came in and the first thing they said was: ‘Pernilla, what do you think about Zlatan!’ snip My bonus inside Stockholm info 'Kennedy beer' is S:t Eriks KX Speciallager (a collab between him and S:t Eriks brewery here in Stockholm) http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/galatea/pressreleases/s-t-eriks-bryggeri-lanserar-en-oel-med-kennedy-bakircioglu-2845337 Kennedy Bakircioglü was a legendary Hammarby player who infamously did this (after scoring a free kick versus IFK Göteborg) the video is semi taking the piss btw (you have to understand Swedish humour, as they do not ever 'break' the inside joke, BUT the beer thing is 1000000% real, it actually did happen) S:t Eriks brewery used to brew this ale below (it was a limited edition Belgian Ale) it was named after me (just kidding although my wifey knows the brew-master (she retired after brewing this, it was her last beer for them) after meeting her at a beerfest with my BIL she bought me a case for my birthday (it came out a day before my 25th birthday)

at LB it is easy I want BOTH of the following Sell fucking Alonso to Inter and buy Alex Telles (£32m RC) tracking to 10 goals and 16 assists, has over 50 assists as a LB (including CL) in the past 3 and half years, and he is a SUPERB corner taker and then (or first) swap for Robin Gosens (offer a straight swap of Emerson for him to Atalanta) tracking to at least 15 goals and 11 or 12 assists (over a 3500 min season) tall, pacy, solid defensively, motor on him, typical high end German fullback with a great shot and cross they are almost the exact same age (28 days apart) at 25yo Emerson is an Italian citizen and speaks (obviously) fluent Italian and has played for years in Serie A and is much more suited for Serie A (Gosens is built for the EPL as any LB is atm) they are both worth around £30m (hell, I would pay £35-40m for Gosens, I have watched a tonne of his games now, he is the real deal, so I would even toss a bit of cash in the deal to get it done) done and dusted it is madness to keep trotting out Azpi at LB he crushes, just kills, our offensive play on the left, the other two (regardless of how in demand they are, and they are in demand) are dogshit for us, the EPL, and the way we play LB is by far my number one enraging thing atm about the club (Kante will be soon be as well come summer if we do not do something to sort him now) we have NO QUALITY PLAYERS THERE AT ALL (the only position you can say this about) FUCK waiting for the insanely over priced Chilwell (who is massively slumping atm and is so NOT a guarantee but anyway) fuck paying 100m euros for Gaya or 60m for the super short Grimaldo Theo Hernandez I also rate, but he will be shit hard to pull from AC Milan (plus they just have been bought by the 2nd richest man on the planet, so have literally a 100 billion fortune backing them now) Alaba is a pipe dream, Bayern are not selling him now or in the summer, they will probably wait until summer 2021, (when he is 29yo) to sell him (even if they would sell him now, they would want at least £70m, no way do I believe they will sell him for 60m euros in January, which I have seen tossed out there)

I do not often push alternative, off-the-wall theories but I wonder if Howe played Ake at LB to scare us off as he is desperate to keep him and we are the only team that simply can snap our fingers and take him back, and, due to the fact Ake is left-footed and has played LB before, it has to go into our calculations a bit so showing that Ake sucks at LB (he does, at least in that game) maybe Howe was hoping that his poor play there diminishes our interest in him also, if he had a screamer at CB, then that would further pique our interest crazy thoughts and probably not true, but it did work on me, as his left-footedness is a big draw for me, but after that display, no thanks for him at LB ever with us, unless it was an extreme emergency

Frank Lampard opens up to Chelsea FC fans about Ross Barkley Frank Lampard explains why he's been pleased by Ross Barkley's recent form for Chelsea FC https://www.thesportreview.com/2020/01/chelsea-fc-news-ross-barkley-lampard/ Frank Lampard had admitted that he was delighted by Ross Barkley’s performance for Chelsea FC in the Blues’ 3-0 win over Burnley at the weekend. The 26-year-old midfielder played the full 90 minutes as he helped to inspire Lampard’s men to a comfortable and important Premier League victory in front of their home fans. Barkley has been struggling with a string of injury problems in recent months but the England international now looks to have shaken off the issues. The former Everton midfielder will now be hoping to hold down a more regular spot in the first team at Stamford Bridge in the second half of the season. Barkley has started just six games in the Premier League all season and he is yet to score or notch up an assist in the English top flight. However, Blues boss Lampard has clearly been pleased by what he has seen from Barkley in recent weeks. Speaking to Chelsea FC’s website, Lampard said: “I speak a lot with Ross and I really like him. “He came to me a couple of weeks ago and said he was starting to feel good. It was a niggly injury, but he’s just starting to feel absolutely released from it. “This was the performance [against Burnley] we want out of Ross. It was so positive and you saw his quality on the ball; he can hit a right-foot ball, left-foot ball, take the ball well. He looked confident. “That’s part of Ross’s game you could maybe question if you look from the outside: how confident is he when things go against him slightly? “This was exactly what Ross can do; an England player, playing for Chelsea, has given me a lot of thinking to do with that performance. “He just needs to train well and he needs to play well – and he played well against Burnley. He needs to continue like that.” Barkley has scored twice in the cup competitions for Chelsea FC this season. He will be hoping to feature when Chelsea FC travel to Newcastle United in the Premier League on Saturday night. snip

Jose Mourhino: Harry Kane could miss Euros for England https://www.metro.news/jose-mourhino-harry-kane-could-miss-euros-for-england/1872858/

The Sun has always been poor, horrific even, with gossip and non-factual shit but this window they are now at a level of just pure lies and pure fiction on most all to do with transfer market news they literally are making shit up on most articles I will never again post anything from them I think all their articles should be self banned from the board voluntarily by other posters (just a suggestion) it isn't just rumours, they literally are lying over things, not even using shaded language this was the straw that broke the camel's back for me it is all a flat out lie https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/10708648/piatek-tottenham-transfer-ac-milan-kane/ the fuckers said it was DONE, and went into great detail on payment and then even added the 'coming for the medical' part they have been called out on it by other sites so no more Sun from me I hope all choose this path as well

The stadium is a huge issue the cost of building it doesn't count versus FFP and it shorts us at least £50m plus in game-day and lux box revenue per year

How Tottenham overtook Chelsea and Arsenal to become London's richest football club https://www.cityam.com/how-tottenham-overtook-chelsea-and-arsenal-to-become-londons-richest-football-club/

€40 million (£34 million)

The Blues had revenues of £452.2million in 2018/19 according to the latest Deloitte Money League. It's a return that makes them the ninth richest club in the world, but not the top club in London. Tottenham Hotspur claimed that title last season by reaching the final of the Champions League. Despite this they've fallen down the overall rankings as other clubs have grown much faster. Back in 2008/09 Chelsea were actually the fifth richest club in the world, a position they held up to the 2011/12 campaign. https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/sports-business-group/articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html#

Athletico Paranaense president confirms Arsenal are interested in Bruno Guimaraes but will have to fight off competition from Benfica who have already bid for midfielder Reports said Arsenal and Chelsea had revived their interest in Bruno Guimaraes But Athletico Paranaense's president said Benfica have already submitted a bid The 22-year-old has been watched by Arsenal and Chelsea scouts recently https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7883809/Athletico-Paranaense-president-confirms-Arsenal-interested-midfielder-Bruno-Guimaraes.html

Know Your Squad: ‘Pulisic?!’ Chelsea fans quizzed

Tottenham Midfielder Christian Eriksen’s Agent To Return To Italy To Negotiate With Inter https://sempreinter.com/2020/01/13/tottenham-midfielder-christian-eriksens-agent-to-return-to-italy-to-negotiate-with-inter/

Inter Winger Politano Becomes A Priority For Roma Following Zaniolo’s Injury https://sempreinter.com/2020/01/13/inter-winger-politano-becomes-a-priority-for-roma-following-zaniolos-injury/

German shade roflmaooooooooooooooooo

Jimmy Greaves has been airbrushed from history - he is the true goalscoring reference point, not Alan Shearer https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/13/jimmy-greaves-has-airbrushed-history-true-goalscoring-reference/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget English football did not begin in 1992; it was simply rebranded. And is there a career and set of records that have retrospectively benefited more from this historic airbrush than those of Alan Shearer? It is not Shearer’s fault, but every time there is some sort of goalscoring landmark, as there was this weekend with Sergio Aguero’s 12th Premier League hat-trick and 177th goal, the reference point is the same: Shearer, whose 260 Premier League goals is a record. You will know this because Match of the Day rarely miss an opportunity to point out that their star pundit was also the competition’s greatest ever goalscorer. Except that he’s not. Not really. Not unless you think that changing the name of a competition that began some 104 years earlier - and still keeping all the same clubs, venues, players, rules and basic formats (with two fewer teams) - somehow makes that a new competition. Holder of most of the real records is in fact Jimmy Greaves. He scored 357 goals in 516 league matches between 1957 and 1972 for Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, which is actually 74 more goals than Shearer in 43 fewer games. Shearer, who also scored 23 times in the old First Division, is actually fifth on the real list with 283 goals. For further context, Wayne Rooney is 21st and there are 27 players who have scored more than 200 top-flight goals. Aguero, for all his brilliance and authentic status as the top overseas goalscorer, is not yet among them. This desire only to start history in 1992 would be more understandable if football was somehow distorted previously and the records of yesteryear were out of reach and untouchable. But they are not. Greaves scored at a rate of 0.69 goals a game - almost identical to the two best of the current era (Aguero 0.69) and Harry Kane (0.68) - and comfortably ahead of Shearer on 0.51. Indeed, what is striking about the real list of leading top-flight goalscorers is the spread of eras and how the exceptional domestic feats even of post-war goalscorers like Ian Rush, Geoff Hurst, Tony Cottee, Denis Law and Nat Lofthouse have become comparatively forgotten. Dixie Dean's 310 goals in 362 games between the two world wars is also jaw-dropping and too easily overlooked. The greatest casualty in terms of recent recognition, however, is undoubtedly still Greaves. His all-time record for goals across the ‘big five’ European leagues was actually only recently broken by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Just stop and think about that. An English footballer - Jimmy Greaves - stands with only Messi and Ronaldo in the entire history of football as one of the leading three goalscorers in the major European club leagues. Of the individual league records, it is also only Messi, with his La Liga record of 432, and Gerd Muller with 365 Bundesliga goals, who stand above Greaves’s haul in English club football of 357. Greaves should be nationally revered and yet few people now seem to remember any of this, with BBC and Sky Sports (as well often as the wider media) invariably content to stick with less meaningful but more easily sourced reference points. It is good to sometimes get the shorter-term context - and no one is disputing Shearer’s status among the very best British goalscorers - but then you wonder how an obsession with current and recently retired players impacts in other areas. Greaves also played in the England team that won the World Cup. He won Serie A, two FA Cups and the European Cup Winners Cup. He is now very ill and, although he might not much care, has somehow never been honoured. Shearer, with his one Premier League title and relentlessly plugged Premier League goalscorer’s record, is a CBE and there is a statue of him outside St James’ Park. Kane, with no silverware or records as yet, is an MBE. No one wants to wallow unnecessarily in the past and pretend that things were much better in yesteryear. But when something was, as with Greaves’ phenomenal goalscoring record, shouldn’t we also sometimes say so and ensure that is the true standard by which emerging greats like Aguero and Kane are measured?

Robin Gosens clarifies Schalke comments https://bulinews.com/news/4297/robin-gosens-clarifies-schalke-comments

They already had some great results Clean sheeted and beat Manure, Sheffield United, and Spuds, drew with Shitty and Wolves

eeeeek Millwall! cant be having a Chels lad strolling over to ply trade at the Den! nooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Congratulations to U16 midfielder Malik Mothersille, who has joined Chelsea from Leyton Orient. He'll become a part of this summer's scholarship intake.

super article! great find

'That's a disgrace': Gary Neville DEFENDS Oli McBurnie as he is warned by the FA after Sheffield United striker made an obscene gesture while supporting his former club Swansea against Cardiff https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7882069/Gary-Neville-DEFENDS-Oli-McBurnie-obscene-gesture-watching-Cardiff-vs-Swansea.html

Marquinhos Signs New Contract with PSG Until 2024