₦airaland Forum

Akolawole:
Who is representing Nairaland_Chelseans in Moscow?

Chelsea is selling tickets to seasoned fans this weekend.

Grant deserves the tap on his back as he has made a record for himself by being the first manager to take us into a Champions League final but he has to actually win the trophy before he can get the prox of a great manager deserves or be even compared to any other manager for that matter.

We can still come out of the season without any trophies . . . god forbid . . . and all the cards will come crashing down.

So now, even more than ever he has to show what he's got.

The journey is not at its end yet.

This season what performance have you preferred - Henry, Eto'o or Drogba?

To find center forwards like Drogba is indeed rare.

If it were up to me I'd still keep him, but you may be correct about him . . . he certainly wants to leave.

Nateevs,
Yes it really great to be here.

First it was Back to Back EPL titles - a record previously held by on Man Utd - and now we're in the finals of the CL.

RA's investment has been worth every penny. . . or maybe has been worth some of the pennies  

Showbobo,
Missed Essien, he did well too, very well.

Nateevs,
That's great news . . .

Ibime,

I had commented on AG ealier.

I really liked our last 3 games. He did just what I wanted and more.

However, he still has one or  two more bridges to cross.

Still he deserves the pundits and applauds he's getting. He has placed himself in Chelsea's record books.

Anelka was as usual a beautiful substitute. Lampard was super, seems he played his hearts out today. Drogba . . . well we know Drogba.

Ballack, Ashley Cole, Terry. These guys were in superb spirits today.

We deserve to be at Moscow.

Here's to Roman Abramovich, a few years from now I would not have even dreamt of this.

5 Threads in a night and up to a hundred posts  

We want to thank our friends from North London for their support and appreciation so far  

Debo, 4him and co . . .  

Drogbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa . . . Two super lightening speed cracker goals  

Ibime do you still want drogba out?

Mystical
Avram is Jewish . . . dude,
I think they do all those stuff.

First time we are in the final and the EPL is still almost an open race.

Well done so far Grant, the Jewish indeed have the blessings of Abraham

Yesssssssssssssssss

Didier Drogba!!!

That's what I'm talking about guys . . .

Poor Lampard . . .

Nateevs, Ibime, Akola etc

Pop em champaigne, Moscow is only minutes away  

That's what I'm talking about

Drogba!!!

What a shot!

Now this is what I want to hear from Grant -

Grant defends Drogba following Rafa jibe

Chelsea boss Avram Grant insists star striker Didier Drogba is not a cheat and accused Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez of playing mind games ahead of their return Champions League semi-final at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

Benitez claims to have compiled a four-year dossier of Drogba's 'diving' antics and the striker came in for more criticism following the 1-1 first-leg draw at Anfield.

But Grant is adamant Drogba is not a diver and claims the Liverpool boss was trying to influence the officials ahead of their crucial return leg.

'I don't think he is a diver at all,' insisted Grant.

'He's a good player. He's a powerful player, so the referee needs to look at what happens to him more.

'If you look at the video and see what Jamie Carragher did to him in the first game, you will see the referee was very polite.

'Because he looks so powerful, defenders think there are other ways to stop him.

'I will not speak about the players of Liverpool and what they do. I don't like it when others speak about mine.

'In the first half of the first game, the referee could easily have given a yellow card to Carragher to get him banned for this match.

'It could have been offside for Ryan Babel in the build-up to their goal, even if he was not involved in the goal. I think he (Benitez) is trying to take attention from this.

'Rafa can say whatever he wants to say. I say what I think. Ask him why he's saying that. I think the reason is clear. One way to stop him is to use power more than ever. I think he has tried to affect the referee so he does not do his job.'

While Liverpool had the relative luxury of resting players ahead of on Wednesday's game when they took on Birmingham at the weekend, Chelsea fought hard to overcome Premier League title rivals Manchester United on Saturday.

But the fact that some of Liverpool's players will be fresher than his does not bother the Israeli.

Liverpool have to score or they are out and Grant, in a veiled dig at the Merseysiders, says he was happier fighting for the title on Saturday instead of going through the motions.

'First, I'm very glad that we had a game that was important for us and we didn't need to rest players,' said Grant.

'Of course, it's sometimes an advantage, but I don't think it will disturb us when it comes to the game.

'On Saturday we wanted to show that we can play like champions. We wanted to do that. But this is another game, a Champions League semi-final. We want to do it in this game.

'We started the game really well in Liverpool and deserved one goal. Then they played well but, in the end, we showed good character and were better at the end. We scored in the last minute. You can say whatever you like but it is 1-1.

'The dream of everybody is the Champions League. This is the top. We've gone a long, long way. It has not been easy up to this game.

'The target is the Champions League, for sure. You cannot say it's more important than other competitions, but it's very important for the club and I'm here to sell the club.

'Chelsea wants to be a big club. When you want to be a big club, you need to win the Champions League. It's very important for the club to create history for Chelsea.'

Chelsea's England midfielder Frank Lampard played in the first leg at Anfield last Tuesday but missed the 2-1 win over United on Saturday after the death of his mother in between.

Lampard has since returned to training and is likely to be in the squad for the game but Grant will leave it to the player to decide if he is mentally and physically fit enough to play in such a high-profile affair.

'Frank is doing everything to be available for the game,' said Grant.

'We always take decisions after the last training session.'

Captain John Terry is a yellow card away from missing the final in Moscow on May 21 but Grant does not think that will affect him in any way.

He added: 'You know him like I know him. He'll play to win like he always does. He won't play any differently.'

Soccernet Link

This is the silliest thread I've ever seen.

Our threads are transforming to be pro Is_lamic by the minute, first it was religious thread thanks to the moderator and also this one . . . yep thanks again to the moderator.

Nice going Seun.

I would have liked Richards but he signed a new contract and would be expensive to guy him out of. If he's on the range of 15m I think he would be a great buy.

I prefer a player that has the EPL experience already so he'll take a shorter time to blend with the game.

We best prepare for penalties too

I think I have to go with Ibime on this one.

1. I think we should have our spine but Maka can be sold off for a good profit - 5million or so. I want Obi playing more games

2. David Silva and Aguero (if he is less than 15m)

3. Winger we have Joaquin and can also get Van Der Vaart. Sinclair can support them with Joe Cole competing. Kalou's decision making is poor and he is also poor in front of goal, though he has improved in his dribbles and speed. He is not as effective as we need him to be at the moment.

4. Chimbonda and Miguel . . . one of them would be good.

eldee:
As sumone pointed out already, no CM is worth that much, except from RA's view
But most deff, they'll sell him at 20mill, if we could sell Henry at 16, any player is buyable.
No one will buy a midfielder more than 25mil

My point exactly, we can not afford to waste millions on otherwise cheaper players.

Who else would buy them at that outrageous price?

Ibime
I dont care how Ferreira leaves, I just want him out

But it seems you are selling everyone here

I was so taken by Diego's skills that I quickly closed the other pages.

What I saw from VDV and Hamsik were just goals (and they missed half of them esp Hamsik) These videos did not show their skillfulness or passing technique.

I think we need some kind of statistics regarding injury to players before we can reach a conclusion. Lets look at the first eleven to make that list smaller.

Defense -
Cech and Cudicini at the same time over a long period
Terry and Carvalho at the same time over long period
Cole and Bridge at the same time over long periods and before Cole came in we've had bridge out for a while.
Robben and Joe Cole over a long period.
Drogba
Essien
Lampard
Ballack
Shevshenko
Makalele

I'll remember a few more as time progresses.

That's my list for now for JM.

Let me see yours for AG and lets see how long they had these injuries.

By long period I mean more than 3 months.

Who's this Diego guy? How much does he cost?

But to be sincere, I think Lampard is a better scorer than these. He may not be in his prime anymore but Even last season I saw some fantastic goals from Lampard against teams like Everton and Barca.

Nateevs,
Except from Diego,

Lampard can do what do others are doing. Plus he does it against teams in the EPL and CL.

Hamsik just dey miss goals anyhow sha.

Why don't we have a video of Lampard and Drogba?

Ibime
JM missed players due to ACN too.
All the players injured now have been injured for longer periods under JM's era.
I can't remember if Grant has lost both Carvalho and Terry at the same time, and if he has, how long?

JM started the league with Pizarro due to Drogba's and Shevy's injury.

Name any player injured during this era and I'll name two during JM's era.

Ibime,
Watch the build up to the Drogba's cross here - http://www.ziddu.com/download.php?uid=abOamZuqZq2bnOKnYaqhkZSpXqyfnZao1

I think JM had more injury crisis through out his career with Chelsea and even just last season. But for last season - Robben, Joe Cole, Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Ballack, Lampard (played through injury) etc. Bottomline I think is RA is friend's with Grant. Grant does not seem to be good at man management either. Just look at what happened on the field with Drogba and Ballack, if they had tried it with JM both of them would be on the bench for a long time. We have cases of disagreements in training with a coach too and involving our captain.

Grant has his full squad to select from, something that JM scarcely had (or even never had) through out his career with Chelsea.

Ibime,
There is no list of free kick takers at chelsea but there is a list for corners and penalty? What next - Your father owns Chelsea?

I'm going to be the matured one here and ignore all the name calling. It's a bit strange that you of all people would know fake fans and real ones . . . what wont I see on Nairaland.

The cross was a routine cross? Well it clearly means that most folks in our team including Ballack and Anelka need to attend some kind of routine classes so we can more of those routine crosses for Drogba. I'm guessing you failed to see Drogba's play before the cross.

Let it rest, your bias has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Nateevs,
All the players you mentioned were either bought before or at the same time with Drogba.

This deals a severe blow to your argument. It kind of supports the fact that JM bought players for his (JM) style of play NOT Drogba.

You named 3 players that come close to what skills you speak of and 2 of those were bought AFTER Drogba, dealing a further blow to your argument.

It is either wrong or inconclusive to say that players were bought for Drogba's sake.

Ibime
You ignorance is classic.

We have designated freekick takers and of course they are based on positions. So will Lampard take a freekick from our own half because he has been designated to take freekicks?

Even those links clearly state that most teams have one or two designated free kick takers. Are you freaking blind, stupid or just skilled in distortions?

Take corners for example - A different person may take a left sided corner and a right one for obvious reasons in most teams. In AC Milan we have Pirlo doing the job both ways. That's the same with Freekicks which can be from a lot of different positions around the field and not fixed like penalties. There exist designated takers - something you openly denied PERIOD.

Enough of your baseless arguments!

Ibime who worked out the first goal in our game yesterday? Did Ballack create any chance for Drogba or anyone else?
Fans would definitely vote in on the goal scorer, that is simple arithmetic. What percentage of our team came above the 7 points? Ballack because of his goal, and maybe Obi who was also super on that day. Essien was a threat but was wasteful and his passes were very late on the counter. Ashely Cole was good. Joe Cole seem to have vanished at a point. Ballack scored. Ricardo made a mistake that almost cost us 3 points but he was good otherwise. Drogba took off the pressure from the defense and opened up play. . .

In a team where Drogba was the best crosser of the ball leading to a goal, you still can talk crap. Imagine if Drogba gets those kinds of crosses in every game coming towards his direction, instead he has to work like a horse and make something out of the numerous long balls that come his way from defense.

This is the stupidest thing I've ever read -

I am sure that Drogba would have loved to play for France but he never got the opportunity because he wasn't good enough.

I wonder how you can base your arguments with past achievements when it only has to do with Anelka. Why don't we use this when we talk about Lampard. That way no one on the team would even come close. You anti-Lampard and anti-Drogba stance exposes itself even more.

I can have no further objective discussion with you when it comes to those two as you have a mindset that is gravely biased and flawed.

Paying 35million for a kid without solid experience in top competitions sounds ridiculous. How much did Spurs get Modric for after we were willing to pay £25million for him?

Messi, Ronaldihno, Ronaldo etc came no where close to that amount either. I don't support buying any player for more than £15million except he is currently the world's best player or close to that.

It's funny you guys should argue that Anelka would need a fresh midfield to hit form. Why not argue that we would see more of Drogba's genius if we made the same investment? How biased can you guys be when it comes to Drogba or Lampard?

If a Drogba suffering from emotional damage and so called terrible midfield support is still better than Anelka, then simple logic would support a great deal of improvement if he had the so called dimunitive midfield support (whatever that means).

Ibime
1. Designated Freekick takers -

Most teams have one or two designated free kick takers, depending on the distance from goal and the side of the field the free kick is to be taken from.

Link
Another link on who should take kicks in Chelsea
Do a google too and see you gross error

2. You never said Drogba was anything except okay yesterday. I said he was super and I stand by that. The first goal speaks for itself.

3. Your preference of Anelka only further exposes your anti-Drogba traits. If we had creative midfielder Drogba would still be a better player because he would get more balls. Drogba is more accurate on the ground than wasteful Anelka. Better in the air and can play alone. Drogba was good in his first season until the injury. Drogba came in from the French League, Anelka has played in 3 English Clubs . . . you do the maths. How many goals did Drogba score in his first season? Drogba had the most assists in his first season. So even without scoring he created opportunities for Lampard and other team players to score.

You clearly know nothing about Drogba or Chelsea. All you do is give excuses for Anelka. So we should buy 4 new players to make up for Anelka's inabilities? What makes you think that those same players wont give Drogba the ability to net in more balls?

Erm . . . did you guys look at the date the thread was opened?

;d ;d

nateevs:
Still celebrating. . . .
What an end to the title race . . . .
I don't know what others think . . . . but Chelsea has been the best team in the premiership this year.
To think that we were once 7th in the league is crazy. .
Now we light fire ManU yansh. . and they have to pick up all the points. .doesn't mean our fixtures are easy anyway. .
I still do hope ManU drop points. . If they don't, well I'l be glad they did not have a stroll to the title. .

The UCL home leg approaches, and if we play the way we played Manure from the 1st half, we are in the finals no doubt. I don't see Liverpool coping with that type of pressure. Overall we have to score. . and if I think we have to score twice. . Definitely a goaless draw is good enough. . . we might have a Riise in our team and you never know. 2 goals and that settles. It won't be an easy match, definitelt wouldn't. Benitez will throw in everything he's got.

Still I am hoping we come out tops. I refuse to talk about finals until after the match. A double is very much alive.

It's really good to be in this position after all we've been through.

If only we had won wigan . . .

Liverpool's game wont be an easy one as you've pointed out. Benitez is a force to be reckoned with in the UCL ( and seemingly only in the UCL ). I hope we start like we did yesterday and take the game to Pool.

Ibime,
Are you saying there are no designated freekick takers? Or Corner kick takers?

Na wa o . . .

So we have only designated penalty takers.

Your incessant complaining about Drogba clearly displays you as anti-Drogba. Yesterday he kept the ball on the ground, he dribbled, he passed and he was involved in both goals (well more in the first than in the second). What else do you want? It's strange that neither Shevshenko or Anelka gets this much criticism from you. Maybe we should bench Drogba and let the non-scoring duo take his place.

Who are the top scorers in the club at the moment? Ballack, Anelka and Joe Cole? I think not. Ballack, Anelka and Joe are good players nonetheless and you dont see me complaining about them every other day.

Anti-Makalele? I think Obi answered that question yesterday. I have always made the case for Obi except that he picks up way too many cards.

Good one Eldee

Deborsky
What do you mean Ballack was sidelined by JM? The liverpool game must have left a bad scar on your memory.

Ballack featured under JM and affected our regular formation. He played as a regular until his injury which he did not recover from up until late december or so last year.

Stick to Arsenal dude, we don't do nursery rhymes at west london.

Ibime
You really have to check your anti-drogba sentiments.

How come you did not say Ballack had an ego problem?

Drogba's performance was top notch. He single-handedly gifted Ballack for the first goal. He held up the ball and brought every other player into the game. Remember the pass he gave joe cole where joe left ferdinand on the ground? When our defense fell under pressure he held on to the ball, dribbled up to 3 opponents and gave great passes. Did you watch that match?

Drogba is the next freekick taker after Lampard and also a more senoir player in Chelsea. If anyone has the ego then it was Ballack. On top of it all Drogba allowed him to take the penalty and hugged him after that.

Dude u really have anti-Lampard and Drogba issues

Go to skysports and see his ratings