₦airaland Forum

I read the comment as well. . .
Did you read in the stories today that Grant said he doesn't want Compensation? Does that sound like something I have said before?
Yeah it does!!!! He never had a contract. Simple. Grant was only a stop gap and all this was pre-arranged. Bloody russian guy. He is a sucessful businessman and knows exactly what he wants. . .

@Somze

Pls check this out . . . I am having a laugh. He would have earned respect if he kept quiet.

http://blogs.notw.co.uk/sport/2008/05/grant-sacked.html

@Somze,

What I think is
1. JM will not come back.
2. JM will sign for Inter. .
3. Then Lampard will leave . . .
4. And Drogba will leave. . . .


For Robinho. . I am quite happy at the propect of him joining as he can play the second striker role in a 4-4-2 or a wide forward in a 4-3-3.
I do not see him as very expensive as we sold Robben to Real for £24m. . .
Five players I really want us to sign and that's it for me. . . Ribery, Quaresma(i fianlly want him), Diego and Gomez. .

Complete squad . . . Get Gus Hiddink and we are ready to Challenge on all fronts.

Meanwhile Grant has his admires as he is almost already employed less than 1 day after his sacked from Chelsea. . .



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article3999882.ece

And Alex Ferguson has less than 3 years to go. . . I can't wait for that to happen.

@Aikinlabi

So if we bring in a manager that stay tied on points with you for 6months week in week out, you will have even more admiration umh?

We all know why people isolated JM's success from Chelsea. . it was because of his suppossed utterances. . . If according to you he did not have that, you would have admired his back2back titles and felt even sorry for his not lifting the Champions League.

They cheered at the sacking of JM and cheered at the appointment of Grant. . . . .Let's see if they Cheer at the appointment of Gus Hiddink or Didier Deschamps. . .

It's simple . . if Grant can be the Manager of ManU, Arsenal or Liverpool . . . then his sacking was unfair.

We tried to sign a player that said he will never play for Avram Grant. . . we might have lost Luca Modric to Spurs for the same reason. Ben Haim said if he knew Grant was going to be Manager, he won't have signed . . . How many more players do we think already having this assertion?

I don't see a player like Messi or Kaka not saying the same.

My problem is why they all think Grant was sacked because he did not win the champions league. The last time Roman went to see a Chelsea game was the Carling Cup final. .

This is the reason Grant was sacked. . . . . Which one of ManU and Arsenal will prefer Grant as your Manager for the next three years?
Answer the question and then you know why he was sacked. . .

Everyone is speculating. . . the manager was already chosen before grant was sacked.

you don't get it do you? wat i am saying is aw do u know he signed a contract? he was roman's mate remember?

Why give him a 4-year contract or why tell the press he was given a 4-year contract? Do you think this was all not planned out from the beginning?

What exactly is it that is so surprising . . . ? Chelsea sacked their manager or Chelsea sacked Avarm Grant. ?
I do not want to believe people thought Grant was going to last more than a season.

The same people that gave reasons why Roman sacked JM are the same that hink he is a fool for sacking Grant. I don't understand what the fuss is all about. So are saying we expect Grant to be there another season? Hell no!!!!

Roman knows why he terminated Grant appointment. This is the reason . . . which one of you guys will gladly welcome with open arms, Avram Grant in your club as manager. Now that's the reason his contract was terminated. .

@Rikkyjen,

Very nice post. I can't be surprised anymore. I knew he wasn't going to be there next season. How I knew, I can't tell but I had the feeling and whether he won the CL or not he was not going to stay. Grant was already talking about his perhaps not being at Chelsea about one week b4 the CL final . . Kenyon stopped backing him publicly. Roman stopped coming to the bridge. . . . there were issues going on in the back room that we could not see.

All these I figured. . spelt the words long ago. I feel for him . . but you will think that not as much I felt for JM. Could JM go on to the pitch to play and win the CL ? No he couldn't and he got sacked even though he was the most successful. . . If JM can be sacked with all the victories he brought to Chelsea, what is to say Grant can't after a trophyless season?

It's clearly a case of WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. I said long time ago. . if I were Grant I won't accept the job in the first place. . . .

@Ibime

And that marks the beginning of the change for the next season. Who do you expect to see as manager? My first choice is Gus Hiddink. . . Then Laudrup.

Laudrup left getafe a few weeks ago and said he already knew where he was going to. . . might be here. Well let's us not be surprised if we see Jose. .

Chelsea just fired Grant. . . .

I have been waiting for the break of the news. . . but somze kept me here with him. . . Somze likes discussing with me . . .


Farewell Mr Grant. Thanks for your time at Chelsea. I hope you get a club and start your coaching career in the proper fashion. I think it was a big cross for him to carry in the first place and we all saw it coming . . .


REACTIONS PLEASE. . . .

1. Crespo
Season before Chelsea - 30 appearances, 16 goals
Chelsea - 29 appearances, 12 goals
Ac Milan - 38 appearances, 16 goals
Chelsea - 35 appearances, 12 goals
Inter Milan - 35 appearances 15 goals
Inter Milan 22 appearances 5 goals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Crespo

These facts do not support your argument.

Yes they do. . . .

1. Going by arithmetic he scored more goals in any season outside chelsea than he did in chelsea.
2. The season before joining he scored 16 goals more than his chelsea's 12 goals and he was injured for four months. . completely out.
3. He went on loan when he could not cut it in Chelsea to Milan and scored 16 goals obviously more than his chelsea endeavours plus he was third choice striker behind Sheva and Inzaghi





2. Shevy
Show me a link that says he was not a pacy player and I'll show you one for his fitness.

Well it will be difficult for me to provide a link to show that sheva was not pacy except that if you are a football follower, you know those that are pacy and those that are not. There was never a time Sheva was known for his pace; like Henry or Eto'o was. Now for you to make a claim that he lost his FITNESS is something you must be able to back-up. It's a serious claim and you must back it up.

Don't forget you said he had a bad season before he joined but he scored 28 goals in that season. What happened when he joined? He scored only 14.  Are you telling me playing in front of Rivaldo, Leonardo, Pirlo, Ceedorf, Kaladdze, Kaka is like playing in front Lampard, Maka, Essien and sometimes SWP?

Common somze!!!! 





3. Mutu
You can not prove he was not on drug in his first season. Please supply such proof.
Mutu was also injured for a while in Chelsea so that too can account for his lack of goals.
Meanwhile he played under Ranieri. Are you saying Ranieri's style was same with JM's?
[b]This holds no water too unless you care to prove any of the above facts [/b]


It was never an argument of JM's style or not. . . It has been an argument of not so good midfield we tend to praise all the time and that has been since Ranieri. . .

Now yes I can't prove that he was not drugs in his first season. You can't as well saying his taking drugs affected his game and he could not score. . no way. I can't accept that except you can show me to my face aw you came about that. Simple fact is that until 2004, when he was sacked he was a flop.
You said he had an absymaal performance in Juve, remember he just came back from a 7month ban. . there's no player that can do that and return to previous form. He went on to fiorentina and has scored 42 goals in 2 seasons.
He is better that he was at chelsea. . bottom line.

@Somze,

You don't disrespect people when proving a point. You have not proven me wrong . . I'l tell you why.

Crespo's immediate season before he joined umh? You said he had a bad season before he joined us, he scored only 7 goals but guess what you failed to say that he had a nasty injury at Inter that kept him out for 4 months in that same season before he joined. . . what about that.?   Secondly the 7 goals he scored were Serie A goals . . he also scored 9 goals in 12 appearances in the Champions league in that same season even though he was out for four months. Amazing !!!!

He came to Chelsea had a full season and didnot score more that 10 league goals and only 2 CL goals.

Now he returned to Milan on loan the next season and scored 16 goals even though he was third choice striker behind Sheva and Inzaghi. . . before he came back to Chelsea and scored only 12 as a fully fit striker and with equal opportunities as other strikers, . . You still do not think it hold water umh?




Sheva. . . you still have not shown me the link were you saw that he had lost his fitness before he joined. Let me tell you something . . Sheva never had pace. He played in front of great players like Kaka, Ceedorf, Leonardo, Pirlo, Rivaldo and several others I cannot remember now.
We never had players like these. These guys know how to place the ball to Sheva that enabled him to score 127 goals in all seasons at Milan.
He came to Chelsea and the passing element was absent. He had to work like a horse. . like Drogba . Work like Essien . . he was bound to fail. . . he will not score .

That was Sheva's predicament and not particularly his pace. . . he was never a pacy player. Ballack came into the premiership older than Sheva. . . aw come he made it? Sheva is faster than Ballack.





MUTU. . . Mutu was not on drugs in firts season. Give me a link that shows his first season was affected by drugs. He left Chelsea, had a 7month ban from football and you expect him to come and score 20 goals. He didn't, he scored 9 got back to fitness and has now scored 42 goals in 2 seasons.


Still holds no water? You still have not told me what happened to Kezman. . .

@Ibime,

Also remember that the manager cannot ask the midfield to do what it can't.


WRT your team list. .

It's hard to decide which one of the two I like. If I can make a shuffle . . this is what I will do.

              -----------------------Cech----------------------

          Bosingwa-------Riccy-------Terry-------------Cole

  -         ---------------------Essien-----------------------

Ballack------------------Diego

Ribery------------------------------------------------------Quaresma

            ----------------------Gomez-----------------------


Subs. . . . Alex, Ivanovic, Anelka, Mikel, Kaka, Bridge, Kalou, Robinho.

In my mind Drogba and Lampard have left us.

@Somze

Sheva had a bad season before he joined Chelsea. . . He scored 28 goals for Milan in the season before he joined. This is the first time I have heard anyone say Sheva lost his fitness before he joined Chelsea. Can you provide links.


Mutu did not test for cocaine in his first season did he? So he was not on drugs when he only managed 10 goals. Now you boldly say he scored only 9 goals for Juventus. . . why did you not mention that he scored 42 goals for fiorentina in 2 seasons now. . ?

because Anelka did not score a lot of goals in Liverpool does not mean he is not a big club player. If you do not play to players' strengths . . you can't get them to score. Simple. Anelka scored 10 goals b4 he came to Chelsea and he's only scored 1 and you still think it's anelka's problem and not team problem . . .


So what? We always sign wrong strikers? How do you expect me to believe that ? What happened to Kezman?
Now tell me one striker you think we should sign and you are confident he will make it with the current squad?



You don't need to talk about argument falling flat on its face . . . we are discussing and not fighting. . if you prove a point and I think it is right . . I'ld accept. . but here, no no no.


Again,
Now tell me one striker you think we should sign and you are confident he will make it with the current squad?

@Somze,

Mutu's drugs had nothing to do with his lack of goals. . . He's scored 51 goals for Juve and Fiorentina since he left Chelsea. .

Shevchenko was 29 when he joined.  Fine. . bad age to join the premiership. Alright. I am telling you that it cannot be as bad as scoring only 10 goals in two seasons.

Crespo's form has depeened as at the time he joined Chelsea but he's scored 28 goals for Milan and Inter since he left Chelsea.

Anelka scored 10 goals in the premiership before he joined Chelsea half way into the season, but only managed 1 goal since he joined. .

Do all these not look like a trend. . . ? Of course it's a trend. .


When we have another striker next season and we don't have new midfeild players he will flop and then we will say he was not all that good before he joined us. 


Do you still think it lacks solidity?

@4play

Please Chill out with the tension. Let's talk sports.

@Ibime.

There are two sides to midfield. Attacking and Defensive. We are mainly the later. I was not trying to say they did not give in overtime. . . except that if that was overtime, then we don't have any midfield.
That our midfield is the best in the world is not true. If you say that our  defensive side of midfield is one of the best, I agree.

What exactly makes our midfield the best? We scored the least number of goals of the big four. Only 17 more than Everton in fifth place. The main objectives of midfield is to create, start attacks, retain possesion, create first line of defence for the Defenders and above all create scoring chances . . .

1. We don't start attack, we counter attack.
2. We don't retain possession, we conceed possession and defend.
3. We don't create enough scoring chances. . We create a few, score one or two goals and then go back to defend.
4. One thing we do is that we provide more defence in midfield than attack.


Now our mifield is such that only a striker like Drogba can fit in the team. . . bocs he is a do-it-alone kind of striker that does not need any sort of midfield prowress in the team to score goals. That covers for long the inadequacies of our midfield and we think it's the best. No it is not. what is the main reason all these players have not suceeded at Chelsea?

1. Kezman
2. Mutu
3. Crespo
4. Sheva
5. now Anelka

All world class strikers with amazing scoring records before they arrived at Chelsea. . . the answer is simple. . . Bad Midfield. We do not create many scoring chances because we don't have midfielders that free attackers, rather the midfielders are the highest goal scorers themselves. So it does not mata who comes, Gomez, Aguero, Torres, Eto'o, KJH, anyone. . . with the same midfield they will all go the same way as their predecessors. . except they are a DRGOBA. . which they are clearly not.  

It is not a good structure. I am not slating, I am just identifying that we have inadequacies and we should correct them this season. . if not then next season will be the same. perhaps even worse.

ASL33:
The combined age is 95 and not 65 as u quoted

I am sorry I actually had 95 in mind . . I don't know when I typed 65. I have edited it now. . thanks for that.

@Somze

It was me that wanted Nasri. .



@Ibime.


Nateevs you are SOOOOOO wrong on this one. Firstly, European football writers have acknowledged that the best team lost.

I am not one of those that believe all that the media said about the match. The best team lost with one shot on target in the whole of the first half? Check the stats. . . . I am not saying we were not better than ManU at some point in the game. . don't forget that ManU could have wrapped it up in the first with 3 exquisite chances.




Secondly, Lamps and Ballack TOTALLY dominated midfield. I believe we have the best midfield in the world. BAR NONE except maybe Arsenal. Ballack created a clear chance for Lamps and Lamps created a clear chance for Malouda. I don't remember Scholes or Carrick creating ANY chances.

Lamps was fantastic on the night but far away from TOTALLY dominating the midfield. Let's not be biased. The first half was rubbish. . . not for the goal. The second half was lifted in spirit. . . but a tad less that what I wanted. . Talking about dominating the midfield. . ,  imagine Cech allowed on of those goals in. . or Terry could not get his head on that day-saving block? There will not be any talk about Midfield dominating. . we did not have any chacne like that. .

Don't forget that ManU's midfield went dead when Scholes bumped into Maka. . . he had a problem with blurred vision and was no longer on the attack in the 2nd half.

You seem to have this romantic idea that midfielders are there to create through balls with fancy passes. Well, the days of Carlos Valderama are over. Modern midfields are packed with no chance to play the incisive passes you are talking about. How can you play through ball when Drogba has two of the Worlds best defenders on his ass. And they are both faster than him. You also have wingers who cannot push up beyond their full back.  Infact, watch the match again and you will see that Ronaldo created all their chances with Wes Brown creating one from a cross.

Therein lies the problem. WINGERS!



This is where you get it all wrong Ibime. That ManU created chances from the wings does not mean they always do. Check my posts, you will see that I already predited the line-up before the match. . .and I was spot on If I can predict it, then so can fergie. Fergie's tactics was to put Ronaldo stationary on the left because he knows Essien's incapacity as a defender. Also when Essien, remembers he has Ronaldo to take care of, he can't join the attack like he will do. And it worked. My point is Fergie can put Ronaldo to great effect on the left. . and make it work for a specific game. . How else can you shuffle our player. . . Can you play Lampard on the left. . .
The point is we were too predictible. . . Like we always are. Chelsea is more than likely to throw the ball to Drog. . . if not they pay along the flanks. . caught that out and you have the game . . ALL TOO PREDICTIBLE. . why? because they know we do not play the ball in the center of Midfield. . we don't have players that can do that. . . PREDICTIBLE

My fantasy about through passes?. . . if you watch the ManU versus Barca game then you will delete what you just said about their best defenders. The problem Barca had was that they could not score. They destroyed ManU's defence outrightly. You think those passes don't exist? Wait until we have a player like Kaka, Messi, Diego and former Ronaldinho. . Have you seen Gorcurff of Milan play? Then you know what I mean.    

Your third mistake is when you talk about wingers, you are effectively talking about a 4-4-2, or 4-5-1 formation. When you play a 4-3-3 like we do, your so called wingers become forwards and not wingers . That is what Ronaldo is. Not a winger. You can also have forwards in a 4-1-3-2 formation except that you wide players are more like midfielders  




For the midfield to create chances, the wingers have to pull the opponents wide, creating space for midfield to start playing passes. Unfortunately we had two wingers who offer no threat. Our midfield is SO good that we dominated the game simply because of them regardless of the fact that they had no one to pass to most of the time. I saw Ballack and Lamps playing head tennis in a very congested midfiled without losing possession once. Their ball control was impeccable and frankly, out of this world. They were reduced to playing passes amongst themselves, thats how bad it was because no one was offering for the pass. Maka was very often surrounded by two to three players and he would still wriggle out of the tight situation using his favourite skill - the Kanu underfoot drag. Man, do you have any idea how good our midfield is?

One qualities of good midefiled is the ability to invent. If your forward players are totally marked out . . you have to take responsibilty. That responsibility is running with the ball through the center of midfield. When you do and beat one or two players. . you have rendered their defensive midfield open. . and then faced with their defence. The defence then has to contract to prevent a straigh walk-through thereby freeing space on the flanks. What have you done? You have freed your players on the flanks. (Wingers). And that's aw goals are created. Not the forwards (Wingers) running around hoping the midfielders will find them. That is why we score a few goals. Only one player understands this . . and that is Essien.  Let's not be carried away by the fact that the real chances we had and the goal came when Essien bumped forwards.

Last point . . our mifield is too old and if we do not buy at least tow young midfield players for next season, we might be in trouble.
The midfield that played ManU has a combined age of 95 years. . .

Chelsea in for Robinho!!!!!


http://msnsport.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_3602748,00.html

SO WHY DID WE LOSE EVERYTHING. . ?


Simple . . . because we couldn't score goals. It was so disappointing to see that the first half of the UCL recorded only one shot on target for chelsea . . and that was the goal. A whole 45mins !!!! That is really appaling.
We have relied for too long on 1-0 wins to take us through the desired 3pts match after match and it's only a mata of time before it catches up . . and well it did.

We don't create enough chances. . and to be candid we have only one player (drogba) who is perhaps more than likely to score a goal. . . well when he turns up for the game. In my opinion, it is a suicidal way of playing football.

We lost to barnsley, spurs, wigan (draw) and now Manu.  These four matches have brought a trophless season and the lack of goals being the underlying reason.

We do not score goals because of the playing pattern we have. Route the ball to Drogba and we know the rest of the story. Fergie read that and countered it for 43mins until we had a goal. I can't wait to see the end of that playing pattern.

So why do we route the ball to Drogba to get to attack? Well!!! because we have a very poor midfield. We have a midfield that doesn't provide chances. . . the chances are most times created by the strikers themselves. , What happens when the striker does not trun up? We lose one more trophy!!!! A midfield that cannot move the attack through well defined, calculated and appealing moves to attack is no midfield. Crosses, Freekicks, Cornerkicks. . . are very important to winning games. If we do not have players that can convert these chances into goals. . we have to find them.

One thing I will like us settle once and for all for the next season is a decent manager that does not believe in a lone-striker formation. A manager that believes you need to pass well to get to the attack.

Secondly we need mifielders that can run, dribble and pass with their eyes close. Decent on goal as well. Midfielder that do nothing but wacth the movement of players on goal and get the ball to them even in tight conditions.

Thirdly, we need players that score. Mifielders, Wingers, whatever.

And . . I don't know . . . maybe something else but above all we need to change our style of football. We HAVE to.

MK Dons:
Let me guess what you're going to say next: Mourinho would have won everything.

Wrong guess. . It's late and you need to sleep!!!

@Ibime

I dey alive oooo. I don dey cry since that day. . I still dey cry sef.
To be candid. . I just could not bring myself to say anything because I did not know where to start from. . .

I was telling someone today that . . as at the time ManU was knocked out of the FACup . . the teams left were, Pompey, Barnsley, Cardiff city, Bristol Rovers, WestBrom and Middlesborough. . . No mata what you say it was Chelsea's taking. . but we lost.

We got to the finals of the Carling Cup, it was our taking . . we lost. .

In the premiership, we lost 2pts to Wigan and that cost us the premiership. . . Now even though ManU drew with Blackburn earlier . . it was our taking . . we lost

The Champions League. . . don't want to sound boastful, but it was a 50-50 taking and we lost.

SO WHY DID WE LOSE EVERYTHING?

Nateevs where have you been?

And who are those saying Chelsea beat a carling cup ManU team? What about the loss at OT? Would you say you beat a carling cup Chelsea team?

That team was without Carvalho, Ballack, Lampard, Drogba and Jose Muorinho. The spine  of the team to say the least. . and Mikel got sent off. . down to ten men( for all those talking about Vidic's sub). . so what?

Chelsea won ManU or
ManU won Chelsea. . . ?

Yes Akola,

English players struggle a lot abroad. . . and JM might, might have signed for Inter. .

Just before the Champions League finals. Lampard moves to InterMilan. . .


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article3965240.ece

Though I heard the Agent denied the reports on Sky Sports claiming he took Paul Ince and Viera there and that if there was anything he will know. . . but considering that Chelsea needs 100% concentration at the UCL finals, the story is most likely true. . .

What do you guys think ?

Meanwhile,

It looks like he won't be here next season after all. . . It's farewell Avram. . at least he won the Champions League.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=567237&in_page_id=1779



Any talks about Mancini should be banished. . Gus Hiddink, Michael Laudrup. . . can't get any of those ? Then get Jose Muorinho. . I heard that guy is good 

Thank you o jare Damose!!! Ronaldo ko . . Donalro ni. . .

now you think cup fianls are your birth rights abi. . because you won another premiership. Now someone is talking about what Js park will do . . . . wait a minute who is he? Have I ever seen him in ManU. ? Ohhhhhh I remember him now. . the chinko guy eh?

Let's see aw you have your hands fillled with Drogba's nuisance. . Infact guess what this is the team that is playing. .

------------Cech-----------

Essien------Carvalho-----Terry-------Cole

-------------------Maka/Mikel---------------

------Ballack--------------------Lampard----

----Joe-----------------------------Malouda

----------------Drogba------------------

Tell ferguson you have see the team list and he should begin his preparations. . . Five weeks of preparation and he still can't handle this team. . he never has and he never will.