anathemadelight

The PL is of course renowned for the humility and piety of its players. He'd stick out like a sore thumb. Really, he would.

Players private lives should stay that way as far as I'm concerned, and as far as the captaincy goes I think he should keep it. But if what he's done has affected his relationship with the rest of the team, if they've lost respect for him or no longer have faith in him, that's another issue altogether. If they don't want him to be captain then he shouldn't be. Same goes for England, I suppose. But I don't really care about England. [Though I think image may end up being way more important on the England front.]

Well he's gone and failed another one today. I'm beginning to actually feel sorry for him now.

For the Win.

He's injured.

Seriously. I'm not sure we can do very much worse without him.

Absolutely. I can understand why people are upset, but at the end of the day if we broke the rules we deserve the punishment. Isn't that what we've been telling Mutu?

Here are some lawyer's opinions from the Times.

Regardless of how well he plays, or whether he keeps his head down and doesn't say anything ridiculous, I cannot bring myself to stop disliking Nicolas Anelka. It's beyond reason; I almost feel guilty sometimes. Almost. The opposite is true for Didier. He could kill puppies and I'd still find a way to love him.

Does anyone know details of the deal? Does he have guaranteed playing time?

I almost completely agree with you, sam. The difference between Mutu's case and some of the examples like Barton and Gerrard though is that Mutu signed a contract specifically stating he would not engage in a certain kind of behavior and by doing so he breached a contract worth millions. Considering the way society views alcohol vs. hard drugs, I'd be surprised if players contracts typically took a hard line against alcohol use, which may be why players are subject only to soft fines. Clubs could probably sue players more often for a lot of their on- and off-pitch behaviour, but the time, money and negative publicity it involves probably makes them feel it's not worth it. And if it's a valuable player like Steven Gerrard you can absolutely forget it. For me that doesn't excuse how unwilling individual clubs, UEFA, and FIFA are about enforcing their own rules. The situation between Atletico Madrid and Marseille in the CL last year is a good example. Madrid fans racially, verbally and physically abused OM, French reporters, and OM's travelling disabled fans, but their stadium ban was commuted so Liverpool fans wouldn't be 'inconvenienced'. Please. I'm glad Chelsea stuck to the standards they had set, but yes, Mutu can't pay this fine. He's worth something around 10m Euros I think. I don't know if they can or not, but I hope he and Chelsea can reach some sort of alternative deal.

From the Court of Arbitration for Sport website: Lausanne, 31 July 2009 The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today dismissed the appeal filed by the Romanian football player, Adrian Mutu, against the decision rendered by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) on 7 May 2008 in which he was ordered to pay EUR 17173990 in compensation to his former club, Chelsea FC, for breach of contract. Wow.

The Chelsea Blog @ Ole Ole (http://www.oleole.com/blogs/chelseablog) is good, though they don't update very often.

I think Ballack would do it whether you wanted him to or not.

Poor Franco. It's getting a bit ridiculous.

The RM thing could be a huge factor. Frankly, Eto'o is one of the least media friendly big players on the continent. In Italy Zlatan's brand is probably bigger than Inter, second only to Kaka. He's probably the only forward in Europe with a cult of personality that, with Messi, would be able to counterbalance RM's new Big Two. Zlatan is Jose with tattoos and a big nose - funnier, smarter, and sharper than everyone around him. He could verbally beat the entire league into submission and they'd love every second of it. And when you think of it this way, Eto'o plus 40m won't cover the loss of international visibility and credibility both Inter and the Serie A could suffer if Zlatan leaves. It's still a dumbass move though.

Supposedly Eto'o is a bit put out at being considered near-worthless and he's demanding 10m from Barca before he agrees to go anywhere. I don't believe it's true, but I say more power to him. Easily one of the best strikers in Europe, far more accomplished than Zlatan in almost every way, and he's being thrown around as a deal-sweetener? What a joke. I don't think Inter were too dire, all things considered. They're trying new things, getting used to new players. Club America was playing a bit hard though, weren't they?

Barca has always been rubbish on the selling end, but this is exceptionally ridiculous even for them.

I'd rather die.

Terminator, I think it's odd that Kenyon, one of the people right in the thick of what you think smacks of "lack of ambition", also happens to be one of the people whose departure you're convinced will doom us to hell and back. Isn't he at least partially responsible for such heinous acts as not signing Fernando Torres, not jumping Benzema's bones, advocating for Scolari rather than a 'young and ambitious' coach, and in fact apparently being the last one to notice Scolari was gleefully sinking the ship? If you want to talk about lack of ambition, Adebayor had one great season and immediately thought he was so good he didn't have to make an effort. He is one of, if not the most, indolent, classless 'top' strikers in Europe and there's a reason City has been the only one interested enough to make a bid this summer.

If he has Peter Kenyon's job by this time next year I won't be remotely surprised.

Like that time Barca was going to give them 40m plus Samuel Eto'o for Zlatan? Mmmhmm.

Is he even in London? If he doesn't have to be in training until Thursday he might not even be in the country. None of the newspapers seem to have been able to contact him one way or another, and with the roundabout way City have been talking it doesn't seem as if they've spoken to him or anyone representing him either. They seem to 'know' he wants to leave based on third party information, the 'opinion' of some England internationals, and the assumption that no one would turn down 200,000 a week. And now they're supposedly negotiating with Lucio. If they sign him they'll have Lucio, Nedum, and Dunne in the centre. Plus JT, who's going to sit on the bench - City's captain, Brazil's captain, or England's captain? I'm not shedding any tears over this to be honest. We're all grown ups. We'll live.

According to L'Equipe, Florent announced on a radio show in Guyana that he's signed a 2 year extension. "I found an agreement with my club to extend my contract by two years. So I stay at Chelsea, I have four years of the contract now. I know that in each mercato period I am the target of many rumors." .... and I'm not sure about the last bit. [link]

Jesus Christ, I certainly hope so. If I never hear the words 'big name signing' again it won't be a fucking moment too soon.