Good morning.
Ah, the familiar strains of the lesser spotted weasel faced football agent. The following from Pini Zahavi [ taking to Izvestia] who appears to be representing Joao Moutinho. Moutinho some some readers may vaguely recall was linked with us in the last transfer window.
If this quote is anything to go by, we don’t feature prominently in the boy’s future.
“I will not hide that there is interest on the part of Zenit, and we will analyze their proposal in January! Zenit is a very strong team, who may be the next step in the career of Joao.”
“However at the same time we have to take into account the interests of Joao! Any footballer would like to play in Barcelona, and this option is a priority for us. In my opinion the style of his game adapts perfectly to that of Barcelona. In addition he is a fan of the club”
When you see how characters like this are at work how easier it is to magic up a tale that the incompetence of Levy & Co. is in fact the driving factor behind unsuccessful transfer deals.
Oh well.
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Thought some of you might enjoy this somewhat audacious piece from Simon Johnson written for the Evening
BrownshirtsStandard online. Hope I’ve not taken too much of a liberty pasting most of it on here but that way it avoids all those interested from having to click on their web page, as….err…I did….Doh!Stylish Roberto Di Matteo is making the most of Andre Villas-Boas’s template for success
If there is one man who must not know whether to laugh or cry over Chelsea’s impressive start to the season, it is Andre Villas-Boas. Naturally, former Blues boss Villas-Boas already has many reasons to feel bitter towards his former employers after he was fired in March after just eight months in the job.
He could barely disguise his resentment when he became Tottenham manager in the summer and he surely cannot wait to prove a point when Chelsea visit White Hart Lane in 17 days’ time.
Of course, the Blues have hardly been struggling in the 34-year-old’s absence — after all, his replacement, Roberto di Matteo, did win the Champions League and FA Cup in May.
Di Matteo is also earning all the plaudits for Chelsea’s style of play this season which has taken them to the top of the Premier League and now, after a 4-0 win over FC Nordsjaelland last night, into first place in their Champions League qualifying group as well.
The thing is, the Italian is using the exact same blueprint for success as Villas-Boas envisaged when he arrived at Stamford Bridge full of ideas and great enthusiasm from Porto last year.
He wanted a team full of young attacking players to entertain, while playing a pressing game high up the pitch in a similar way to the Spanish national team or Barcelona.
Unfortunately, Villas-Boas didn’t have the personnel to make it work because he was unable to get in all the players he wanted in his first transfer window and the experiment was abandoned six months ago after results went awry.
Di Matteo’s reward for winning the Champions League was receiving the financial backing to buy the talent to complete Villas-Boas’s grand masterplan, with Eden Hazard, Marko Marin, Oscar and Victor Moses all arriving this summer.
Anyone who witnessed Chelsea’s victory at Arsenal on Saturday could testify just how well it was working but there was another clear reminder against the Danish champions. Chelsea opened the scoring in the first half with a goal straight out of their former boss’s playbook. Fernando Torres robbed Enoch Adu of possession before laying it off to Frank Lampard, who passed it to Juan Mata to score. It was fast, ruthless and effective.
It should be pointed out that all three players were at the club when the method was first tried out last year but now they are carrying out their instructions with far more conviction and were clearly helped by the pressure that youngsters Oscar and Moses also provided in the Parken Stadium.
Significantly, the players are aware themselves of just how well they are now using the tactic. Goalkeeper Petr Cech explained to Standard Sport: “Last year we weren’t very successful when we tried the pressing game but this season it has all seemed to click for us.
“We have different players in the team now who might be helping but certainly having more time to work on it has helped make a difference. If you do something for a year then you become better at it. In the first half against Nordsjaelland we had moments where we pressed very well, like for the first goal, but we also had times where we did it very badly. That’s why they managed to control most of the game in the first half and escaped from the back. But we got better in the second half and made it really difficult for them.”
It is actually giving AVB responsibility for the tactics and success,so dont think its audacious.
I do think though that the quality of the players Chelsea brought in was exceptional and with more quality ball control players as opposed to the strong physical midfielders Chelsea always had Torres is reading everything better and Chelsea look tremendous.
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I suppose I was thinking audacious in relation to the theory being offered by chelski fans, but who knows, maybe some would agree.
Agree completely regarding the rest of your post; most likely title winners for me – at this stage anyway.
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“being offered by chelski fans”
Should obviously read “to chelski fans.
Double doh!
When AVB (before joining us), proposed that most or all of the ‘innovations’ DeMatteo put into action, how the football media laughed and laughed loudly. But first there’s a noreable but beautiful silence of ‘I told you so’s’ on here, and although it’s only a few games (when most said, wait up,it’s only a few games in), the first signs of the printed media are now beginning to turn around-Still, let’s wait till Monday morning after the Villa game, when anything other than a comprehensive victory will no doubt bring the pondlife swimming toward the light again!
Please keep in mind the profound differences in our buys to Chelseas though. We worked within a budget and if it was based on budget we would win the league hands down.Well wait lots of hands up.Its time for Lloris.Why buy a player who seems like he is the real thing and put him on the bench? Its a bit beyond me.Brad has done well but we have been making brave moves and yes keeping Lloris on the bench can be brave but for me play him as the number one.
We need Ade and Defoe out there is possible.
We need to press,and press and press.
There is no doubt we are best under HR or AVB when we are attacking.We have proven we are capable of holding in defence now we must go on ultimate attack.
When Brad deserves dropping then Lloris will get his chance and not before-bloody hell, some of you guys make me laugh at times-Do actually want the bloke to screw up, just because we’ve purchased an International keeper, who is still a novice in Prem terms-You supposedly want team harmony and a togetherness, yet propose dropping a bloke who’s excelled this season-square that please?
Brad doesnt deserve dropping per se but one has to be brave.Lloris is not a young upstart.He is a seasoned player.You want pressure of him to earn his spot?
Brad has played well.His has made 3 or 4 strong saves but he is also slow (not surprisingly) So does this mean Lloris has to languish on the bench.
I dont agree with this.
Put him in and also give Brad some PL work too.
Why take Harry R out?????
Leave him in.He was doing a relatively good job.
I didnt agree with that (keeping Harry) and I dont agree with not putting Lloris in.
its obvious Lloris wasnt told anything ahead that this would be the situation.
What example would that set,every player would think ‘what the hell,what’s the point?’ The art of good management is getting the best out of your team,and I reiterate Brad’s done nothing wrong this season,and very little last season,to warrant a demotion.
Never have seen him come out for corners and high into the area balls.Thats a liability.
And it’s cost us when exactly?, there’s more to football than star-signings,else it’ll be the side with the biggest stars that win every week-unlike Sunday eh? Lloris may or may not be the keeper for us, but under no circumstances should he be shoed into the position, especially when his rival hasn’t done anything wrong-and as I said you’re making it obvious that you actually want him to bugger up, just so you can can say ‘see,I knew that would happen’but the reality is, it hasn’t and you have to back an awfully long way to find one of his major cock-ups….and who’s to say-Lloris won’t bugger-up? What would say then ‘Oh, it’s early days, all keepers need time ect’
All keepers drop clangers by and large, it’s more a case of how many that determine the great ones from the poor.
Yes he has saved some great shots but he is too static overall.
No cock ups but the other teams swing balls high and seeing as hands are higher than heads it could help
Now is your chance to support Olympiakos over Panathinaikos.