Later that season we went to another game and, again, Smethurst was deputising for Osgood, who was injured. So, it wasn’t until my third visit to the Bridge, against Southampton in October 1971, that I got to see Ossie play. Although he didn’t get on the scoresheet in a 3-0 win, Osgood was hugely impressive: strong, commanding in the air but light on his feet, he was very much the focal point of the Blues’ attack, playing clever little one-twos around the edge of the box with the likes of Tommy Baldwin and Alan Hudson, and generally suggesting he might score or set up a goal every time he got the ball. The crowd seemed to sense this too, so whenever Ossie was in possession a murmur of anticipation would spread through the rows of seats around us. What a contrast with the hapless Smethurst, whose often unsuccessful efforts to control the ball merely elicited groans and sighs

A couple of months later I saw my first Osgood goal – two, in fact, in a 4-0 stuffing of Everton, league champions just a couple of years earlier. The whole team was brilliant that afternoon, Hudson, Cooke and John Hollins running the show in midfield, with Ossie finishing off their slick approach work in clinical style.

He was in a rich vein of form in that 1971/72 season, scoring 31 goals – the same number he managed in our FA Cup-winning campaign in 1970. Amazingly, though, he wasn’t even in the England squad, let alone the team. It didn’t make sense.

Some of the goals Ossie scored for Chelsea were not just international class, they were world class. One I saw at the Bridge against Derby, then reigning league champions, stands out. With just a few minutes left we were trailing 1-0 when Osgood received the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal. Up against the England defensive duo of Roy McFarland and Colin Todd he hadn’t had the best of days up to that point, and there had been a few grumbles from the crowd about his apparent lack of effort. The whingers and whiners were soon singing a different tune, though, as Ossie sent his marker running off towards the corner flag with a couple of outrageous feints before sharply spinning round to send a low left-shot into the far corner. It was a superb goal, and one that made the shortlist for the ‘Goal of the Season’ on ITV’s The Big Match. In the same season he won Match of the Day’s rather more prestigious award with a stunning left-foot volley against Arsenal in the FA Cup – a strike that is quite often replayed on the big screen at the Bridge before home games.

Goals like these led to a media campaign for Osgood to be recalled to the England team and Sir Alf Ramsey finally saw the light in late 1973, picking the Chelsea striker for the friendly against Italy at Wembley. A neighbour had some spare tickets for the match and invited me and my father along, but it wasn’t a particularly memorable game. England played poorly and Ossie, although producing some stylish touches, didn’t get much of a look in against the massed Italian defence. He never played for his country again and, much worse, soon afterwards left Chelsea for Southampton after falling out with Blues boss Dave Sexton.

Of course, he did return to the Bridge halfway through the miserable 1978/79 season. By then, however, he was some way past his best and it showed, although his technique and ball control were still as faultless as ever. It didn’t help, either, that he was playing in a weak and demoralised team heading inevitably for relegation.

Many years later, I got to meet Peter when I interviewed him for my book, Kings of the King’s Road. It’s often said that you shouldn’t meet your childhood heroes as they invariably fail to match your, perhaps unrealistic, expectations. Well, that certainly wasn’t the case with Ossie. Not only was he an excellent interviewee, answering all my questions honestly and entertainingly, but he was also very generous and considerate, collecting me in his car from the train station and driving me to his golf club where he insisted on paying for our drinks while we chatted about his Chelsea career.

A wonderful performer on the pitch and a great bloke off it, Ossie really was ‘The King of Stamford Bridge’.

Clive Batty’s latest book is The Pocket Book of Chelsea (see http://www.visionsp.co.uk/)

“I didn’t think I’d get to 400 games in this space of time, seven and a half years,” he says, settling into a chair in an annex off the main reception. “To captain the team against Stoke, albeit in the absence of John, to come back in the way that we did as team and to score the winner made it a very special day for me.”

At the end of the game Lamps celebrated with the fans almost in the style of a victorious Roman gladiator. Clenching his fists in triumph he rushed towards the Matthew Harding stand which responded by bellowing out a deafening chorus of his song, ‘Super Frank’. Few players, surely, can have such a strong bond with their supporters.

“I’m lucky in that I have a great relationship with the fans and I’ve had that for a long time,” he says. “But those kind of moments don’t always come around. It was a bit special getting that kind of reaction from the Matthew Harding end. Really, you want to thank everyone in the stadium for coming and giving their support but we’d scored both goals at the Shed end so I think the fans in the Harding deserved that moment!”

Preliminaries over, it’s time to crack on with the questions for Frank, which have all been sent in by ClubCFCnet members…

How close were you to leaving the club in the summer? And what was it that persuaded you to stay?
James Prescott
It was a difficult summer for me from start to finish. I’d always said that if I’d ever move from Chelsea it would not be to another English club, it would be to try something different, a completely new challenge. Now, I obviously had the option of going to Italy with a manager everyone knows I was very, very close to. But, after losing my mum so recently, I really needed the summer to get my head straight.
In the end, I came to my senses in a way – and I don’t mean that disrespectfully to the idea of going to play for Jose Mourinho somewhere else. But this is my home. I had long chats with my family about it – I’m a man who needs to be quite close to his family, especially after what had just happened. And the club has become my family as well.
For a few months my head was in a bit of a spin, from losing my mum onwards. In the end, though, I made what was certainly the right decision for me – to stay here and, I hope, to end my career here. I’m very fortunate to have joined this club at a great time and I’ve got such a bond now that to break that would, I’m sure, have been the wrong move.

Was all the support you received from the fans when your mother passed away a factor in making you decide to stay?
Jane B, West Sussex
That was a huge factor. The support I had from the fans was completely overwhelming. I had thousands of letters to my house and to the club which took me a long, long time to go through and I’ve tried to reply to them all. I knew Chelsea was a big club but I never quite realised the depth of the support. To get letters from all over the world, as I did, was very special to me.
So that was a factor, as was the response of the club. When I spoke to the board and to Peter Kenyon at the start of the summer and said I needed some time to get my head straight, they were fine about it. The press made out there was a problem between me and the club, but that often happens during negotiations. In fact, the club was fantastic with me throughout. So yes, the support of the fans and the club was a huge thing for me.

A lot of people will claim that a season without a trophy is a complete failure. More pragmatic people expect some form of progression with the team, for example an improvement in the style of play. What in your mind would constitute a successful season and what would constitute failure?
Hamish, Sydney
Well, I don’t want to contradict that opening bit completely, but for me a failure would be not to win anything. At a club the size of Chelsea, the depth of the squad, the individual international players we have, everything about the club now is set up for success. Last year we went through a season when, even with a lot of problems, we managed to come second in basically everything – but that is still a failure for a club like Chelsea.
You see Arsenal in recent seasons play fantastic football, progress and bring in great youngsters into the team…but I’m sure if you asked their fans to be honest, they would love to have won a Premier League, FA Cup or Champions League in the last four years.
So, there is a balance. You want to improve as a club, you want to play better football, you want to bring in some young kids and develop them into top players, but for us, and certainly for me personally, I want to win something – and for it to be one of the big ones.

If you could put your finger on the reasons for our recent run of poor form, what would they be?
James Prescott
It’s a very difficult thing to put a finger on. We just lost an edge that we had, because we were playing fantastic football and scoring many goals early in the season. Particularly at home we’ve lost points that we shouldn’t have lost – and I don’t mean against Arsenal and Liverpool, but against Newcastle and West Ham plus against Fulham away those six points we’ve lost would’ve put us top of the table.
So we lost an edge, we lost confidence at home, for sure, because we couldn’t break teams down – maybe we were lacking a bit of magic that we should have produced, because we’ve got the individuals who can produce it. It was a general dip that meant we lost about 15% of our game.
To turn that corner you need a) to work hard and b) a little bit of luck and, hopefully, we’ve done that now. At Southend, albeit in a game we should always have won, we went there and did the job. Against Stoke, the way we won was significant because teams like Liverpool and Man U had won a lot of games in the last five minutes, but we hadn’t until then. And winning games late on like that can win you the title.

You always seem to come to us away fans after a match. Do you really notice the vocal encouragement we give, and does it make a difference to your game or the team as a whole?
Tony, Bath
I always notice it. I think our away fans, particularly, have been fantastic for a long, long time. They are always very vocal and supportive of the team.
It’s not always easy to go to the fans when you’ve lost 3-0 at Old Trafford, because you know as players you’ve let them down – we should go there and perform better than that. If players don’t go to the fans, sometimes it’s down to embarrassment – you feel bad and want to get off that pitch quickly. It’s not really the players’ fault. But I always go to show my appreciation for the fans travelling, for paying money, and for spending hours on the coach, because they definitely give everyone a lift.

How good are the Chelsea fans – both home and away – in comparison to other Premiership and Champions League clubs in terms of vocal support?
Ben Sirgreat, Fulham
I actually think Chelsea fans are the best, but then I’m biased because I have such a great relationship with them. OK, Stamford Bridge may not be as noisy as Liverpool or certain other grounds – Newcastle, for example – at their loudest, but the great thing for me about Chelsea fans is that they are very reasonable and well-educated.
I’ve been to grounds where, after ten minutes, the whole stadium can turn on a team or on individuals. I don’t think Chelsea fans do that. There have been players who have come here and struggled at times, and the fans will back them to the hilt. Of course, there will be occasions when there will be individuals who won’t but, as a group, the Chelsea fans are fantastic like that.
Generally, the fans at the Bridge are vocal. There are times when they can be a bit quiet, which I think has something to do with the fact that the club is developing. Because of the area we’re in there are lots of new supporters who come to the games and aren’t as vocal as, say, local fans in Liverpool. That’s just the reality.
But in terms of Chelsea fans supporting the team I can’t fault them. The prime example, for me, was when John Terry missed the penalty in the Champions League final. A lot of fans could have turned on a player for doing that, but our fans went the other way and supported John even more.

What was the most exciting moment in your football career? And what was the worst?
Paul, Canterbury
The most exciting was winning the league that first year at Bolton. Obviously, on a personal note, scoring the goals in that game was great. But for the team to win the league after 50 years and, knowing the feeling you’ve given to so many fans that hadn’t experienced it before, that was without a doubt the best.
The worst, for me, was losing to Liverpool in the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2005. We were really playing well at the time, but we lost to a funny goal up at Anfield. We’d worked so hard and been so dominant that season that, maybe, we ran out of legs a little bit over the two games. So, it was frustrating that we couldn’t top that season off by going to the final. With the rivalry we had with Liverpool, too, it was very disappointing.

If you could have any player from the past playing in the same team as you, who would it be? And if you could have any current player playing in the same team as you, who would that be?
Ollie Scanlon, Croydon
The past player would be Maradona. When I was growing up, he was the greatest player of all time. I was fortunate enough to meet him for the first time after the Manchester United game recently. When you talk about creating a bit of magic in games as we’ve done earlier, we would certainly have done that.
On a similar line, because I find them quite comparable, I’d go for Messi as the modern player. For me, he is the outstanding player in the world at the moment. Ronaldo deserves to be World Player of the Year, but I’m predicting now with a lot of confidence that Messi will get the award next year.

Who is the best defender/defensive midfielder you have played against in your career?
Simone Francario, Rome
When I came through at West Ham and was quite young and naive, there were two players – and I can’t really choose between them – who I was in awe of, Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane. They weren’t purely defensive midfield players, but they had that tenacity about them in the tackle, and an aura about them so you were kind of in awe of them as you walked onto the pitch. I’ll never forget that feeling, although as you get older you don’t really feel the same way – now I never feel intimidated by anyone. But, at the time, those two just appeared to be light years ahead of me.

What is the match that gave you greatest satisfaction?
Simone Francario, Rome
I think, for a great team performance, when we beat Barcelona 4-2 at the Bridge in 2005. We were halfway through the season and doing very well in the league, but that was the first game where we thought we’d arrived on the world stage. The feeling we had in the first 20 minutes when we were 3-0 up, well, we just felt invincible. I don’t think you can ever feel that good again in a game at club level. So, that was a special one for the team.

What were the days like after Moscow, and how did you try to distract yourself then?
Nona
Well, obviously, we were all very despondent. We flew home together the next morning and it was a horrible atmosphere, as you’d expect. Over the next couple of days I was moping around, mulling over the disappointment and what could have been.
Then, I went away with my family. Luckily, I have children, because I think if I was still 22 I would’ve spent the whole summer dwelling on it, but when you have family and kids you can move on and realise there are things that are even more important. But, we went away with my sister and her kids to Dubai. It was a big family thing but it was nice and quiet, and it was a good break.

From what you’ve seen who, if anyone, do you expect to see progress from the reserve/youth team into the first team?
Chris, north London
The ones I think who are knocking on the door now are Michael Mancienne and Miroslav Stoch.
Michael’s been in the England squad, but I think Chelsea fans need to see him in action and hopefully they will do soon. He’s a very accomplished player, a bit like a young Rio Ferdinand, very cool on the ball. He, for sure, is going to be a top player.
Stoch, who came on and made a difference against Stoke, is now in that cusp of developing from a great youth team player into a first-team player. It’s a big step, but we’re starting to see that he can give us some real positives when he comes on.

Do you get a chance to give your input into the development of young players in the youth and reserve teams?
Philip Rolfe, Hammersmith
It’s only really when they join the first team that you can do that. But, the English lads especially, went along to watch some of the games in the FA Youth Cup last year and once you’ve seen them play, you can have a quiet word with them down at the training ground. Then, when they come to train with us, you can take them aside in training and try to help them out. I’ll never forget the players at West Ham who took me aside and said little things to me, whether they were right or wrong, and I’ll also never forget the ones who never said anything. Handing down that responsibility is very important. We don’t get too involved in their day-to-day development but maybe we should do, because people like me, John Terry and Joe Cole have been through the ranks and know how much hard work it takes to succeed . I actually have a big bee in my bonnet about young players being pampered at too early an age, which can take away a bit of hunger. We used to scrub Julian Dicks’ boots and when they weren’t clean enough he’d throw them back at you, and you’d have to clean them again!
A problem I find with young players, and I’ve watched them a lot in the youth games, is that they play very well for the youth team but then they come to train with us and they lack the confidence to take it by the scruff of the neck. But that’s normal, and we’ve all been through that. Once they realise that they are good enough to contribute at first-team level, they can go as far as they want. Hopefully, Stochy, for example, will see that after his performance against Stoke.

You went out of your way after the FA Cup home tie with Southend to say ‘well done’ to the opposition. As a youngster, on loan at Swansea, did you get the chance to play a bigger side in the FA Cup and, if so, how did the ‘stars’ treat you?
Paul, Bromley
I never played a top team while I was at Swansea but, all the same, going there was a big eye-opener into what real football is all about. I mean, the facilities were really poor compared to here, it rained every day, we washed our own kit, all that kind of stuff.
So I think it’s really important that when teams like Southend or Scunthorpe or whoever come here, the lads realise how fortunate we are and congratulate them if they put in a great performance, as Southend did to get a result at our place. Even when Burnley beat us in the Carling Cup it was never a problem to go in and say ‘well done’, because if you want to play for a big club and be a big player you have to realise you can’t always win and you have to appreciate the good performance of the opposition.

Do you chat a lot about football during the season with your uncle, Harry Redknapp? Is there an added incentive when you play against his teams or is it slightly awkward seeing him on the opposition bench?
Jane B, West Sussex
I do speak to Harry a bit more now that he’s at Tottenham. Sometimes he asks me my opinion on players that maybe he’s interested in, so he asks me ‘what do you think of him?’ So we’ve had those sort of conversations. I saw there was something in the newspaper recently about him talking to me about Wilson Palacios and, it’s true, I told him he was a good player a few weeks ago.
In terms of playing against him, I’ve scored a lot of goals against him when he was at Portsmouth. But, I think when we get on the pitch we pretty much switch off the family ties. Harry will look after himself, whether he’s at Portsmouth or Tottenham, because he’s a very good manager. Now he’s at Tottenham it’s slightly different for me – because of the rivalry, I just play against Tottenham to win.

Have you put any thought into what you will do when you stop playing? Would you think of getting into coaching/management, or would you prefer media work (maybe with your cousin, Jamie Redknapp)?
James Prescott
I don’t have an interest in doing media work, I’ll leave that to others. I admire people who do it very well, like Andy Gray at Sky, but I don’t want to do that.
At one stage I didn’t want to be a manager but now I wouldn’t mind taking my badges and, hopefully, be a manager in the future. The ideal thing would be to be manager of Chelsea, but it doesn’t always work out like that. Anyway, there’s a long time to go yet.

You’ve captained Chelsea on quite a few occasions now. Do you enjoy the added responsibility of being skipper and how would you say your captaincy style differs from that of JT?
Mark Colby, Holloway
I do enjoy the responsibility, but I actually think JT is the best leader out there. I’ve played with and against other captains and he’s the best for me. But I enjoy it. I have a different input, John’s probably more vocal and chest-banging. I try to do it my own way through example, by working hard, but I also have a word in an ear or do a bit of shouting in the dressing room now and again. I think that’s why we’re a good combination of captain and vice-captain, because we’re slightly different personalities in the way we go about things. I love wearing the armband, but I also love handing it back to John because I want to play alongside a great centre-back and captain.

Admittedly, there’s a long way to go but do you see beating Bobby Tambling’s all-time Chelsea record of 202 goals as a realistic target for you?
Dave Key, Peterborough
I’m about 80 behind and I’ve got it in my sights. I’ve got four-and-a-half years left of this contract and I’d love to get a couple more years after that – we’ll see how that goes. But, if I carry on scoring at the rate I’m scoring, I’ve got a good chance of doing it. Of course, that doesn’t take into account getting a bit older, possible injuries, this kind of thing. But, yes, I’d love to get somewhere near the record – whether I beat it, though, is a long way away.

Interview by Clive Batty, author of ‘The Chelsea Miscellany’, ‘Kings of the King’s Road’ and ‘A Serious Case of the Blues: Chelsea in the 80s’. His latest book ‘The Pocket Book of Chelsea’ (Vision Sports Publishing) is out in October.

1. Dave Beasant
‘Lurch’ dropped a few clangers during his time at the Bridge in the early 1990s but always performed well when facing the Blues for his later clubs, Southampton and Nottingham Forest.

2. Jim McCalliog
The Scot only made a handful of appearances for Chelsea and left for Sheffield Wednesday in 1965. The following year he scored for the Owls when they beat us in the FA Cup semi-final and was also on target in a 6-1 mauling of the Blues at Hillsborough.

3. Peter Rhoades-Brown
After joining Oxford in 1983 left-winger Rhoades-Brown scored three goals in six games against the Blues. He had been somewhat less prolific at the Bridge, netting just five times in 109 appearances.

4. Alan Hudson
A classy performer who was sold far too early, Huddy returned to the Bridge with Stoke in April 1974 and, inevitably, scored the winning goal. Indeed in eight games against us for the Potters and Arsenal, he never lost once.

5. Ken Monkou
Chelsea Player of the Year in 1990, Monkou returned to the Bridge with Huddersfield in 1999 and helped the Terriers pull off a shock 1-0 win in the League Cup.

6. Eidur Gudjohnsen
Is it just a coincidence that the Blues have failed to win the league since selling ‘the white Maradona’ to Barcelona in 2006? Whatever, the goal he scored against us at the Nou Camp later that year was a sharp reminder of his finishing prowess.

7. Tommy Langley
In August 1980, the same month that he moved to QPR, Shed favourite Tommy Langley returned to the Bridge to score for the Rs in a 1-1 draw. As if that wasn’t hard enough to swallow, he grabbed the winner at Loftus Road later that season.

8. Clive Allen
A regular scorer against us for QPR, Tottenham and Manchester City in the 1980s, Clive Allen had a short spell with the Blues in the 1991/92 season before moving on deadline day to West Ham. By a twist of fate his debut for the Hammers was back at the Bridge, and he marked it with a cracking goal in a 2-1 defeat.

9. Bobby Smith
As a teenage striker with Chelsea, Bobby Smith made little impact at the Bridge but it was a different story once he moved to Tottenham in 1955. Among the ten goals he scored against us was a hat-trick in a 3-1 win at the Bridge in April 1960, the year before he won the ‘Double’ with Spurs.

10. Tony Hateley
Hateley had notched a remarkable eight goals against Chelsea for Aston Villa before joining the Blues in 1966. After failing to live up to expectations at the Bridge he moved on to Liverpool the following year, and promptly banged in a couple more against us at Anfield in one of his first games for the Reds.

11. Clive Walker
A pacy winger who was a big favourite with the Chelsea crowd, Walker was sold to Sunderland in 1984. The following year his two goals in the League Cup semi-final ended our Wembley hopes and sparked a mini-riot among disappointed Blues fans at the Bridge.

Clive Batty’s latest book is The Pocket Book of Chelsea. For more details click here:

What do you make of Chelsea’s start to the season?
Well, I’m not surprised they’re clear at the top because I fancied them before a ball was kicked. It will be interesting to see how they get on when they lose players to the African Nations Cup in January, but I think they’ve got enough strength in depth to get through it all. On top of that, I can’t really see where the threat is going to come from the other clubs.

Last season you followed Chelsea’s mixed fortunes very closely while writing about the Blues’ campaign in your new book, ‘Oh what a lovely war’ (to be published in 2010). What do you think are the main reasons for the team’s much more consistent performances this time around?
Chelsea have always had the players to do well, but compared to last season when things went badly wrong it’s clear that the spirit in the squad is a lot better and people want to be playing and be in the side again. Whereas last year the likes of Drogba gave the impression that he wasn’t bothered whether he was injured or not. He didn’t seem too keen about playing and he didn’t seem sure about staying at the club. That’s all changed this season and you can see the results on the pitch, where Chelsea just keep rolling teams over. Some of the credit must go to Ancelotti, who has introduced a slightly more adventurous style than we saw at the end of last season under Hiddink.

Turning to Arsenal, do you see them as realistic title challengers?
No, I don’t. Arsenal have various chinks in their armour which Chelsea don’t have. Defensively they have a few problems and I just can’t see them as a serious contender. I saw them lose at Stoke last season and they’re always likely to crack under the sort of pressure that Stoke put them under that day. The physical side of the game – as we saw again at Sunderland last weekend – has always been a problem for them. That’s been the case for some time and I don’t think it’s something that Wenger has ever got to terms with. If they’re not absolutely on top of their game they seem to struggle.

I think teams know that if they sit back against Arsenal they’re going to get pelted, but if they approach the game properly and try to attack Arsenal there is always the chance that they’ll get something out of it.

How do you think the game will go on Sunday?
I always think Chelsea have got the upper hand over Arsenal, wherever the game is played. I went with Steve Bould to the FA Cup game against Burnley at the Emirates earlier this year and I said to him halfway through that this Arsenal team would never beat Chelsea, simply because Chelsea would be too strong for them all over the pitch.

Fabregas is a good player but there’s too much on his shoulders, and if he’s not pulling all the strings I think they struggle a little bit. With Chelsea it doesn’t matter if, say, Frank Lampard has a quiet game because someone else will step up. I think that’s the key difference between the sides. All round Chelsea are just too strong for Arsenal, so I can’t see them losing on Sunday. You’ve got to remember, too, that the pressure isn’t on Chelsea to win so that’s in their favour as well. They can go there and approach the game in any way they want: they can take Arsenal on or play a bit more cautiously and try to hit them on the break. Arsenal, on the other hand, have got to win if they want to be considered realistic challengers but, as I’ve already said, I can’t see that happening.

AN EVENING WITH ALAN HUDSON
Alan Hudson will be taking part in a Q and A session at Sutton United FC this Friday (November 27th) at 7.30pm. Tickets to the event cost £10 and will be available on the night. (Admission includes a copy of ”The Special Ones: Chelsea by the Fans’ signed by Alan). For further information contact Mark Caswell on 07977 831519 or email mark.caswell1@btinternet.com

CLASSIC HUDDY ON YOUTUBE
One of the most talented players ever to pull on a Chelsea shirt, Alan Hudson helped the Blues win the FA Cup in 1970 (although, sadly, he missed the final against Leeds through injury) and the European Cup Winners’ Cup the following year. He was transferred to Stoke City for a then club record £240,000 in January 1974 and a year later made a brilliant international debut for England in a 2-0 victory against world champions West Germany at Wembley. Edited highlights of this match have recently surfaced on Youtube and are well worth checking out at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZDhvdupJA

* Clive Batty’s latest book is ‘The Pocket Book of Chelsea’. Please visit http://www.visionsp.co.uk/ for more details.

With the first Champions League fixture approaching it felt like a good time to take stock, so after the last-gasp victory over Stoke on Saturday CFCnet shoved a mic in front of two Chelsea-supporting journalists, Dan Levene of the Kensington and Chelsea News and Shin Yamanaka (World Soccer Magazine, Japan), and asked them to assess the Blues’ start to the new campaign:

What are your overall impressions of the ‘new’ Chelsea under Carlo Ancelotti?

DL: They are looking like a more organised side than they were at times last season, and they are looking quite adventurous in the way they are playing the ball around the pitch. They’ve certainly got the ability to score lots of goals and beat some good teams.

SY: I don’t see a great deal of change from the Mourinho era, really, because it’s pretty much still his team. But the team is functioning well and Ancelotti had done well to keep the momentum going from Hiddink’s short spell in charge.

There has been a lot of discussion about the different formations Ancelotti has been using in the early games this season. How effective do you think the new diamond midfield has been?

DL: Well, it’s been called a diamond but it doesn’t always look a diamond but we’ve got some very flexible midfielders so, perhaps, we’re not always hemmed into performing like one. I think if we try to play in a basic diamond I think we’ll come unstuck against the better teams. You need to have more flexibility than that, and we do.

SY: To me the biggest question is who can play behind the strikers at the top of the diamond. We have plenty of players who can fill the bottom and the centres but at the top there is a question mark. Deco is not very convincing so I’m very interested to see how Joe Cole will perform there once he is back.

DL: Yes, I’d definitely like to see Joe Cole there as well. The wings are looking a bit congested at the moment so if he could find a place at the top of the diamond that would be great.

Another aspect of the new formation is that Drogba and Anelka have been playing up front together, which we haven’t seen them do that often before. How do you think that partnership is shaping up?

SY: Drogba has said he prefers to play with a partner but, when you see him on the pitch, he seems more like a lone striker. Anelka is often wide or a little deeper, so it’s quite tricky for Drogba to link up with him. I still think it is a partnership that needs to be proved over the course of the season.

DL: It’s a bit like having two big cats prowling around the same range – you’re not entirely sure that they’re going to get on terribly well. But in the last two games they started together there have been signs that they will: the goal Drogba set up for Anelka against Burnley and the two goals at Fulham. If they can communicate and park their egos it will be a great double act.

Looking to the wide areas, a lot of the width is being provided by the two full backs, which is a bit of a throwback to the Scolari era…

SY: The formation needs them to come through from full back but, unlike the Scolari era, they are quite disciplined and they don’t really go up at the same time. If one goes up, the other one stays behind so I think it’s nicely balanced. However, if Ashley Cole gets injured we’ll need to see how Yuri Zhirkov performs at left back.

DL: They are good quality full backs and Ashley scored a goal against Burnley, but I do think fans like to see wide players a bit further up the pitch. I think they like to see attacking midfielders on the wings, and it would be nice to see some more width particularly against bigger teams like Manchester United and Liverpool who are quite vulnerable if you attack them down the wings.

There was a lot of talk about a top wide player like Franck Ribery joining Chelsea in the summer, but it hasn’t happened. Are you a bit disappointed by the lack of a ‘marquee signing’?

SY: Yes, because in the summer I definitely thought we would buy a decent striker and a younger midfielder. It’s quite disappointing.

Still, it’s been a very promising start to the season. Are you confident that we can stay at the top of the table?

SY: Yes, and we are the favourites for the title, but I think that’s mainly because the other three clubs, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, all lost big players in the summer. But so far so good. However, I would say that we need to have Anelka in good scoring form because in January we will lose Drogba and Kalou to the African Nations Cup, along with Essien and Mikel.

DL: As a longstanding Chelsea fan I’m never that optimistic at the start of the season. Although we haven’t played anybody that big yet we’re getting the results, and if we can keep on doing that…we’ll be champions!

Finally, you’ve seen Ancelotti in quite a few press conferences. What are your impressions of him and how he is getting on in the job?

SY: Well, he’s shown an eagerness to learn English and he seems like a decent guy, but it’s hard to say how he’s getting on behind the scenes at the training ground. But we can’t complain about the start he’s made.

DL: Judging from the little bit of interplay you see when the players go on and come off, it seems that they all get on and that’s half his job. His media presence is never going to be quite as amazing as Mourinho’s but, all the same, he’s been fairly impressive in his dealings with the press.

Thanks to Dan and Shin for taking the time to talk to CFCnet. Dan’s paper, the Kensington and Chelsea News, is out on Thursdays.

Michael Ballack has been an extremely busy man of late, playing and scoring in a couple of World Cup qualifiers for Germany against Liechtenstein and Wales before returning to Chelsea with the rest of the club’s international contingent for the recent trip up to Newcastle. It’s been a hectic schedule but with our annual Champions League tussle with Liverpool looming and an FA Cup semi-final with Arsenal on the horizon (not to mention the normal monthly quota of Premier League games), there isn’t going to be any let up in the coming weeks.

Happily, though, he’s found a small gap in his diary to meet up with Chelsea author, Clive Batty the day before the quarter-final clash at Anfield. Dressed in Chelsea training gear, he seems remarkably relaxed when he turns up for the interview in a small annexe off the main reception at the club’s training ground. During our chat he breaks into laughter on three or four occasions, and generally gives the impression of being in a happy, positive frame of mind. It’s good to see – this may be the serious, business end of the season where cups and titles are won and lost, the pressure may very soon be cranked up to the maximum level, but it would be a pretty grim state of affairs if this meant our players went around Cobham with furrowed brows and nails bitten to the quick.

As we settle down to go through the list of questions, all sent in by ClubCFCnet members, the squad is already starting to board the Chelsea coach for the trip up to Merseyside. Michael, it hardly needs saying, must be on that coach, so we’re slightly up against the clock…

How do you feel the season has gone for you as a whole?
Mark Colby, north London
A bit mixed. I’ve played some good games and some not so good games, a bit like our season. It’s been a bit up-and-down, but now we come to a stage where we know what we have to do. The league will be a bit difficult, but in the FA Cup and the Champions League we are looking forward and believe we have a good chance in both competitions.
I want to make a big impact as well so I’m looking forward to this period. I’m feeling fit, it’s a long time now since I had the injury and I’m happy about that.

Since Michael Essien has returned you have adopted the midfield holding role for some games. Have you played this position before and are you happy playing there?
Eddie Hazlewood, Bedford
Yes, I’ve played there a few times before with Bayern Munich and the international team, because we play with just two central players in midfield in a straight 4-4-2, a little bit like England in former years. Here we play three in midfield, one holding player and two attacking midfielders, and the coach asked me to do this. I said, ‘Yes, of course I can play there’. I’m a flexible player, I can play offensively or defensively, but wherever I play I always want to score. And, even in the holding role, I’m allowed to do this!

What difference has Guus Hiddink made since he took charge of the team?
Dave Key, Peterborough
He has a great personality. From the first day that he stepped in the dressing room he’s had a presence that is outstanding, really good. As everybody knows, he has great experience in the past and great success even with smaller teams at both club and international level. We were really happy that we could get him in such a difficult situation, as it’s not usually easy to make a change during the season.
Shortly before the Champions League restarted he stepped in and you could see that he could get something more out of a team that was struggling a little bit, and not looking as strong as we should look. So I can only say positive things about him…and he speaks German, English and Spanish perfectly so it’s really good for our team!

Do you feel that the players’ fitness levels dropped during the Scolari period, as some newspaper reports suggested they had?
Eddie Hazlewood, Bedford
It’s difficult for me to say, as a player. Sometimes you don’t feel it because you play every three days but, of course, 5% or 10% is a lot in football and if everyone drops back a little bit it can cost us points…and we drew a lot of games, especially at home, which we shouldn’t have. Now we miss those points.
He was a nice guy, happy with everybody, but if you can’t get the results it’s difficult. He had trained with the Brazilian national team but the English league is really tough and you have to adapt. If you don’t get the results a lot of speculation develops about the training, about everything. But I’m a player and he is not here anymore so it wouldn’t really be fair to speak more about him.

What, in your opinion, are the main differences between English and German football?
Jez Walters, London
I played for one of the biggest clubs in Germany, Bayer Leverkusen, and we were always first or second. Then I played for the biggest club, Bayern Munich, for four years and we won a lot of titles. I reached the Champions League final with Leverkusen but with Bayern Munich we didn’t reach the final or even the semi-final because the squad wasn’t good enough. You could see there was a big gap at this time between German football at a high level and international football, especially in the Champions League, so I was pleased to take on a new challenge by joining Chelsea and playing in the Premier League.
I could see straight away the ambitions of everybody at the club. And, of course, the strength of the Premier League is shown by the number of times Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have reached the semi-finals and final of the Champions League in recent years. Even in the league games the pace is higher than in Germany, because of the training and the quality of the players. Another difference is that the referees don’t blow for fouls that much. In Germany, Spain or Italy when players go down they usually get a free-kick, but not in England. That makes the Premier League very physical and very quick, because it’s always ‘play on, play on’. For a player, though, it’s good because, if you play for a few years, you adapt and improve. But, of course, it was a change for me even though I had played a lot of international games and tournaments. For me, the Premier League is something special.

In Germany you are considered a superstar much like David Beckham here. Do you like the relative privacy of London?
Jez Walters, London
London is a huge city but, to be honest, it’s not quieter for me because if I go out I get recognised just like I am in Germany. These days it’s so international and everyone is so interested in football, people recognise you everywhere. Even if you have a lot of clubs in London and people support another team they still like to say, ‘I’m an Arsenal supporter but I like you’. But it’s nice to see that football is so important, even in a big city like London.
Actually, German people often ask me the same question but I can’t really say I have more privacy here.

What’s your favourite Premiership ground, apart from Stamford Bridge?
Lucy, Surrey
I played at Newcastle the other day, which is a fantastic stadium. Behind the bench, especially, there is a big stand which is unbelievable. The pitch, too, is really good. I played there last year and scored when we won 2-0, but I was injured the year before so this was only my second time. It’s a really nice stadium, but there are others too. Manchester United has an unbelievable atmosphere, Liverpool is always a difficult place to go, Manchester City has a nice stadium…

Would you prefer to start every game, or do you believe that you can be more effective taking occasional rests?
Khobar, Wales
The first thing is you want to play every game if possible. But I’ve played professional football now for 14 years and I know that you can’t play every game and be at the highest level. Especially in England, where there are so many games, so many good teams and no winter break like we have in Germany. So you need a rest or rotation, and every big team does this.
I’m at an age now, 32, where it’s normal to miss a game and rest but the big games, especially, you always want to play in.

Who’s the best player you’ve played with and against at club or international level?
Jez Walters, London
It’s very difficult to say because I’ve played with a lot of fantastic players. At Leverkusen I played with Emerson, the Brazilian, when I was 21 and I learned a lot from him. He was an amazing player. I’ve played here with players like Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, Ze Roberto in Bayern Munich was a really good player. Oliver Kahn as a goalkeeper…his attitude to football from outside looks really strong, but to play with him – and he was captain when I was there – he really pushes you to another level.
You know, it’s not always about performance, it’s also about mentality in football and when you have a collective experience together you have to learn from other players as well. You have to look at the other players and think about what you can get from them and from the coaches. That’s why it’s always good to have strong characters around you.

If you could pick any player from the past to play in the same team as you, who would that be?
Ollie Scanlan, Croydon
I have to say Franz Beckenbauer…because he’s German!

What is your favourite technique for taking penalties? And can you remember the last penalty you missed?
Oliver Todd, north London
I can’t tell you about the technique, I can’t even tell the fans because I don’t know who might read this! But I can tell you I always change my mind when I go the penalty spot, then I finally decide what I will do.
I think the last one I missed was in an unimportant game, a friendly game with the international team before the World Cup in South Korea.

Which was the bigger disappointment, losing in the final of the Champions League last season or in the final of the European Championships later that summer?
Alex Ambroziak, Montreal
It’s hard to say because both competitions are so important for a football player, two of the best finals you can reach. I was happy we reached the finals but then you want to win them. It was the same in 2002 because I reached the final of the Champions League and the World Cup and we lost them both. But sometimes there is nothing you can do, it comes down to one penalty – like JT’s in Moscow – which either goes in or it doesn’t. The whole club is celebrating or the whole club is down, that’s football. You have to accept it.

Would you take a pay cut or agree to a pay-as-you-play deal to stay at Chelsea?
Charlie, Gosport
Well, the first thing is I have an option with the club for next year as well so maybe we will speak in the next weeks about something we may do after 2010 as well. I can imagine everything, so I can’t tell you now what will be in my contract.
But I’ve said all along if we come together, the two sides, I can imagine myself staying here for the rest of my career.

When you finally retire do you think you’ll move into management/coaching, become a TV pundit or move away from football completely?
Lucy, Surrey
I will see, there is no pressure to decide now. I have a few ideas, you know, but I don’t really want to announce them now in case I eventually don’t do them. So, we’ll see.

What do you like to do when you have time off?
Lucy, Surrey
I have a family, you know, three kids. I have three boys and they always want to play football with me or do something else with Daddy. When I was alone I could do other things, play more golf or some other kind of sport, or go in the city more. But when you have family there is only a small period of time between the games, the time you want to relax and the time you want to enjoy with your family. Of course there are lots of different things you like to do with your family, but I’m like everybody else… I’m not really special in my private life! I’m just normal.

Interview by Clive Batty, author of ‘The Chelsea Miscellany’, ‘Kings of the King’s Road’ and ‘A Serious Case of the Blues: Chelsea in the 80s’. His latest book ‘The Pocket Book of Chelsea’ (Vision Sports Publishing) is out in October.

His face lights up as soon as I mention the word ‘Stoke’ and it’s hardly surprising. As every Chelsea supporter must remember, the Blues looked set to be on the receiving end of one of the shock results of the Premier League campaign against the newly-promoted Potters at the Bridge back in January until then boss Luiz Felipe Scolari sent on Stoch in the final minutes. Two late goals swiftly followed, the young Slovakian providing the centre from which Frank Lampard slammed in a dramatic, last-ditch winner which will surely figure prominently in any highlights compilation of Chelsea’s season.

“With the first touch of the ball against Stoke I felt confident and it felt easy playing in front of the big crowd,” he recalls. “I almost scored with a shot and then I crossed the ball and we scored from that so I was so happy.” Back in his native Slovakia news travelled fast that Miro had played a vital part in securing three points for the Blues and many of his friends and relatives were soon ringing him to offer their congratulations. “I was on the phone all evening,” he smiles. “A few of my friends had watched the game and some of them had seen what happened on the internet, so they were all talking to each other.” Resisting the temptation to go out and celebrate, he opted instead for a quiet night in front of the TV in his flat in Cobham. Quite understandably, he admits that come 10pm he found himself hitting the BBC1 button on the remote control. “I watched Match of the Day that evening and they spoke a bit about me,” he says. “They said when I came on the pitch became big, but before we were playing a little bit narrow and maybe that was the key.”

Praise from those two pillars of footballing wisdom, Lawro and Hansen, is not to be sniffed at but Miro received an even better surprise at Watford in the FA Cup a few weeks later. “While I was warming up the Chelsea fans started singing my name,” he says. “I didn’t understand at first, then I did and I thought ‘Oh, that’s my name! I’d better play well if I come on…” Of course, he did come on and, again, he made a significant impact, helping to transform an embarrassing 1-0 deficit into a comfortable 3-1 win. With two game-changing cameos in his five substitute appearances to date it’s easy to see why Blues supporters have taken a quick liking to the nippy, skilful 19-year-old.

The senior players in the squad, he says, have been equally welcoming. “It hasn’t been difficult joining the first team because they have tried to help me all the time,” he tells me. “Players like Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba are so experienced that I can learn a lot from them. Training with them every day you learn something every day, and then when you play you can use that experience they give you.” I press him for a concrete example and he’s happy to give one. “Sometimes when you do something wrong they tell you what to do. Maybe it’s a tactical thing, where to move when we don’t have the ball. Or it might be about the position to take in the transition from defence to attack.” The sort of important but not immediately apparent stuff, in other words, that might take years to pick up without such top-notch guidance.
Listening to him talk so confidently and articulately it’s hard to imagine that when he arrived at Chelsea three years ago he barely spoke a word of English. Something of a teenage prodigy in Slovakia, he had already played a handful of first-team games for top-flight outfit FC Nitra before he was recommended to the Blues by his agent in 2006. Invited to Chelsea for a one-week trial he impressed in an Under-16s game and was promptly signed up by the club’s Academy. His progress since then has been steady, with most supporters only really becoming aware of him when his starring performances were instrumental in the juniors reaching the FA Youth Cup final last season. “That was the first time I played in front of a big crowd,” he says of the two-legged final against Manchester City, “and maybe some of the fans know me from that game. But it was very disappointing to lose the final, everybody in the team wanted to win – especially as we knew that Chelsea had not won the competition for almost 50 years.”

Now, though, he has much bigger targets: getting more playing time with the first team and maybe even appearing in next year’s World Cup. Earlier this year Miro made his full international debut for Slovakia, once again coming on as a sub against Ukraine in a friendly in Cyprus. Then, in April, he got a surprise call-up for the World Cup qualifier in Prague against local neighbours and arch rivals the Czech Republic. “I was with the Under-21 squad, training on the pitch alongside the first team when one of the wingers got injured in a practice match,” he recalls, “so I was promoted to the first team and scored the winning goal in the training match. Then Slovakia lost 4-0 to England and the coach said, ‘We need to call up Stoch’. So I went to Prague and came on during the match when it was 1-1 and we beat them 2-1. Everyone said I played well, and I was so happy.” Presumably, Petr Cech, whose Czech side now face an uphill battle to secure qualification, was altogether less delighted.

Naturally, Miro is confident that his country can make it to South Africa ahead of the Czechs and current group leaders Northern Ireland. A happy knock-on effect of his rapid progress at club and international level, he tells me, is that the Blues are now more popular in Slovakia than ever before. “Everyone knows me now over there,” he says. “People are writing to me and telling me ‘good luck’.” While clearly focused on continuing the bright start to his career, Miro also seems to be enjoying his new-found fame. “I like it when people stop me to ask me for a photo or to sign something,” he smiles.

Definitely one for the future at the Bridge, the chances are that he’ll be posing for many more photos and signing thousands more autographs in the years to come.

Interview by Clive Batty, author of ‘The Chelsea Miscellany’, ‘Kings of the King’s Road’ and ‘A Serious Case of the Blues: Chelsea in the 80s’. His latest book ‘The Pocket Book of Chelsea’ (Vision Sports Publishing) is out in October.

A lot of the dramatic focus, of course, has centred on the manager’s position. What, first of all, did Alan make of the brief but eventful Scolari reign? “I was a little bit disappointed with Scolari, mainly because he didn’t stick to his guns,” he says, talking exclusively to CFCnet. “He should have kept going the way he started. I think, unlike Mourinho or Hiddink, he could be influenced. That was his downfall; he shouldn’t have stood for ‘player power’, if that’s what it was. Managers should be above that because no player is bigger than the club. It wouldn’t have happened under Mourinho, he wouldn’t have let a good player like Drogba mess him about. Scolari lost Drogba as a player, and Drogba is a hell of a player when he’s on his game.”

Yet, it had all started so well with the Blues storming to the top of the table at the start of the season. Huddy was guest of honour at the Stoke-Chelsea game in September, receiving a rapturous reception from both sets of fans when he went on the pitch at half-time, and was hugely impressed by the Blues’ performance in an emphatic 2-0 victory. “They are the only team who have been to the Britannia Stadium this season and not been overawed by the way Stoke play,” he says. “Chelsea outplayed them and outmuscled them, and actually made Stoke look like a pub team. No other team has done that. Stoke are a very tough team at home and Chelsea made them look very, very average. I went down on the pitch at half-time and Stoke’s players were flagging while Chelsea’s hadn’t even broken sweat. They were winning at a canter. At the time I thought Chelsea were definitely going to win the league.”
The subsequent decline in the Blues’ fortunes has largely been ascribed to Scolari lacking a ‘Plan B’ but Huddy reckons over-confidence, even complacency, was the most important factor in the downturn in the team’s results. “Everything in football starts at the top,” he argues. “I don’t like managers and players who are forever in the papers talking a good game and saying they’re going to win the league. Managers should tell their players not to do it, because it’s a lot easier to say it than to do it, and they certainly shouldn’t do it themselves. But I think Scolari was guilty of that.”

The same accusation could hardly be levelled at the Brazilian’s replacement, the quietly authoritative Guus Hiddink . Unsurprisingly, then, Alan is a big fan of the Dutchman. “I’m very impressed by him and his record speaks for himself,” he says. “He’s a football man and he comes from a good environment, having been brought up in Holland in the Cruyff era. So he knows all about the game. You just need to see how Chelsea have done since he took over to see how good he is.”

But will Hiddink stay at the Bridge? It’s the question every Chelsea fan is wondering about as the season draws to a close. “I can see that they are going to try to move heaven and earth to get him to stay,” continues Alan. “But he’s so enraptured with the Russian job and he’s so loyal it could be difficult to persuade him, although I actually think he could carry on doing both jobs. There aren’t many managers around like him today – generally, if the big money is there they’ll move. They’ve become like players, moving from club to club for the wrong reasons.”

If Hiddink doesn’t stay at the Bridge there are no shortage of candidates to fill his place. Huddy, though, is unconvinced by Frank Rijkaard’s credentials and reckons that the Chelsea job is “too big” for Gianfranco Zola, although he acknowledges the good work the former Blues favourite is doing at West Ham. His preferred choice to manage the club he starred at in the late 1960s and early 1970s is another onetime Chelsea man, Terry Venables. “He would be an absolutely fantastic choice because he’s been there and done it all,” he says. “He knows how to handle players, how to handle the media. I really can’t understand why he has never managed Chelsea.”

‘El Tel’ for the Blues, then? It somehow seems improbable, but what’s for sure is that there are a few more unlikely twists to come in this potboiler of a season.

LUNCH WITH HUDDY
A sportsman’s lunch in honour of Alan Hudson is being held at the Eyston Arms, East Hendred, Oxfordshire on Sunday 10th May 2009, starting at 3pm. Alan will be joined on the day by fellow Chelsea legend Tommy Baldwin, former Stoke and Arsenal defender Steve Bould and National Hunt jockey Graham Bradley. Following a delicious three-course meal (complete with full bottle of wine per person), the quartet will take part in a question and answer session. There will also be an auction of selected sporting memorabilia. Tickets for the event (price £95 person, or £155 including overnight bed and breakfast accommodation) are available from Paul McCormack on 07917 897246 or legendsport@btinternet.com