Elliott

Great win, some great performances across the pitch. Bring on Wembley! Cech: 9 - Great performance Belletti: 8 - Good performance form Jules again Bridge: 7 - Pretty good Carvalho: 8 - Solid as usual Alex: 7 - Shakey at times, effective at others Makelele: 9 - Brilliant performance from Maka Sidwell: 7 - Not a bad performance from Steve, but not great either Wright-Phillips: 8 Malouda: 8 - Just for providing that great ball Joe Cole: 8 - Great goal Anelka: 8 - did really well, found some great positions and was unlucky not to score Subs: Pizarro: 7 - Did well in the short time he had although should have scored Ashley Cole: 6 Ben Haim: 6

Shit... no Ballack. That ain't good.

Yes there are different rules, however those are for those without a European passport, such as Alex. Di Santo has an Italian passport, thus he has a European passport, thus he can be employed in this country without any problems. At least that's how I understand it. I think maybe the club view him as a youth signing and neglected to actually announce, or else BlueLion's theory about Kenyon is true, or maybe he just hasn't arrived in the country just yet.

Fair enough! Prediction: Aston Villa 2 v 0 Blackburn Rovers

I thought he had Italian or Spanish citizenship meaning that wasn't a problem?

Why not just include this in the other thread, call it by its game week (24), cause they're part of the same game week, just most got moved due to the FA Cup.

Because we're charging the best rate? Because of: "The novelty factor, allied to Ireland's large London-based support"?

The sentence isn't that harsh, they only have a few months left to serve. Obviously no-one here knows the facts. They could have well been set up, but then again, they could have been seriously doing it, and used that as a defence. Impossible to tell. As for Africa not liking the UK, pssh. Ghana and Sudan were both countries we colonised, raped, pillaged, and drew borders that did not reflect local cultures around. Can't really blame 'em. Even so, we've had two minor incidents and you think they hate us? One woman accidentally insulted the religion of the country she was in. That is their culture, and if you usurp it, you have to face the consequences. Again, her sentence wasn't at all harsh, she was home in a matter of days and was treated well. Yes there were some calling for her head, but they were very much in the minority, it's much the same as our greenheaded nature freaks who call for the heads of polluters, or animal activists who threaten people who test medicines on animals. Everywhere has idiots and people who are indoctrinated to believe a crock of bullshit. Then we have this incident, whereby it is impossible to tell who was right, defence and prosecution, and the charge is again not harsh, it is about right and it is enough to teach these girls a lesson had they really been smuggling this cocaine.

Well it's not really winter in Ghana, they don't have a winter and a summer. Too close to the equator. Our summer months will be slightly hotter for them too, but its more about a wet season and a dry season I think.

The game is in late May. By the time we come to use the pitch again, in August, it will be fine. This has no negative for us, so why not?

Don't think, from that, he will start the game, but he'll be a sub.

FIFA want it, but it's totally unfair. The reason the ACN is held when it is is because that is the best time weather-wise for it. We have to realise their seasons are different to ours. It's totally selfish for us to demand the ACN is moved and we just have to put up with it.

On the one hand I agree with you, but on the other hand, all new stadiums are soulless and it's up to the club and the fans to give it soul.

The trimmings of a club are even more important than ever misschief, its just that the trimmings have changed from the singing and the atmosphere to the money and the money.

Well they didn't quite start off as Ruud Gullits all-stars, but they were more than a pub team too. We got some high profile players of the time, such as Fatty Foulke in goal, and this was because we already had a stadium. Our beginnings were not normal.

Well Ollie I think with Wimbledon, MK Dons were no longer Wimbledon FC, to just uproot to another town 50 miles away is a great shame and I don't know if I would follow Chelsea if they did that. If they kept the same name, maybe I would, but it would be a massive blow. The big change in football is it has changed from a professional sport to a business. Both times, revenue making was important, but before money was made to build football teams that will win trophies, now money is made for the sake of making money. People talk of the soul going from their clubs and that is where it's gone.

I'd completely forgotten about the diving then, which tells you how far he's come. But, yes, his diving was a large part of the frustration, although I believe diving was as much his own frustration at missing chances he thought he should be scoring more than anything. He was getting desparate to make up for all his missing.

I can sympathise with the author, but the thing that bothers me is that he is attacking Chelsea for this change when it is instead just a trend we have seen since the introduction of the Premier League. According to a page I found on the Liverpool University website, it was Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur who originally initiated the idea of a Premier League by threatening to split away from the Football League if they didn't get a greater share of TV revenue. Then of course Sky came along with their millions upon millions and it all just spiralled into what we have today. It's basically now a choice between supporting a top team with top players and paying through the nose for it, or going to a local or small club and having a drink and a laugh whilst barely watching some average joe's lump a ball attached to some sticky mud in the air. Of course, for a Chelsea fan, this is a choice between sticking with your expensive capitalist club, or betraying them, and this idea of an AFC Chelsea is a compromise between the two, to get over such a suggestion as betrayal. But that's what it is in my eyes. I'm Chelsea, and I'll be staying that way, first and foremost. In the future I could toy with the idea of going to watch my local team, which would currently be Kerry Dixon's Dunstable Town, but that's only obviously if I had some mates in the same frame of mind and I don't see that happening at the moment.

It's some sort of subconscious indoctrination. This lad at Uni I knew was a Liverpool fan, all the way from deepest Essex, Chelmsford. I remember I was watching the Liverpool United game last year, and he was sitting there mouthing that wankfest of a song they do as, looking like he was going to cry from some sort of fake pride or something. I asked him if he'd ever been to Anfield. Of course he hadn't. How do you get like that, having not even been to Anfield?

Thanks for the info!

Drogba wasn't shit for two seasons. He scored 16 goals in both of his first two seasons, which isn't a bad haul at all, and whilst he frustrated, you could see his work rate was top notch and that was good enough for any realistic Chelsea fan alone. So what is your point?

Oh for fuck's sake Jim. Jim and his stupid filters.

Adebayor has been quality recently, if Drogba decides he wants to go off, then Adebayor would be his perfect replacement, not that we'd get him.

Hahahah Best thread ever.

I don't see any good reason why we couldn't start it now.