LIFE is never dull at Chelsea since they became a super club. As the Blues unveiled their latest financial figures, other statistics were being pored over, those that indicate Frank Lampard, club legend and all-round good fellow, could be losing his way at the moment. There has been paper talk that some players are confused […]
IN an age of anodyne post-match interviews and black-suited corporate football managers, there would probably be no place for the likes of Tommy Docherty. His bluntness, humour and market-trading improvisation would be totally at odds with the modern game. The “Doc”, as he was fondly known, has died, aged 92, and with him goes one […]
I RECENTLY entered a football ground for the first time since early March, but it was not to see a match, it was to take part in a tour of Tottenham Hotspur’s outstanding new stadium. This remarkable structure, which resembles a space ship landing in urban north London, is arguably the best arena I have […]
HOW do you sack managers like Pep Guardiola, or replace parts of the furniture like Frank Lampard? There’s an assumption that clubs will not fire people who are football luminaries or club “legends”. But it would be wrong to believe Lampard and Guardiola are untouchable, at best they will be left in a room and […]
REMEMBER Pierluigi Casiraghi, the Italian international signed by Chelsea in May 1998 for £ 5.4 million? Not many people do, for his 10 Premier League appearances cost around half a million a piece. Luckless Casiraghi sustained a bad injury in November of that year and was never seen again. Historically, big price tags haven’t weighed […]
IN the modern age, the big London clash is Arsenal v Tottenham, two clubs in close proximity, massive fanbases and key roles in the development of the game. Those that know their football history will be only too aware that Arsenal started life on the opposite side of the River Thames, adopting a series of […]
THE PREMIER LEAGUE, thankfully, has finished and the FA and the clubs must be breathing a collective sigh of relief. It has been a peculiar campaign, unprecedented in so many ways, but even without the disruption of the pandemic, it has not been a classic year. Liverpool fans, will, of course, claim it is the […]
IN APRIL 1975, Chelsea were relegated from the first division. It had been a long-time coming, given two lack-lustre campaigns that saw the break-up of a richly-talented team that had reached three cup finals in as many years and had scarcely been out of the top six since the club returned to the top flight […]
CHELSEA have fallen away from being title contenders in the past couple of seasons, but a new wave of investment and a bolder approach to blooding youngsters promises to revive the club as challengers to the new “big two”. The FA Cup semi-final victory against Manchester United, taking Chelsea to their third final in four […]
