₦airaland Forum

Rooney has not improved a single jot since he was 17.

Akolawole:
@Ibime

Thanks for the quoted article and i am sure after reading it, you will come out and correct few of your wrong facts onthe happenings at the Bridge at that time.

My facts were correct - I said that Jose was offered Alex and he declined. The article confirms that. I said Jose mistreated Boulahrouz because he was bought by Arnesen. The article confirms that Boulahrouz was bought by Arnesen. I never denied that all this politics was going on at the Bridge. I said Jose was under pressure and couldn't cope with it - I just didn't know how much pressure he was under, as the article confirms. I apologise for some of the things as I said about Jose and his fractuous personality but still, I was working with the facts. As I said before, as a fan, my concern was not on the politics at the Bridge. My only concern was - Boulahrouz is the best man for the job. Why isn't he playing? I still maintain that if Jose was a bit more cool-headed, we could have won the league that season. I will never deviate from that standpoint. If you think this is a lot of politics, you should see the type of politics that people like Schuster, Rijkaard, Mancini and Ancelotti get to deal with are their clubs. They don't get to sign their own players at all.

Whether soon or not, it may crash eventually if their dodgy accounting practices are not put in check.

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=750986


[center]Marseille Land Ben Arfa[/center]
Olympique de Marseille have confirmed the signing of Lyon youngster Hatem Ben Arfa.

The 21-year-old winger is regarded as one of the hottest prospects in France, having been reported to have held talks with Arsenal about a move to the Emirates Stadium.

But l'OM have confirmed a deal with Lyon after several days of negotiations for the French international.

Although details concerning the length of the contract or the fee paid by Marseille have not been unveiled, it is believed that a bid in the region of €20 million was necessary to take the player to Stade Vélodrome.

The former Lyon player is expected in Marseille in the next few hours to undergo a medical before signing a contract with his new club.

"Ben Arfa is a player we are betting a lot on and he himself is betting a lot on l’OM to completely launch his career," said Marseille chairman Pape Diouf.

"Our goal is to fulfill our needs and I think the arrival of Ben Arfa will do that."

Luis Mira

You forgot Henry Onwuzurike

dayokanu:
Nigerian soldiers get awards in places they go like in Somalia while the UN soldiers were doing Rules of engagement don't kill a soldier

who has surrendered Naija soldiers were killing everyone. Naija soldiers are very ruthless when it comes to these peacekeeping issues in Africa so they often quell uprising easily.

Thank you my brother. Everywhere Naija soldiers go, they quash uprising in a few weeks. Please let us hail ourselves small because peacekeeping mission is what we are good at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UziUhf1ukw

An old man like Mugabe should not be heavy handed in his actions. He was offered immunity from prosecution but he repayed it with violence. You would think a man of his age would happily take the deal that was on the table. Don't worry, the moment his health begin to fails, he will hear wahala. There are enough people in Zimba and in his party ready to stick the knife into him at any sign of failing health.

How can you say Nigerian countries are not willing to die for Naija? Yeah I know . . . . but . . .

I am always boasting to my other African friends that Nigerian soldiers are quick to shut shit down whenever there is a civil war in Africa. From Liberia to Sierra Leone, our soldiers are shutting shit down with a quickness.

Somze, I have to admit you are right. Without interference, Jose would have won that title in 2007. We could have still won it despite interference if he had played Boulahrouz.

As for David Villa, good player but I always prefer big strikers because they give you more than one option. With small strikers you are forever welded to 4-4-2 formation or something close to it. If the striker is small, he should be a good dribbler like Pato, even like Pavyluchenko. I don't think Villa is a good dribbler. Also, I think he is now overpriced based on one good performance against a non-existent Russian defence. Before the Euro's Valencia were asking for 17m, now they want 30m. Too much IMO.

This is the best time to buy Mario Gomez IMO. He had a rubbish Euro's, did not look confident at all . . . . and most importantly, he probably knocked 5m - 7m off his asking price. I know he is a good player because I have seen him several times and he is German National Team player of the year. Plus he is 21, Villa is 26. I guess he was overawed by the occasion and was too nervous to show the world his talents - but trust me, he is a top striker.

Besides we might not need any of these guys because it looks like Drogbas move to Milan has collapsed.

Our players must be really fit then. Look at Olofinjana. His football age is 28. So his real age may be 32. Afterall, he finished University before he started playing. Yet the man still runs around like a 20 year old. Joseph Yobo is also 28 in football age, yet he is still producing week in, week out.

4 Play:
I'm hoping he is very successful.The fact that he is only the first Black British manager is outrageous.If my memory serves me well,I think there are no more than 3 black managers in all the major leagues(out of 72 clubs).

There are only two black managers in professional football in England. Paul Ince is also the first Black British manager in the prem. When you consider that France is a more racist society than Britain, yet they have produced two top flight black coaches in Tigana and Kambuari of Valenciennes and even the President of Marseille, Papa Diouf is black, it makes you wonder.

^^^Well Abramovic needs to learn that agents do not make good advisors as they have a vested interest in selling players to Chelsea whether the players are needed or not. Pini Zahavi and this De Viesser guy have made millions selling players to Chelsea. At the same time, they are advising Abramovic on player transfers. There is obviously a conflict of interest there.

Like I said before, Boulahrouz was an unwitting party to a political game of chess between Arnesen and Mourinho and he paid for it. I am not saying Boulahrouz is Chelsea standard but he was a player we could have brought in when Terry and Carvalho were injured during December 06 and January 07. I sympathise with Mourinho over his treatment of Boularouz but at the same time I am a Chelsea fan and my only concern is that we win whichever game we have with the players best suited to play, regardless of the politics. That said, I cannot believe that Arnesen recommended Boulahrouz over Micah Richards. That is just stupid. Based on that alone, he should lose his job.

somze:
It's time we have a management that includes true Chelsea fans or past players. I don't see why Zola or Vialli can not help our structure. We need a change in our management style. Kenyon should have been sacked long before today.

We don't even need to be hiring ex-Chelsea players. We just need to allow the manager (Scolari) to appoint the staff he wants and staff who are loyal to him, not backbiting backstabbers. If you remember, Vialli also stabbed Ruud Gullit in the back and Gullit has not forgiven him till today.

Hahahaha . . . nice. I even see a little Iverson cross-over going on there.

This is one of the most insighful pieces I have read on Mourinho's time at Chelsea. It gives a very good insight on the internal politics at Stamford Bridge.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/sep/23/newsstory.chelsea1


[center]'Tears, hugs and two icy handshakes'[/center]

Jose Mourinho's reign at Chelsea ended emotionally, with warm dressing-room embraces for 23 of his players - and a cold handshake for Andriy Shevchenko and skipper John Terry. His departure, though, was a long time coming. Duncan Castles reports

Andriy Shevchenko is taking Michael Essien to task on his performance in the night's embarrassing 1-1 draw with Rosenborg. The former European footballer of the year tells Africa's finest midfielder that he tried to make too many passes through the centre of the Norwegians' formation where '70 percent of their players were'. Essien learns he should have been passing to the wings 'where they only had 30 percent of their men'.

Not the most insightful of tactical advice, but then these are not the thoughts of a Ukraine international, they are those of a Russian billionaire. Standing beside Shevchenko, tactics board in hand, Roman Abramovich is the man telling Essien how to play football. Shevchenko is merely there to translate. In another room, attending to the press, Mourinho is utterly unaware of his employer's actions.

Tuesday, 7:11pm, the home dressing room. Chelsea's squad of 18 are called out for their pre-match warm up. All the players step out for the carefully prepared drill - except one. John Terry remains sitting where he is. One of Jose Mourinho's assistants urges Terry out. Chelsea's captain refuses, swears, and, according to an eye witness, says he is upset and has 'things on my mind'. Terry is said to be furious after finding out that Mourinho had been asking in Chelsea's treatment room whether there was a medical reason for his perceived loss of form over recent weeks. The stand-off continues until a team-mate cajoles his friend out on to the pitch.

The game starts, Chelsea quickly lose a goal at a free kick as Miika Koppinen stretches ahead of Terry to turn in a near-post cross. Chelsea go in at half time 1-0 down and Jose Mourinho takes his captain to task, blaming the defender for the deficit. Terry says nothing but all his team-mates can see the anger on his face.

The pair had once been the closest of footballing allies, but within 24 hours Mourinho is no longer Terry's manager as Chelsea agree to a £10.5million pay-off to rid themselves of a man they describe as 'the most successful manager the club has known'.

'The relationship broke down not because of one detail or because of something that happened at a certain moment. It broke down over a period of time.' - Jose Mourinho, 21 September 2007.

To understand how the winner of two Premier League titles, two League Cups and one FA Cup, a man who averaged an unprecedented 2.33 points from his 120 Premiership games in just over three seasons, steadily became persona non grata at the club he made great, it is necessary to return to the summer of 2005.

'In Jose's first season everything was fine,' said a Chelsea employee who suffered the Abramovich guillotine long before the Portuguese. 'He came in, he won the title by miles, almost made the Champions League final, everyone was happy. But then it all began to go wrong. Peter Kenyon started thinking it was his genius as a chief executive that was important. Abramovich's mates were telling him his money had done it and any half-decent coach would win the league with those resources. They forgot that the most important man at any club is the manager.'

That summer, Chelsea poached Tottenham Hotspur's sporting director Frank Arnesen at a cost of £5m. Ostensibly recruited to revolutionise the club's sub-standard youth ranks, the Dane was actually brought in on the recommendation of Piet de Visser, a well-known Dutch talent scout who had advised Abramovich on football matters from his first months as Chelsea owner.

Arnesen and De Visser, friends and allies from their time together at Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, steadily worked to influence Abramovich's thinking on the first team, and, most importantly, player recruitment. Along with the agents Soren Lerby, Vlado Lemeic and Pini Zahavi they sought to steer Abramovich towards the purchase of certain footballers. Their objective, according to one source, was 'to get to Abramovich's money. To do that they needed power at the club, needed a manager who would do what they wanted. Mourinho was not that manager.'

Thus emerged a power struggle in which Arnesen and others seemed to undermine Mourinho by questioning him at every opportunity. When Mourinho went to war with Uefa over the actions of referees they told Abramovich his coach was embarrassing the club. When Mourinho's team dourly won key matches by a goal to nil, they told the owner a better coach would win by more goals and bring him far more flamboyant football. When a Mourinho signing failed to perform on the pitch, they told Abramovich that better players could be found elsewhere.

Within a year, and despite Mourinho's success in claiming a second successive Premiership, the manager had lost control of transfers. In the 2006 summer window, Mourinho asked the board to buy Samuel Eto'o; they spent a UK record £30m on Shevchenko. Chelsea sold William Gallas to Arsenal against Mourinho's wishes, and forced the £7m Khalid Boulahrouz upon him, while Arnesen compounded the error of allowing Chelsea's most effective defender to leave the club by pulling the plug on the £5m purchase of Micah Richards. Inside a season Richards was a full England international, while Boulahrouz was stinking out the reserves until Chelsea paid Sevilla to take him off their hands.

At least Mourinho could easily leave the Dutch defender out of the first team. A personal friend of Abramovich's, Shevchenko played regardless of his performances, and those were usually awful. In his first 26 appearances for Chelsea, the Ukrainian striker scored five goals. His coaches and team-mates often felt as though Chelsea were playing with 10 men and Mourinho was faced with a problem - should he leave out the owner's pal or lose the faith of the rest of the team?

As January approached, Mourinho asked to be allowed to sign a new striker. The board refused. Mourinho asked for a centre-back to cover for Terry, then sidelined with a serious back problem. The board offered him a choice between Alex, a Brazilian bought via De Visser and 'parked' at PSV for two seasons, and Tal Ben Haim, a Zahavi client. Mourinho wanted neither.

Worse still, Chelsea's manager was instructed to sack one of his assistants and add the Israeli Avram Grant to his coaching staff. When he refused, the club descended into open warfare.

Mourinho dropped Shevchenko from his first team, leaking the story to a national newspaper in an open challenge to Abramovich to sack him. On an emotional afternoon at Stamford Bridge the manager first rallied his team around him, then sent them out to overrun Wigan 4-0. Long before kick-off the Chelsea supporters were chanting 'Stand up for the Special One' through standing ovation after standing ovation.

An infuriated Abramovich ceased attending games and instructed his advisors to find a replacement coach. Mourinho let it be known that he would leave, but only on payment of the outstanding value of his contract - about £28m comprising £5.2m per annum for three-and-a-half years and up to £10m in bonuses. In the meantime he kept winning matches, pushing his injury-hit squad to within a few games of a remarkable quadruple.

Ultimately Chelsea won the League Cup and the FA Cup, forcing Abramovich to reconcile with his manager. A consciously 'mellow' Mourinho promised to avoid conflict with opposing managers and football authorities, accepted restrictions on his transfer budget, and reshaped his team in a more flamboyant 4-4-2 formation. Fatefully, he also acceded to the appointment of Grant as Chelsea's director of football.

Though some in Mourinho's camp had Grant pinned as a 'Mossad Spy' from the off, the manager attempted to work with him, holding long meetings with him during the club's staggeringly positive pre-season US tour and letting it be known that he welcomed his arrival as a buffer against Arnesen and route to Abramovich. The early-season optimism, however, swiftly evaporated.

Grant began calling individual players aside to ask them questions.

'You look sad, why?' 'How do you feel in this position?' 'Is this the best place for you to play?' 'Are we using your abilities well?' Because many of them complained about this to Mourinho, the manager decided to cut back radically on team meetings, the only one this season having been arranged for the Jewish New Year when Grant had returned to Israel.

While Grant looked on at training, Shevchenko treated it with disdain. A morose, lonely figure around the camp, he seemed to show more interest in improving his golf swing than his shooting. As the first team prepared for their final pre-season friendly against Danish side Brondby, Shevchenko declared himself unfit with a back problem. A 2-0 victory ensured the £121,000-a-week striker was not missed, but Mourinho was bemused to discover that Shevchenko's bad back had not prevented him from enjoying a round of golf at Sunningdale that day.

The board, though, were not interested and the club's descent continued. Other players began to realise what was happening, that the summer's peace was a false one, that their manager had no support from the top. 'The mentality became weaker and weaker,' said one insider. 'You could feel the team's strength sapping away.'

Mourinho knew his time at Chelsea was coming to an end. At Uefa's forum for elite coaches in Geneva a fortnight ago he allowed Premier League rivals an insight into his thinking. 'Mourinho said he loved Chelsea and he loved English football, but thought he would not stay for long,' said one coach. 'One of us asked him why. He wouldn't answer, but it was obvious something was seriously wrong.'

His next Champions League match brought the end. On Wednesday afternoon the board asked Mourinho to resign, citing his handling of Shevchenko, his attitude to authority and, crucially, his relationship with Terry as reasons why he should go. Mourinho refused to walk, and fought only to maximise his pay-off as Chelsea apparently threatened to call club employees to testify against him at any employment tribunal.

A £10.5m pay-off was agreed and the following morning Mourinho made a final trip to the training centre at Cobham to pick up his possessions and say goodbye to his squad. There was a message in each farewell. For most there was a Latin embrace and warm words of thanks. For Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard the emotions were so strong that both men were reduced to tears, Lampard retreating to the shower room in an attempt to hide his. For Shevchenko and Terry there was nothing but a handshake that, in the words of one observer, could have 'frozen a mug of tea'. No one was in any doubt about who he considered the true captains of his team.

Out with the old, in with the new. Furious at Mourinho's dismissal, senior players describe Grant's appointment as 'a disgrace'. Some at Cobham call him 'an idiot' and describe his coaching techniques as '25 years behind the times'. Abramovich pushes the Israeli around 'without a hint of respect'.

Former academy coach Brendan Rogers has been drafted in to help out with the first team, a promotion that may not be unconnected to the one-on-one training sessions he gave Abramovich's son. Only in Steve Clarke is there the level of football knowledge to deal with a squad full of international superstars. As the sole survivor of Mourinho's cadre of four assistant managers, the Scotsman has an unenviable task.

But then neither he nor Grant will be picking the team. As Michael Essien discovered on Tuesday night, the new manager of Chelsea is also the owner.

somze:
What did bhoularouz play now? You and your anti-JM sentiments.

It is not anti-JM. Boulahrouz has cleared his name and that has been acknowledged in all the newspapers. The question is - is he or he is not a better centre-back than Essien and Ferreira? If you cannot answer that question, just leave it instead of holding on to your unflailing dogma. They say the fly wey follow dead body enter grave will also be buried. Either you accept that Mourinho is not God and is sometimes fallible or give up independent thought altogether and let JM shape your total view on football. FYI, I am not anti-JM as you think. I had gone off Mourinho in his last year but I started to miss him again after Grant left because I was comparing all the managers linked to Chelsea with Mourinho and I found that only Hiddink is up to standard. If you look at all the names linked to the job from Scolari to Mancini to Rijkaard and Ancelotti, that should tell you how highly I rate Mourinho.


As for Steve Clarke, Scolari has already approached Leicester Assistant Manager because he played in Portugal for 8 years and speaks the lingo. Whether Clarke is much involved in training the players, I don't think so. Mourinho never confided in him unlike Brito and Faria and last season Ten Cate did most of the coaching. I believe Mourinho only used him as a British face of the coaching staff and as a link to the players. I only started hearing his influence after Mourinho left because he protested so loudly. I don't have any allegiance to Clarke so I really don't care if he stays or not. I remember the end of his playing career and he was average, certainly not a decent back-up to Dan Petrescu so i have no emotional ties to him as a player either. To be honest Scolari can change the staff as much as he likes, the only ones I have allegiance to are Mike Emenalo (if he is still there) because he is Nigerian and Terry Ellis because we went to college together.


As for Arshavin, our style of play must change whether we like it or not. It is by decree of Mr Abramovic. By the way, I have seen him play seven times now and I think this Euro championship is no fluke. As for Lampard, I am all for him but if he keeps insisting on this 4 year contract he can forget it. He is already 30 and we don't want to be paying £135,000 to a 34 year old. Apparently Chelsea feel they got their fingers burnt by giving Shevchenko 5 year contract and they are not willing to take that risk again. Besides Arshavin is not a central midfielder in the Lampard mould. My guess is that he will be used as a winger/playmaker in the Ronaldinho mould ie he may not occupy a central position but may be asked to playmake from the wing. At least not while Drogba is there because Drogba style does not fit in with Arshavin if Arshavin is positioned centrally behind him. In one of tomorrows papers it is being claimed that Roman asked Scolari if we can buy Arshavin and he is willing to pay up to £20m.

Please Mr Abramovic, do not hesitate.

Apparently Zenith have confirmed that they will let Arshavin leave and they have given him till friday to make his mind up. It is thought that he prefers to move to Chelsea or Arsenal.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21012008/4/arshavin-admits-english-interest.html


Arshavin Admits English Interest
Mon 21 Jan, 12:09 PM

Russia captain Andrei Arshavin has admitted he would relish the chance to play in England.

The 26-year-old has been strongly linked with a move to the Premier League, with the likes of Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Everton and Newcastle all thought to be interested in him.

And when asked about a move, the Russian captain said: "Of course I want to play in England."

Arshavin's club Zenit St Petersburg, who won the Russian championship last season, are keen for him to stay but their director of sport Konstantin Sarsania has confirmed there is interest in him.

He admitted: "Newcastle, Everton and Marseille were interested in Arshavin. Also a few other European football agents asked us about terms of his transfer. But we didn't receive any official offer.

"I know that Newcastle and Everton scouts visited our games to watch Andrei."

Zenit have already sold Martin Skrtel to Liverpool this month and Arshavin is hoping he will follow his former team-mate to England.

"Arshavin is well known in Europe by many great European clubs," his agent Pavel Andreev told the player's official website.

"We have actually transferred power of attorney so that we can let an English agency do the serious negotiations.

"They will communicate the interest with any clubs for Andrei and once we have information we will report it."

Andreev admitted there was interest from British clubs but he would not confirm their identities.

janami:
do JAMB without cheating? for my time, that one na academic suicide

hehehe . . . . for real.  I was buying paper as far back as Junior WAEC.

ritchboy:
I had a feeling russia will win but i never believed they could outplay the dutch 2 that extent.
Arshavin, well what can i say? The man is a genius.he's like a grittier/pacier version of hleb.read somewhere arsenal r leading the race 2 sign him.hope its true!

O-boy I trust Guus Hiddink 100%. I always thought Russia would win. I just hope they don't play Spain in the next round because Spain play too much possession football for them. They will not be able to get the ball from Spain much less launch counter-attacks as they love to do.

Arsenal? For where? They are interested but they do not have enough money to pay Arshavin. Barca were interested in him 3 years ago but he told them that they could not afford his wages because Zenith St. Petersburg are owned by an oligarch who pays him very well. Infact Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is the one who set up the deal for Gazprom to take over Zenith St Petersburg (because he is their no 1 fan) and Medvedev and Abramovic are good friends. Infact, it was Abramovic who funded his election campaign.

To be honest, I knew the guy was good, but I didn't believe he was THAT good. The man is looking almost like a right footed version of Lionel Messi. I first saw him in the England game where he played well  but did not catch my eye as a world-beater. When I saw him in the match against Leverkusen when they won 4-1, I thought OK, this guy is good. By the time they beat Bayern 4-1, I was like whoa. But after what I have seen in these Euro's, men the guy is too much. He has to jump to the top of the list for players Chelsea should be targeting. Mr Abramovic, you know what to do. Please don't let us down.

It is not new. If NFA cannot afford the rights, they cannot afford it. Or should NFA give it to them for free? NFA needs money to make sure the players are catered for. In England, we have many England matches which are shown by Sky Sports, not BBC.

Of course. Flirting is the oil of life. Life would be boring without it.

I have just sent an email to Abramovic and I have warned him that if he doesn't sign Arshavin, na die him dey.  We need him badly. He is owned by one of these Russian oligarchs so Abramovic should just cut a deal with him. Guus Hiddink should be our manager, not Scolari. Hiddink is a genius. If Abramovic wanted entertaining football, he should have signed Hiddink. Russia should have won that game 6-1.

I also hope that Boulahrouz proved in this tournament that Mourinho was victimising him because of politics. All of you guys that claimed that Essien and Ferreira are better centre-backs than him can see it now. As you all know, my antipathy toward Mourinho came from his treatment of Boulahrouz and I still insist till today that that was the reason we lost the league in 06/07. Boulahrouz is a better right-back than Ferreira sef, much less centre-back.

Only if you know for sure that the guy likes you and is just too shy to tell you. If you ask any guy out on a date, he will always say yes whether he likes you or not. If he doesn't like you, he will dip his fingers in the cookie jar, string you along for a bit, stall you, enjoy the honey and leave you. So no, I don't advice any chick to ask a guy out unless they are 100% certain that the guy likes them and is too shy to ask them out.

Who tell you say we no fit French kiss? Maybe the Naija guys you have been with do not love you. If dem love you, no be only French kiss them go give you, na Belgian kiss.

Are we talking about love or just sex?

It is only guys in Naija that are spending their money on chicks, hoping for sex. Sex is a relatively cheap commodity here in the UK and guys do not need to be spending money chasing chicks.

If it is for love, I can chase a chick forever. A guy should know from the first meeting whether a chick likes him or not. If she likes you, you can tell from her smile, her gaze etc. If she doesn't like you, you will tell immediately and you will stop chasing her. If I chase a chick for a long period, she must have given me some encouragement. An encouragement could be just a kiss, a holding of hands, flirting etc. Infact, if she only wants to hold hands after say two weeks of chasing her, I can chase her indefinitely because that tells me she is a woman of principle who likes me but is not willing to put out too early. Sometimes a chick may like you but will not be willing to show because you are in a social gathering etc or because of social pressure. Maybe she knows your sister etc. In such a case, it is better to use guerrilla tactics. Just befriend the chick and keep your options open. Something will come of it, guaranteed. Naija guys need to stop chasing chicks indefinitely without encouragement. Maybe the chick no like you sef.

@ Somze and Nateevs,

One thing I will say about Ballack is that his fitness had really improved in the last year. I noticed that he covered more kilometres than anyone in the Champions League final. He also covered the most distance in Germany vs Portugal.

@ Nateevs,

When you have Essien as one of your two DM's it is like having an extra midfielder anyway so you don't need two attacking midfielders because his stamina is too much. Anyway one of them is not necessarily DM but a CM. It will be the perfect balance. Veloso is cool but I haven't really seen him dominate games maybe from not having that much stamina plus he is more a long-range passer. I haven't seen his short range game that much. Lovely left foot though.

Remember that in December and January, we won 9 games in a row playing this 4-2-3-1 formation:

                                              Pizarro/ Anelka

Malouda                           Wright-Phillips                      Cole

                             Mikel/Maka                       Ballack

Cole                      Alex                            Carvalho          Belleti

This was Wright-Phillips best period in his Chelsea career. He played in that playmaker position but was able to pull wide as Arshavin does for Russia. Also because he is very quick, he quickly bridged the gap between midfield and attack. If we can get a playmaker who is also very fast then this system is a perfect system IMO. Arshavin is the best at playing that position simply because of his pace. I hate the slow build-up because defenders get back in their position that is why I have not agreed when you say you would like Diego or VDV - but if it is a very fast playmaker, I am all in favour.

Why these muslim guys want phock up show? Of course the far right will use that picture for political capital. They should understand the situation and just chill abeg.

Well Mourinho criticised Scolari for employing the zonal marking system from set-pieces. And what happened? Germany buried them from two set pieces where the marking was non-existent. I hope Scolari is not going to bring that zonal marking system to Chelsea because the way we mark at the moment is perfect. I am also dissapointed with Scolari for persisting with Simao through the whole tournament because he has been a flop. Nani or Quaresma would have been much better.

Anyway, I am happy Portugal are out so Scolari can start his work immediately.

I just noticed how much pace Bosingwa has. I never thought he was that fast. Damn that boy is quick. He also has a good cross. He reminds me of a right footed Patrice Evra although he does not enter into the tackles hard like Evra. With him and Essien in our side, we have too much pace, power, stamina and fury. We will be unstoppable.

@ Nateevs,

This 4-2-3-1 system is making waves o! Germany used it today with Simon Rolfes, Scweinsteiger and Podolski, Russia use a version of it with any three from Arshavin, Zyrianov, Saenko, Bilyadetinov and Zhirkov as do Holland with three from Kuyt, VDV, Van Persie, Robben and Sneijder and Zenith St Petersburg use it as well. It looks like an improvement on the rigid 4-3-3. It requires the three men behind the forward to be fast and extremely flexible. All need to be able to play centrally and the central guy needs to be able to play on the wing and also be able to dribble. It look like the closest thing to total football. Do you think we can effectively harness this system next season? For a start, you cannot play it with a striker like Drogba, nor with Lampard unless he drops back as one of the two central/holding midfielders. What players apart from Arshavin can play this system effectively? I still think VDV is too slow for the system but I am open to ideas for playmakers who are quick enough and skillul enough to play it.

Well this coup originated from Lebanese-Nigerians. It is these same Lebanese that have been carrying out shoddy contracts on behalf of our State Government and chopping all our money, no wonder OBJ kicked out those Lebanese brothers from Naija. We need to make stricter visa regulations for these Lebanese people abeg.

[center]I Want Deco, Lampard And Drogba - Mourinho[/center]
Jose Mourinho admits that he would like to bring Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Deco to Inter.

The ‘Special one’, who won major titles with the Chelsea duo and a Champions League with Deco, insists that he would like to be re-united with those players as he continues to strengthen the Nerazzurri.

Reports have been rife over the club’s penchant for all three players and Mourinho has confirmed his side may continue to try and bring them to Milan.   

“I am not nostalgic but I really like those three players, they helped me win some great titles,” Mourinho told ESPN.   

“I cannot forget Deco, Lampard and Drogba. These are players who I could never say no to.   

“I would love to work with them again in future but I am not too obsessed with this idea.   

“I don’t know which of the three will leave their clubs but we’ll see.”   

Mourinho also spoke about Adriano. The Brazilian hit-man has returned to Inter and is looking forward to a revival and the coach admits that he will give Adriano another chance.   

“Adriano? I am really curious about him,” said the coach.   

“He is a great player and I like him a lot. He is still young and he can recover for the lost time.   

“I want to talk with him and tell him what I think and I’ll see what he is thinking also.”   

Inter president Massimo Moratti has recently stated the club’s desire to bring in Frank Lampard from Chelsea and it might just happen following Mourinho’s call.   

Salvatore Landolina

@ Wormy

Fabio Coentrao is a beast. His left foot is too much. I hope he will be able to establish himself at Benfica next season and at Chelsea the season after. He did very well on loan at Nacional Madeira.