Spike

THE NUMBER NINE The #9 is the shirt of strikers, the big Target Man, the player expected to put the ball in the back of the net. Gabriel Batistuta, Alan Shearer, El Fenomeno, Van Basten, these are the sort of players that should come to mind at the site of the #9. A few great players have worn #9 for Chelsea, maybe not as great and renowned worldwide as those mentioned earlier but they are great for Chelsea fans and we love them all the same. The King; Peter Osgood, should be the first to come to mind, 150 times he hit the back of the net. Others have worn it too, Kerry Dixon, Jimmy Greaves, and player-manager Gianluca Vialli1. That’s a good list of players right? Right. But for now go back to Osgood’s 150 goals. It took 11 seasons for The King to score all his goals and it should be noted that in 2 of those season he scored a paltry 4 goals. Take away those 2 seasons and 4 goals and you get 146 goals in 9 seasons. 9 seasons…that’s how long Roman has owned Chelsea and in those 9 seasons we have seen several players wear the #9, namely2: Hernán Crespo3, Mateja Kežman, Khalid Boulahrouz, Steve Sidwell, Franco di Santo and Fernando Torres. As for goal it goes: 12 for Hernan, 7 for Mateja, 34 for Fernando, and none for the others. A total of 52 goals across all competitions…that’s less than half of The King’s goals for those that less mathematically inclined. Even more appalling is the success of our #9s in the league. 29 goals in the top flight, 10 from Hernán, 4 from Mateja and 15 from Fernando; thus making Fernando Torres Chelsea’s most successful #9 in the Roman Era. That’s sad for shirt with so much history and prestige. Doesn’t that make you uncomfortable; Torres being the highest scoring #9 of the Roman Era? In a single season he has the highest amount of goals across all competition (22 goals) and the lowest in the league (1 goal). The highest for the league belongs to Hernán with only 10 goals. But don’t worry it gets better…than much worse… Before the Roman Era there was only one prolific goal scorer to wear the #9. And that was Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink. Taking out his single season under Roman4, Jimmy scored a very solid 70 goals, with 57 of them coming in the league. He did it in 3 seasons, that’s 1/3 of Roman’s Era. That’s more goals across all competitions and more in the league; all from one man and 1/3 of the time. It extends to the 90s and early 00s though, with Tony Casarino, Mark Stein and Chris Sutton. Tony scored 8, Stein 25, and Sutton 3. That makes a grand total of 36…If you take away the anomalies of Vialli and Hasselbaink you have an amazing 86 goals5. Over 20 years in the making barely scratching halfway of The King’s total. It took The King 9 seaons, it’s been 20 and we haven’t seen the 100 mark broken. It really pushes the question: when the fuck will we have another legend #9? The Wretched Ones Footnotes: 1 Vialli’s scoring record is pathetic in comparison to those mentioned previously, but his influence at Chelsea has been priceless. But 40 goals, is nothing to shake a stick at. Second best in the last 20 years. 2 Only if we don’t count Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink due to joining before the Roman Era. He scored 12 in the league that year and 17 across all competitions. If not it bumps the total goals up to 69 goals across all competitions and 41 in the Premier League. 3Remember, he only wore it for one season, the other does not count as he did not wear the #9. I believe it was the centenary season of 05-06 he wore the #9. 4 In total Jimmy scored 87 goals for Chelsea. 69 in the league. 5 If you add Vialli and Hasselbaink it goes up to 209 goals. 87 from Hasslebaink and 40 from Vialli. 6 Fuck you Ryan. Click here to view the article

Well you seem to think I'm racist for some reason. I'm not even going to bother. Even if you don't nearly everything you've said to me and this is my interpretation feels like you are implying that you think I'm racist.

Are you implying that I use colourblindness as veil for my racism?

I refuse to use it. I just say 'midfield' because oh, shit! that is what it is.

Pivot Pivot PivotPivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot PivotPivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Pivot Fuck that word. Fuck the term "Double Pivot". Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck it. I cringe everytime I read that term. Fuck that noise. FUCKFUJCKIJ FODH OFF

I thought this was over...

Maybe... But it's not the motivation, it's just so happens to be a apart of it. The motivation is looking for a fight. They think it's easier to get away with attacking a minority, but in the end anyone will do. Some people see them as 'racial attacks', I see them as 'attacks'. Race to me is just used as a convenient excuse. Also, sorry if I came off aggressive earlier.

The gamble and pay off could be fantastic. Keep buying 20 year olds and eventually one is going to break through to the first team. That's over 10 years of playing time. Whereas a 28 year old can give about 5 years. When it comes down to it: The potential of 10+ years vs The guarantee of around 5 years

Sorry, I forgot to answer. I was going to... Because young men/teenagers get hopped up on alcohol and amphetamine and go out looking for fights. it's easier to target someone that looks different, because that puts a bulls-eye on their back. Sometimes their maybe underlying racial motivations but for the most part it's violence for the sake of violence, not racial violence. It happens to everyone in Australia mind you... The only organised racial attacks by white Australians I know of was in 2004. It's was a 'retaliation' against a series of gang rapes against white Australian women done by a group of Lebanese men and several bashings of lifeguards. The funny thing is before the gang rapes Lebanese-Australian relations were fine, almost no conflict or anything. But some arseholes did some atrocious things which pissed off some other arseholes. Can we stop this discussion?

Oh, of course. It makes me incredibly racist to not care what race people are. Doi.

What? Australians get killed in India too. Don't act the fucking innocent victim. http://www.news.com.au/national-news/ten-australians-killed-in-india-families-claim/story-e6frfkvr-1225820446163 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Staines Mate instead of asking questions about my country ask questions about yours. Surveys done around the world have proven that India is one of the most racist countries in the world. Look at that, Australia is one of the most tolerant countries in the world, and I believe that. I have no idea where the idea that everyone in Australia is a racist. There is a lot of casual racism, yet almost no real racism. I'm not racist for starters. I have several good friends that are from China, Saudi Arabia, Phillipines, among other places. My neighbours are black and that doesn't even bother me. Hell that was the first time I've actually even thought about my neighbours. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2325502/Map-shows-worlds-racist-countries-answers-surprise-you.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/ But of course only white people can be racist.

Fucking 25 million? How much did Chelsea buy him for? 8million? Not only has he gotten older but he has regressed. Deal.

Not as good as J-Pop.

You'd be shocked over here then. Nobody is really extreme racist over here (they aren't extremists that go around like the KKK, none of that stuff) but the casual racism, sexism, and every other ism is very apparent. For instance it isn't weird for a person to say very racist and offensive things about let's say Indians but at the same time have several friends that are Indian.

fuck tha police

fuck ya sleep

It's called contributing to the community.

He and Chalobah will be in the first team one day. I garuantee it. Josh still has a chance, but these guys don't. They don't because a chance suggests there is possibility that it won't happen.

But no, despite what I said earlier I'm very confident that Shaw will be a Chelsea player one day. Very confident. I'm calling it right now.

If it happens, I deserve rep for calling it.

Ah, Gardens Point...

Ah, that made me chuckle. He has a great first touch, mind you.

Just being pessimistic

And then Shaw won't be signer either.

Only for geezers with a surname that ends with 'Sa'.