₦airaland Forum

Nihilist:
Guy make i book this girl down for my boy.

We go come collect am 18 years from now..

Ehn begin draft PQQ from now. . . many young ninjas want answer Invitation to Tender but it go cost. . .

Donjazet my daughter sef dey siddon look you with one eye . . . . neutral ko neutrino ni. . . .continue. . . .

donjazet:
I might be the most outspoken loyalist of Jose but I am certainly not alone in my stance of being neutral on Sunday.

What you mean neutral?

Chelsea till we die. Phuck Manure and whoever their manager is.

donjazet:
Will it be way out of line to say his death(helicopter crash) is very suspicious? N

No, the helicopter pilot was not qualified for navigation by instrument reading only. Weather was bad on that day and he needed to climb to a higher altitude as a low cloud meant he would be running into hills. He tried climbing in poor visibility using instrument reading only and tailspun out of control. With the low clouds and hilly terrain that day, he should have cancelled the flight by law but it was his first contract with Harding and he was desperate to impress.

donjazet:
[size=14pt]Know your history[/size].
The battle of Stamford Bridge

Chelsea are poised at the crossroads as acrimony between Ken Bates (right) and Matthew Harding (left) threatens their ambitions for the club.
David Hellier reports
David Hellier Saturday 11 November 1995

It was a comment from one of his friend's wives at a christening party over the weekend that is said to have finally persuaded Ken Bates, the chairman of Chelsea Football Club, to hit out against fellow director Matthew Harding, the would-be pretender to his throne.
"Isn't it time you said something back?" said the woman to Bates, who for months has, by his own standards, kept his counsel against the background of what he believes has been a Harding-inspired whispering campaign.

This week the long-awaited bust-up between the two men began in earnest. First Bates blasted Harding after Harding sent him a letter containing his resignation from Chelsea Village, the club that owns the assets of Chelsea Football Club: "This man isn't fit to run my club," Bates declared.

Yesterday Bates escalated the battle by writing to Harding, dramatically withdrawing his directors' privileges, barring him from the press lounge and players' bar and accusing him of causing the club embarrassment in the boardroom.


Harding, a lifelong supporter of the club who has spent the whole of this week away in New York on business, flew back, declaring that he was "amazed" by a series of vitriolic attacks from Bates.

"I wasn't aware it was a battle or a war. But I'm not going to pack up my kit and walk away," he said yesterday. Earlier in the week he admitted what many people have believed has been his intention ever since he lent the club pounds 5m for the building of its North stand two and a half years ago - he wants to be its chairman.

For anybody close to the action at Stamford Bridge, however, there has never been a question of if the two men fall out, but when.

Apart from a brief honeymoon period after Harding lent the first pounds 5m to the club for the development of the North stand, the two men have worked in growing disharmony.

Bates said yesterday: "He's been very nice to my face while at the same time courting young journalists, the ones who are impressed with being courted by a rich young man. What he hasn't realised is that almost step by step everything he's been doing has been reported back to me..."

When the North stand opened last November, Bates refused to acknowledge any debt to Harding in the club programme. He wrote that it would be wrong to thank one person alone for the new stand, that it had been the result of the efforts of everyone associated with the club.

More recently he used the programme to point out to supporters that the rent Chelsea now pays to Harding's company, Stardust, effectively puts pounds 3 on each person's ticket price.

Told that Harding was trying to win over the fans' support for his threatened challenge, Bates thought it prudent to let the fans know that Harding's assistance was not coming free.

On Harding's part, he is said to have been briefing sections of the media about his difficulties with Bates. He has hinted that the manager, Glenn Hoddle, has an uneasy relationship with the man and that Hoddle would be unlikely to stay on when his current contract expires at the end of the year if Bates is still at the helm.

And at the recent Player of the Year Awards evening he was openly telling people that there was only one man holding Chelsea Football Club. There were no prizes for guessing who he meant.

Behind all the huff and puff of two men with big egos falling out lies the seemingly intractable problem facing both men: how to elevate Chelsea into the group of eight to 10 football clubs that have the wherewithal to dominate English football.

The two men line up like this: Bates, who does not appear to be a terribly wealthy man in his own right apart from his shareholding in Chelsea Village, saved the club from possible extinction in 1981 when he bought it for a nominal sum and took on its debts.

He fought and won an 11 year-old battle with property developers who owned the site at Stamford Bridge and wanted to turf the football club out and replace the stadium with a residential complex. Now he plans to raise new funds to build two new stands for the part of the stadium that have not yet been modernised and add to this a hotel complex, a car park and a residential block. He speaks for 100 million of the club's 102 million shares.

Harding is said to be worth around pounds 140m, most of which stems from his 30 per cent plus share-holding in Benfield, the London reinsurance group. He was paid a salary last year of pounds 3.25m and receives millions of pounds a year in shareholders' dividends.

A lifelong supporter, he responded to an advertisement in the Financial Times placed by Bates soon after the appointment of the current manager, Hoddle. He has so far lent the club the pounds 5m for the North stand - repayable in 2008 - and he has put up another loan of pounds 5m for the purchase of new players. Each time Chelsea sell a player, this goes down to reduce the money they owe to Harding.

In addition he recently acquired the freehold site at Stamford Bridge from the Royal Bank of Scotland for pounds 16.5m. Chelsea pay him a rent of pounds 1.5m a year.

Apart from obvious personality conflicts - Harding dislikes Bates' politics and does not have time for Bates' rather forthright manner - the two men differ in their approach to how Chelsea should go forward into the future.

Bates insists the club needs to reduce its reliance on the football side. Hence he wants an income stream that brings a greater percentage of revenue from merchandising, from catering, from selling flats and running a hotel.

Harding would rather build up the team further first, adding to the considerable sums Hoddle has already spent on new signings, a strategy Bates condemns as short-term.

So far Harding has not invested a single penny in the shares of Chelsea Village, considering the value Bates puts on the shares to be too high.

Bates reckons that the assets of Chelsea, which include the players' registrations, the goodwill of the club's name and merchandising opportunities, and the potential gate revenue and the potential for development value the company at around pounds 50-60m.

Some City bankers, and obviously Harding, dispute such a valuation. They point to the fact that Chelsea does well if it breaks even in a year on a revenue not much more than pounds 10m (Manchester United made a profit of pounds 20m on turnover of more than pounds 60m last year). They say the players' registrations might fetch a valuation of around pounds 15m and that the franchise as it now stands is probably not worth much more than that.

However, Harding's problem is that Bates has no intention of selling the club - unless he is offered a premium price. Bates says that Harding would have to offer him around pounds 60m for the company and be prepared to invest another pounds 40m in players and redeveloping the stadium. Put up or shut up, is the thrust of his message.

Harding may be rich, but he is not yet in the Jack Walker league. Walker, who has pumped millions into Blackburn Rovers and walked away from the sale of his steel company with cash of more than pounds 400m.
For Harding to buy Bates out he would have to sell his holding in Benfield - it is by no means certain how much he would get for it if he did, or how much the company would be worth without him - and then use most of his wealth to take control of Chelsea. Once he has paid out Bates there is no certainty there would be any money left for players, let alone the modernising of the ground.

Where Chelsea go from here remains unclear. It seems unlikely that the two men, after this latest spat, can continue working together. But it is also unlikely that Harding, Chelsea fanatic as he is, will or even can withdraw all his money (for one thing he can not call in his money on the North stand until 2008 anyway).

But if the worst happens and Harding tries to starve Chelsea of money for transfers, Bates' loyalists were yesterday suggesting that he is determined to carry on without Harding's financial assistance.

If the two can not resolve their differences, Chelsea may struggle to raise new funds, although Bates said yesterday he was in discussion with a number of financiers concerning the development of the new south stand.
Prior to Harding's involvement Bates, using the advice of Macarthur and Co, a small City merchant bank, toured the City in search of investors to assist him in getting his development plans on the road. There was no help forthcoming until Harding emerged.

Recently he has lunched merchant bankers in the City, but not with universal success. One banker said he would have worked for Bates if he was sure he would be paid up front. Bates insisted on a success-only fee and the business relationship broke down.

In the end this might be enough to secure a truce, however unlikely that may seem right now.
Hurt though he may be by Harding's supposed sniping campaign, Bates may yet come around to the fact that his aims at Chelsea could be badly affected by turning his nose up at Harding's cash and Harding, if he is to be taken at his word, is too big a fan of the club to do anything that will cause it long-term harm.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the-battle-of-stamford-bridge-1581435.html

Very interesting. . . .nice read. I only caught the tail end of Matthew Harding era and was not sure exactly what his financial interest in the club was.

nateevs:
Jose may have spent £275m but there was a value of the team he met. There were purchases before he arrived. Maka, Lampard, Crespo Duff, Robben, Cech, Gallas to name a few. Go add the market value of those players. £400m or very close.

And it goes without saying that if you spent £400m in 2002 - 2004, that team should be best on the planet. I cannot find that article now but it explains the exponential level to which we were outspending other clubs in Europe. It was spending on an unprecedented scale. So please excuse my reluctance to show surprise about the team going on for the next 5 years at the top. I mean honestly, what else would the team have done?

To give proper perspective, phucking Avram Grant almost won the CL with that team. Avram phucking Grant for Pete's sake!. Let no one tell me money did not play at least 60% of the job. If it didn't, let him come try that sh1t without money.

He already tried that shyt without money at Porto, and guess what? He won Europa League and UCL back to back.

Manchester City have spent £180m this summer alone on top of £400m worth of players that Pep inherited. Oh you did not see that, blind Bartholomew.

nateevs:
Because the team cost £400m.

Stop exagerrating. Jose spent £275m in his first spell, some of that on Sheva who Roman signed. That same team carried us 10 years. When you watch old tapes of that team vs Barca and Bayern etc, you will weep for the current Chelsea setup.

How much did the ninny era team cost?

Oya start adding up the cost of Hazard, Willian, Cuadrado, Schurrle, Mata, Torres and co. Get your calculators out.

I heard you say Jose will not stand the test of time. Well I've got news for you, he has already stood the test of time. Jose started winnning with treble with Porto in 2002/2003, and was last seen winning in 2015. I dare you tell me how many of the great managers since you were born till now lasted 13 years at the very top. Is it Arrigo Sachhi? Marcelo Lippi? Van Gaal? Arsene Wenger? Who exactly won relentlessly for 13 years straight? Only SAF and Otmar Hitzfeld have won consistently over a longer period, and largely with one club.

How many top managers in the 90s stayed at the top a decade later? Football changes and rivals adapt tactics so any manager that can win for 13 years at the top is a great manager. Even the Pep Guardiola whose been going for 8 years is planning retirement in 5 years because no be beans to stay energetic with fresh ideas for that long.

So I have news for you. Jose has already stood the test of time. You've been writing the same obituary for him since 2007, yet he has won numerous titles since then, including a 2nd UCL. Quit it!

raumdeuter:
After spending like times 3 more than Bayern

Only that Bayern is not at the risk of missing Europe for the second yr in a row. Its the Not getting hammered that got you to finishing out of Europe

Maybe Guardiola will also come today and say he lost because he didnt have 11 men on the field? Not getting hammered I would have expected that will be getting you to CL semis regularly

The not getting hammered is why you probably are out of Europe altogether

Maybe if you had invested time, players and manager resources into a quality attacking philosophy, you wont have gone through gazzilion coaches and still not making Europe this yr

The team Jose built got to UCL semis and finals almost every year for 10 years.

I can't speak for the ninny era of recent years.

raumdeuter:
And how many times has the "Not getting hammered epped" you?

The same UCL medals as Bayern, 1 UCL final and 6 UCL semifinals.

We might not be Bill Gates, but even Dangote can be proud of his achievement!

raumdeuter:
How many teams in the whole of Europe will Barca not hammer

I'm proud to be a supporter of a club that has faced Barca 10 times during their era of dominance and never got hammered, infact never got beat by more than 1 goal, and never got beat with 11 men on the pitch, period!

Our record vs Barca in that time reads 3 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses.

Nihilist:
You did not watch the match at all so you don't know what happened...you can only speculate based on scores.

Go to the Barca thread and read the comments during the game to have a real understanding of what was going on.

3 months ago after Man City's first two matches, me and my guy had discussed that we can't wait to see City face Barca, they will get hammered.

I don't need to speculate what I already know as facts. It would be naive of me to watch City doing initial gra gra in the first 30 mins, then when they inevitably get soundly beaten, act all shocked like #haneveresperredit.

After your criticisms of Jose tactics against Liverpool, this was the perfect opportunity to show ninjas how a manager should approach big games. Pepper never rest, you started hailing Peps tactics upandan because of initial gra gra, only to find they got the disgrace of their life. Don't tell me youneveresperredit!

Nihilist:
It was obvious you weren't watching the match already. When I made that comment City were already 1-0 down sef...but they were still very much in the game.

Maybe you possess little sense of danger, or little sense of space on a football pitch.

I can watch a match where a team look to be playing well and know thet will get hammered just by the amount of space they afford the opponent. Pep specialised in that whenever he took Bayern to face Barca.

Nihilist:
You clearly can't be watching the match otherwise you wouldn't say this.

I ain't watching the match but I'm seeing the scores. It's 4-0 my nigga!!

Nihilist:
See how City are playing. No striker yet they're attacking fluently. No DM yet Barca could only score a lucky goal.

Somebody will come and start calling balance.

Tactics!

Tactics is all...

Chelsea has never lost 3-0 to Barca even with 10 men.

Tactics ko, tictacs ni.

Nihilist:
Have a look at the stats below.

The likes of Griezman and Muller arent necessarily taking that many more shots than Hazard. Griezmann in particular took exactly the same number of shots as Hazard that year....and even had a lower shot accuracy...yet he scored more goals.

I posted earlier how 8 la liga teams in 2014/15 conceded 60+ goals that year, unlike England where only 1 team had such a shockingly bad defence, so perhaps this positively affected Griezmann's scoring rate.

But it's the number of keypasses I want to bring to your attention. Muller and Griezmann made significantly fewer key passes than Hazard - this is a function of players who are exclusively focused on scoring - Yet are unable to post significantly better raw numbers when it comes to shooting and goal scoring.

Ronaldo and Messi on the other hand have fantastic shooting AND passing numbers...and to me this is a clearest indicator of the skill bracket Hazard belongs to.

Griezmann is exclusively focused on scoring and yet cannot actually outshoot Hazard...

Hazard's problem is a mental problem, he has what it takes to at least be close to Ronaldo and Messi if not stay on par with them.

If Griezman and Hazard have similar volume of shots and similar % on target, that means the keeper is saving more of Hazards shots.

I would then suggest that Hazards shots are from longer range which the keeper has more time to react to, whilst Griezman gets cleaner shots closer to the goal due to better movement and anticipation of runs.

pamcode:
I agree with Nihilist. The problem is his mentality jare two days ago or so i watched our goals in that 2013/2014 season the way he Dribbles, cuts in and shoot, he seemed to have quite a hunger to fire in shots f goals but now he rarely does that the few times he tries it either it is agonisingly wide or hit against a defender or he just opts to pass. Though he seems to be returning to his old habits but i believe he has work to do in terms of fitness, shooting accuracy(goals) and setpieces(freekicks especially) that If he wants to at least go down as Chelsea legend.

Timing of runs is the main difference between those who score goals and those who don't. Most professional footballers can hit a shot on target and many have similar conversion stats. The difference between the supreme goalscorers and the others is they get more volume of shots due to the fact they arrive in the box frequently and at the right time. Hazard would need to learn to score tapins just by making the right runs to be able to compete with the likes of Muller, Griezmann and Neymar for goal output. Ororo and Messi is another story.

Smart man.

Greatihex:
firstly, I don't have any resentment towards anybody.
Secondly, if you re-read the post you quoted, you will see that it says something about "visionless".
Wait, Are you saying that hazard is a mediocre?
Do you still hold the belief that he is visionless?

Someone claimed Hazard scored 44 goals, you then referred to the fact that someone said he's visionless.

Now you are mumbling incoherent nonsense. If scoring goals has nothing to do with vision, why did you bring visionlessness into it? Are you slow in the head?

Scoring 44 goals in 4.5 years is a mediocre achievement.

Compared to De Bruyne, Payet etc, Hazard is visionless.

Greatihex:
A certain chelsea fan says he is visionless. Don't let him....

Address me directly friend. I don't like ninjas carrying resentment in their chest.

This is what I don't like about Hazard fanboys and that is celebration of mediocrity

Is 44 goals in 4.5 years something to write home about? 9 of them are even penalties. How many top AMs were active 4.5 years ago? Name one regular starting AM at Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool, Man Utd and Man City from 4.5 years ago till now.

Alexis Sanchez is already on 33 goals in half that timeframe. I expect any top AM with consistent run in the side to reach that figure in 3 years. Lampard would do it in two.

PrettyCrystal:
An 8-year-old girl, Divine Momoh, impressed the chief of Army Staff; Gen T.Y Burutai, minister of Youth and Sports; Barr Solomon Dalung and other dignitaries after making an incredible record yesterday at the Nigerian Army Sports festival, swimming 50M distance in the Jabi Lake Abuja.

Source; http://www.nationalhelm.net/2016/10/8-year-old-girl-impresses-chief-of-army.html

You can tell from this post and subsequent comments that Nigeria is a clueless country.

What is so special about swimming 50m that would drag our jobless Ministers and COAS to do jamboree over the girl.

50m is just the length of one swimming pool. Every child in riverine areas of Niger Delta can do this by age 4. And a good percentage of children in the West also. I was also doing the same at 4 years old.

Either the journalist who wrote this is clueless as to what a real record is, or our Ministers are truly jobless.

Spurs have been blessed with a plethora of goalscoring no8s in the last 4 years.

They can even afford to dash out Sigurdsson and Chadli whilst still having Dele Alli and Eriksson on their books.

Meanwhile we dey manage Oscar all this while.

That is our most comfortable performance since December 2014, almost 2 years ago.

First time Leicester haven't had a shot on goal in 18 months.

All the lads played well and the tactics seem to be working for now.

Hazard closer to goal, one extra defender at the back. Conte even showing Costa who's boss. And to top it off, three youth products entered the pitch. No foolish substitutions wasted on giving minutes to wastemen like Oscar.

Oh, and Matic sitting and Kante playing box-to-box in which his energy is most effective. Like I said, there is no football connundrum to which Oscar can ever be a solution.

Good play all round and special shoutout to Victor Moses, Kante and Matic. In Conte we trust.

R.I.P Mama Willian

lalaboi:
Its always been like this and this where you know those who are selfless and patriotic. In the end, they always get their money.

Dont let idiats like Moses fool you. If Nigeria qualified for the world cup today, all this Chubas and Ibes will want to play for Nigeria without thinking twice.

With this new Manager, we are looking good. We'll get money thing right one day sha

Moses parents were killed in Jos riots.

The fact he even turns up to play after the pepper his family has seen in Naija is extreme patriotism.

They said John Terry learned racist behaviour from his father. . . little did we know that old man has caught Jungle Fever. . .

Oh Lord, let not my enemies laugh in my face.

Why doth thou turnest me into an object of mockery; and for how long shall I tarry in the land of the dead?

From 20th position thou hast demoted me to 2nd page whilst my erstwhile contemporary on the table, Nihilist advanceth on top position.

My Lord is not mocked. There shall be a time of reckoning for the steadfast. Ipukulu Ibadupari shall be crowned amongst the nations this season. Thus sayeth the Lord.

Ishilove:
Congrats. God has done it and put all those who laughed at you to shame.

Your joy will continue to be full while shame will follow like a shadow, all those whoever mocked you.

Congrats once again. I rejoice with you!!!

Thanks. It's not that serious though cos I was never trying for a baby as my wife was still going through some professional exams. Those mocking were just doing the usual Nairaland jokery-pokery, not knowing what's going on.

The 2nd month after we started trying, I scored. Simple as that.

GIYAZZ:
Hi Ibime.

I just want to congratulate you on the arrival of your first child. Your baby girl!
I saw your post about her in that Chelsea thread. Wow! i believe you will be so happy now. Ahh! That feeling. I can't imagine it. And she was born in the same birthday month as me.

Oh!! Now you're a father. Not just a father, but the father of a beautiful daughter. Eyaaah! so touching

I believe you're gonna be a great dad. I trust you.

But make sure you teach that my birthday mate how to rap o!

Congrats!!!!

Thanks bros, much appreciated

Dmitri Payet goal be like JayJay Okocha's famous goal for Franfurth vs Oliver Khan.

Nihilist:
24 hours later you still can't explain why 15 of our players are signed to the same man.

The same man who a sports lawyer told you is partly responsible for Roman's purchase of Chelsea.

What if I told you that some of the targets we were linked just this summer with are signed with that same agency?

Koilibaly? Witsel? Thiago Maia?

How come?

You think I pay that nonsense post any mind? Too busy for bullshyt.

Go and count how many players in other clubs belong to the same super agent.

15 players in 13 years is nothing for a club that has turned over more than 400 players in that time. But then again, Maths was never your strong point.

I can show you clubs that have twice as many from one agent in same timeframe, so relax your brain Einstein. Ain't got time for nonsense yarns.

bigkesh:
The Times,cmon you got it wrong
Our 'Einsteins' believe Emenalo is just a figure head and I believe them over you guys

donjazet:
Conte – fresh from his time with the Italian national side – was happy be managed to land former Leicester midfielder N’Golo Kante, but is said to be angered at the Stamford Bridge hierarchy’s lack of ambition in helping him land other key targets.

According To Reports, The Signing Of Michy Batshuayi Was Completed In Order To Pacify Sporting Director Michael Emenalo.

The minute some niggas pit their tents with Emenalo as a mere figurehead ignoring all facts and past history, the reality will catch up with them.

Props to Emenalo on Batshuayi signing though, I like him as a player.

Nihilist:
You keep missing the point with this Berezovsky business by talking about their feud. The feud again is irrelevant. The whole point of mentioning Berezovsky is to show how Kia Joorabchian initially links with Roman.

Berezovsky was Roman's mentor during thr Boris Yeltsin years until Putin came to power. During the same period Kia was Boris's front to buy up former Soviet assets after the fall of the cold war.

Like I said mate, your talk of Abramovic owning MSI are long debunked rumours.

FOR THE FINAL TIME, ABRAMOVICH HAD NO BUSINESS WITH MSI!

The below are the people who owned MSI - including Abramovichs mortal enemy Berezovsky.

In 2007, following allegations that Corinthians had been used to launder money, a Brazilian judge, Faustus Martins de Sanctis, ordered the arrest of Berezovsky, Joorabchian, Nojan Bedroud, cofounder of MSI, and four officials of club, including the chairman, Alberto Dualib.

So please put your FBI rumours to bed. Like I told you, Abramovich can NEVER do business with Berezovsky.

You woke up today to start reading old rumours. 10 years ago I was also excited that Chelsea might be buying the best South American players after the intitial rumours linking MSI to Abramovich, but having followed the story to its conclusion and discovering that it was Abramovichs mortal enemy Berezovsky behind MSI, I realised we were not going to get any of those players. . . . and we didn't even bid for a single one!

The players were Carlos Tevez, Marcelo Mattos, Gustavo Nery, Roger, Javier Mascherano, Carlos Alberto, Sebastián Domínguez and Marinho.

They belonged to Joorabchian and Berezovsky. Abramovich is an enemy of Berezovsky. You are arguing what we have already concluded 6/7/8 years ago. EOD. QED.