It might be something of a handicap when it comes to writing about football, but I hate football news. I hate rolling updates, 24-7 feeds direct from UEFA HQ via the “Sky News Centre” – a grimy warehouse of a building on the outskirts of an industrial park west of London, if you’re wondering – [...]
Continue reading …Some weeks back, I asked readers of my Times blog how much they hated Frank Lampard. The post still holds the comments record within the Chelsea section. Despite being an intelligent, articulate man with a phenomenal goal-scoring record; despite being voted England fans’ player of the year for both 2005 and 2006; despite being a [...]
Continue reading …I have to be honest. You deserve no less… this is CFCnet after all. I expected Manchester United to hit the ground running this season. No fundamental squad changes. No serious injuries, bar the obvious one to their best player… but hey, that’s what the megabuck squad is for, right? Pretty much every key area of [...]
Continue reading …I’d like to take this opportunity to ask some readers what it is, exactly, that they hate about Frank Lampard. Try and restrain yourself. Just one thing will do. Could it be the badge-kissing? Perhaps it’s his erstwhile apathy for England while still banging them in for Chelsea? Flirtation with Mourinho? Jaw-dropping salary? Ability to [...]
Continue reading …Nice horns, Mr Kenyon Hellboy, as we all know, files down his horns to “fit in”. Peter Kenyon probably does it so as not to excite too much comment in the boardroom. But there’s no escaping the comedy pair that have been strapped to his bald pate this morning. The Chelsea chief executive has been [...]
Continue reading …Is it possible to have sympathy for the self-professed “biggest club in the world”, Manchester United? Are we able to swallow our natural distaste for the Premiership’s biggest purveyor of double standards? Or are Ramon Calderon’s smug , self-serving remarks simply comeuppance for a club that has had its own way, time and again, in [...]
Continue reading …Congratulations to a worthy set of champions for 2008. Despite the drama of the last couple of weeks, the title was always in United’s hands – at the risk of invoking old ghosts, I’m sure José would have approved – and they finished it off in fine style. so whither Chelsea now? Let’s not look [...]
Continue reading …I’m sure you all remember the days when you could shrug off the effects of a hangover by 11, leaving you clear-eyed and bushy-tailed when your elders and betters were still groaning into their coffee. Nights spent curled up in the architectural equivalent of Skinner’s box, with your head hanging over the edge of someone’s [...]
Continue reading …I wonder… do Liverpool fans view the upcoming pair of fixtures against Chelsea with the same sense of impending tedium as I do? Probably not. Victory, as any modern Chelsea fan will tell you, goes a long way to relieving the spirit-crushing boredom of a soulless game. Before the high-pitching whining begins, I’d like to [...]
Continue reading …I’m 32. I have to remind myself of this quite often, because I carry around an image of myself in my head, and in it I have the pristine body that someone lent me for a few weeks around my 19th birthday, healthily coloured skin and eyes unfaded by years of cynical underachievement. It’s not [...]
Continue reading …They pull a knife, you pull a gun. They send off Lampard, you pull a Ballack. That’s the Premier League way. If there is an award for most ham-fisted segue into the concept of “Untouchable”, I’d like to claim my prize. But the point is an extremely important one. Just who is irreplaceable at Chelsea [...]
Continue reading …You’d think that a good 24-hour period of reflection would be needed after losing to Spurs in a competitive final but, in truth, no Chelsea fan with even an iota of self-respect can do other than hold their hands up today and acknowledge that the better team won on the day.Second in nearly every department [...]
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