Wake up you footy fans!!!

[charliestumpy]

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!

[Who Shot Sam?]

Yahoo!!!

Sounds like it was a terrible match, decided by one moment of quality. I don't care - I'll take it. Domestic cup double makes up a bit for the season's other disappointments.

Allez Didier!!

[pophead2k]

I will butt in on this very foreign thread to me to boast that I watched the entire match at a friend's house in DC. He was disappointed, as he favored Man U.

Now checking out.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Sound friend.

First half terribly tedious. No space, cancelling ach other out. Second half came to life a bit, except Ronaldo. Rooney was our only hope, other than Giggs hoofing Cech + ball into net. I felt MU should have scored something in the second half, but they were off the pace and lacklustre. Giggs was off throughout. Fairly even game, wouldn't say Chelsea deserved to win as such, but it was a beauty of a goal, the miserable bastards. Wembley looked awesome, especially the amazing redness of it all! Friend of mine was there and phoned up amidst all the noise. Lucky git. Nice to see all the oild timers, and some great vintage footage in the build-up, e.g. Tommy Docherty in his pink boxers in his hotel room.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Something to help dispel my footie blues:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 546939.stm

[Who Shot Sam?]

Something to help dispel my footie blues:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 546939.stm

As expected. That's a lot for a fairly pedestrian midfielder who only played 9 matches last season.

Sounds like we'll have a fairly quiet summer, which I would welcome.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Jealous, are we? I'd bet good money on it being a far better signing than Ballack has been! Sure Hargreaves has been injured this season, hardly his fault. If we was as motivated as he was playing for Eriksson, when he was arguably England's best player in the World Cup, what do you imagine SAF can get out of him? Excellent business, I say, someone who can possibly help with the rebuilding of a new team as the old timers who shone this season get too past it. I was amazed to see the Observer give Giggs a 6 for yesterday and a pretty decent write-up. Seemed to me there were many opportunities lost through his slowness and imprecision. I would have agreed more with your response pre-World Cup, but not now.

[Who Shot Sam?]

OK, he had a decent World Cup, the best of a very disappointing bunch. I still don't think he's worth £17 million. Remember, even though Ballack was a pretty major disappointment, we got him on a free. I'm not jealous in the least.

[Jackson Monk]

Something to help dispel my footie blues:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 546939.stm

As expected. That's a lot for a fairly pedestrian midfielder who only played 9 matches last season.

Sounds like we'll have a fairly quiet summer, which I would welcome.

Tend to agree with WSS. How is he going to play Carrick and Hargreaves together?

[Who Shot Sam?]

The game may have been rubbish, but the banners were good.

[mood swung]

that's the kind of dog that makes my foot itch.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Tend to agree with WSS. How is he going to play Carrick and Hargreaves together?

From what I've seen, Hargreaves is pretty versatile position-wise. He was playing quite defensively in the World Cup, less so for BM, etc. I'm sure SAF can make it happen.

[so lacklustre]

it should mean less games for fletcher and o'shite, which can only be a good thing for manure.

[Boy With A Problem]

that's the kind of dog that makes my foot itch.

I'm gonna get a small one next time; something I can pick up by the neck and fling against the wall when he gets out of hand. Can't do that with my 105 lb pea brained lab. (who incidently entered the country legally)

Radszinki and Jensen leaving - won't miss the little Canadian, he was really getting on my nerves the last half - though he's about the right size to pick up by the neck and fling against the wall.

[Otis Westinghouse]

it should mean less games for fletcher and o'shite, which can only be a good thing for manure.

Possibly, though both did well towards the end of the season, though not, of course, on Sat. Fletcher looked more like the player SAF wants us to believe he is than the bastard love-child we all have him down as. Daily Mail footie pundit put it well on new Monday night BBC1 sports show, following the hilarious topfootietottie Gaby interview with Sven when he said SAF had replaced Keano with two players. There was then an interview with Owen Von Hargreaves at a legendary Munchen bierhaus (the Spookies will know it well, Hofbrausomething). Weird accent. Germanic Canadian? He actually sounds quite Mancunian, so he's obviously been preparing for the move.

[charliestumpy]

Hard luck to MUt, who often had played the 'best footie' for most of the English season - Chels quite rightly gave them the Premiership, despite losing far less games.

MUt were beaten by a better left-overs team (crucially minus Carvalho who departed in the farce when Bolton hand-balled..) who played tactically/actually better on the day (different result thankfully from 1994 when Chels outplayed MUt in 2 league games and most of FA Final until fun of penalties ...). (Come to that, Chels outplayed MUt in all of subsequent FA Cup games apart from when MUt were 5-0 up at Stamford Bridge before allowing Chels to score 3).

Thank goodness the Giggs knee-on-Cech's-head-over-the-line-but-a-foul was not given.

Typical boring/effective Mourinho performance - greatest paradox in footie now is that he is about the most flamboyant manager/coach, who chooses to play chess (how dire were Oporto winning Uefa 'Fairs Cup' and 'Champ League' ...

If it is really true that Mourinho has been told that Ballack/Shevchenko/Boulahrouz/Ashley Cole etc must win Euro Champ League - or Barclays Prem again next season 'or else', (with 4 Africans away in 2008 in African Cup Of Nations ...), he should follow his pooch now to Port and Chels can appoint Chels supporter Mark Hughes.

I can understand why idiot BBC commentators did not like the match (they are idiots), but proper Chels/footie followers understood way in which Chels did the job on Port Ron etc etc.

IMO Chels should have won 4-0.

Good luck Liver (who got through against superior better-performing side who forgot to score more than 1 at Stamford Bridge) or Milano tomorrow.

I enjoyed someone beating Real Madrid in Athens in 1971, and will enjoy watching someone win 2007-05-23 there also.

I amongst other things enjoy listening to Ian Dury's 'Mash it up Harry', which is jolly good on the Wembley theme.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Sidwell to Chelsea on a free transfer confirmed. Sounds like Maka might be leaving this summer.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Liverpool go potless. Couldn't be happier.

[so lacklustre]

Tottenham will finish 8th
Ac Milan will win CL
Both fingers crossed

OK Nostradamus - one down, one to go

Well, I got the other one right. What I had failed to reveal, is that I conducted this as a faith test. I prayed to Allah that Milan would win the CL, but relied on Jesus for Tottenham to finish 8th. So I can only guess that Jesus has forgiven Tottingham, or that he doesn't exist.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Or that Kaká belongs to him.

[charliestumpy]

Congratulations to Liver for winning this (last) season's 2006-7 Community Shield at Caerdydd against Shevchenko.

It is a real pisser that Liver fans with tickets at Athens/at John Lennon Airport were not allowed to see game for which they had paid too much.

They were very unfortunate last night in that Inzaghi's touches etc went in. Two years ago Milano should have won 10-2 in great great final.

IMO Benitez was wrong not to start with Crouch and Bellamy, and although they were arguably the better side this time against Milano they had too few goal-efforts to score 3. IMO the match was worse than the 2007 FA Cup Final.

The sooner the Champions (') League is for Champions only - e.g. MUt and Inter-PSV-Lyons-Oporto (uggh!) etc the better.

3rd & 4th placed sides should be in Uefa League or Cup, and Cup Winners (FA & League Cup eqivalent) should be in re-instituted Cup Winners' Cup.

Liverpool are often great and have won lots, but unless they/A.C. Milan etc win 'Champions (') League should - whether finishing 3rd or 5th or 4th - NOT be in Champ. League.

IMO once upon time a European Cup was for national champions.

IMO Chels having failed in 3 of last 4 years Champ League semis - including poor performances against even worse Liver - will never win it.

IMO English/Welsh FA Cup & League are better than the Sony-Heineken-Ford rubbish. IMO UEFA 'Cup-League' is better too - although sides knocked out of Champ. League should not be allowed to join in a bit late.

Good luck to all 6 sides turning out soon at towerless Wembley (especially Bristol Rovers & Yeovil, neither of whom deserve to go up based on League position).

[charliestumpy]

Nice to see reconstructing Wembley in a decent 2007-05-24 'The Last Detective' when the police played footie ...

Fri, 25th May 2007

Having previewed every one of Chelsea's 64 games in a marathon season, club historian Rick Glanvill and statistician Paul Dutton take the opportunity for a last look back.

Rick begins the summing-up.

It was perhaps the most remarkable and exhausting season in our history, with more matches played, more glory, hopes of glory, joy, distress and drama than any other in our 102-year history.

2006/7 was extremely demanding on staff, squad and fans alike. But didn't it end well.

Excluding possible replays, Chelsea played 64 of the 65 games available in all competitions at the start of the season, an extraordinary feat. The one missing was the European Champion Clubs' Cup final, played between Milan and Liverpool.

The quadruple remained a genuine possibility before fatigue overcame the depleted squad at the last in Europe and the League. The effects of long-term injuries to crucial players eventually took their toll. Impressively, six Chelsea players appeared 50 or more times in a Chelsea shirt this season.

Equally significant were those whose presence was lost through injury. The six most unavailable players missed a disarming total of 134 games between them: Joe Cole 38, Petr Cech 27, Arjen Robben 25, John Terry 18, Carlo Cudicini 14, Andriy Shevchenko 12.

That is not to mention games where individuals played through the pain for the team or came off injured.

In the process, they added two major trophies to our honours list and made José Mourinho Chelsea's indisputable 'Special One' - the manager with the biggest haul of silverware ever.

It has been a fantastic campaign, with the promise of more thrills and spills at the highest level next season.

Below, Paul Dutton and I have collated the some of the stories of 2007/8 in stats.

Have a great summer and see you all again in August.


END-OF-SEASON STATS

José Mourinho is now officially the most successful manager in our history. Our top four managers based on major trophies won are as follows:

José Mourinho (6) Premiership 2005 and 2006, FA Cup 2007, League Cup 2005 and 2007, Community Shield 2005.
Gianluca Vialli (5) European Cup Winners' Cup 1998, UEFA Super Cup 1998, League Cup 1998, FA Cup 2000, Charity Shield 2000.
Ted Drake (2) League Championship 1955, Charity Shield 1955.
Dave Sexton (2) FA Cup 1970, European Cup-Winners' Cup 1971.

Trophies won by the big four in the three years José Mourinho has been in England:

José Mourinho - 6 trophies.
Rafael Benítez - 4 - Champions League 2005 (on penalties), UEFA Super Cup 2005, FA Cup 2006 (on penalties), Community Shield 2006.
Alex Ferguson - 2 - Premiership 2007, League Cup 2006.
Arsène Wenger - 2 - FA Cup 2005 (on penalties), Community Shield 2004.

Club milestones 2006/07

• FA Cup winners, for the fourth time (11th in table of overall winners).

• League Cup winners, for the fourth time (3rd).

• Premiership runners-up, for the second time.

• Champions League semi-finalists, for the third time.

• A club record number of games in a season beating the previous 61 in 1999/2000. Played 64, won 42, drawn 16, lost 6, 117 goals for, 43 goals against, 33 clean sheets and failed to score on six occasions.

• Equal greatest number of wins: 42, together with 2004/05.

• Longest ever unbeaten sequence: 23 games, beating the 19 in 1984, 1998 and 2005.

• Longest ever unbeaten home league sequence: 63 not out equalling Liverpool's all-time top-flight record set between February 1978 and January 1981. Our last league defeat at Stamford Bridge was the 1-2 defeat to Arsenal in February 2004.

The two clubs' 63-game records are very similar:
Chelsea: played 63, won 48, drawn 15, lost 0, goals for 131, against 29.
Liverpool: played 63, won 49, drawn 14, lost 0, goals for 142, against 26.

• Only the third club to win the FA and League Cup in the same season. The others were Arsenal in 1993 and Liverpool in 2001.

• Equal fewest ever defeats: 6, as in 1998/99 and 2004/05.

• 117 goals in all competitions: the second best total in our history along with 1960/61, and behind the 121 in 1964/65.

• Equal most away league clean sheets: 11 with 2004/05 (also a Premiership record).

• Equal longest away winning sequences (top flight): 6 (twice), as in 2004/05 (twice) and 2005/06.

Personal milestones 2006/07

• Premiership Golden Boot winner: Drogba 20, the first Chelsea player to win it since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink 23 goals in 2001.

• Premiership top scorer in all competitions: Drogba 33, the highest at Chelsea since Kerry Dixon's 36 in 1984/85.

• Drogba also became the first African ever to score in an FA Cup final game.

• Player of the Year: Michael Essien.

• Players' Player of the Year: Didier Drogba.

• Young Player of the Year: John Mikel Obi.

• Young Talent of the Year: Ben Sahar.

• Outstanding Achievement: Petr Cech.

• Goal of the Season: Essien v Arsenal (h).

• Record number of appearances: Frank Lampard 62 and Didier Drogba 60 games beating the 59 by Ed de Goey in 1999/2000.

• African Footballer of the Year, PFA Player of the Year runner-up, and Football Writers Footballer of the Year runner-up: Didier Drogba.

• Third in African Footballer of the Year: Michael Essien.

• Fourth youngest player ever: Michael Woods, 16 years and 275 days, v Macclesfield Town.

• Chelsea's top scoring midfielder ever: Lampard 90 goals. He is our 10th all time scorer.

• Record international goalscorer: Drogba, 17 goals for Ivory Coast.

• 50 internationals: Frank Lampard became only the second player to win 50 caps as a Chelsea player. Marcel Desailly was the other.

• Chelsea's first England captain since Vivian Woodward: John Terry.

• Youngest Chelsea international: Ben Sahar, 17 years 181 days, Israel v Ukraine (also a record for his country).

• Youngest Chelsea international scorer: Ben Sahar, 17 years 230 days, Israel v Estonia (two goals).

• 300 Chelsea appearances: Frank Lampard and John Terry.

• 100 Chelsea appearances: Wayne Bridge, Ricardo Carvalho, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, Paulo Ferreira, Gérémi, Arjen Robben.

• 100 Chelsea wins as manager: José Mourinho in his 142nd game.

• 50 European appearances for Chelsea: Lampard became the first to achieve that for the club.

• 50+ Chelsea career goals: Didier Drogba.

• 50+ Chelsea appearances 2007/8: Lampard 58+4, Drogba 54+6, Essien 54+1, Carvalho 51, Shevchenko 41+10, Kalou 25+33.

• Undefeated as manager at home in the league since Beira Mar beat Porto 3-2 on February 23rd 2002: José Mourinho. In the five years since, with Porto and Chelsea, he has managed 95 games, won 80, and drawn 15. His teams have scored 213 goals and conceded 48.

• Three goalkeepers in one match v Reading (a). Both Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini were knocked unconscious and John Terry completed the last few minutes in goal wearing Hilário's shirt.

[verbal gymnastics]

The sooner the Champions (') League is for Champions only - e.g. MUt and Inter-PSV-Lyons-Oporto (uggh!) etc the better.

3rd & 4th placed sides should be in Uefa League or Cup, and Cup Winners (FA & League Cup eqivalent) should be in re-instituted Cup Winners' Cup.

Absolutely.

Good luck to all 6 sides turning out soon at towerless Wembley (especially Bristol Rovers & Yeovil, neither of whom deserve to go up based on League position).

Absolutely.

But we know these will never happen.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Just got tix for two Red Bulls matches this summer, against KC and New England. Angel has started like a house on fire and Altidore looks like a great young player.

[mood swung]

JPA has just impressed the heck out of me since his signing was announced. Not just his play. He goes out of his way to say positive things about the team and his teammates. Even when he bitches, it's positive.

Josie asked me last night if we named her after Altidore.