Chelsea FC

[King-Osgood-1690]

Citeh Player Gets It So Wrong!


With Manchester City seemingly intent on buying half of our squad, they already have Tal Ben Haim, Wayne Bridge and Shaun Wright-Phillips on their books and are still intent on pursuing John Terry, there`s a degree of rivalry building between the two.

In fairness there`s always been some sort of rivalry probably started when Ken Bates and Peter Swales were at the helm. However, with both clubs having received a massive injection of cash, our paths, according to some, are starting to mirror each others.

Or are they?

Nestling in the tabloids today is an interesting quote form the Manchester City player, Martin Petrov who has remarked,

"Before Chelsea got their investment they were no better than we are now so we know that if we spend well we can challenge for trophies and titles."

Now this lad seriously needs to take a history lesson!

Before Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea had established themselves as a top six side, we`d won the FA Cup in 1997 ad 2000 and we`d won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1998 as well as the European Super Cup against mighty Real Madrid.

In the season immediately prior to Roman taking over we`d guaranteed Champions League football courtesy of an atmospheric 2-1 victory over Liverpool, on the last day of the season.

So let`s compare that to City shall we!

In the immediate years before they had a lorry-load of blank cheques fall into their laps they dallied around in the lower divisions, they almost lost a play-off final to mighty Gillingham and when eventually promoted they struggled to make an impact.

There`s been no Wembley / Cardiff appearances, there`s been only a UEFA Cup jaunt courtesy of the 'Fair Play League` and in there fist campaign since that massive cash injection they failed to qualify for the Europa League let alone the Champions League.

Compare that to Romans first year in charge - our highest ever Premier League placing (at the time) and a scintillating Champions League run whereby we almost went all the way!

Like we said Mr Petrov, please do your research next time!

www.Vital Chelsea.com - City Player Get's It So Wrong!

[Ciudad-B]

No offense, but you guys aren't anything better than City.

[King-Osgood-1690]

Originally Posted by Ciudad-B

No offense, but you guys aren't anything better than City.

How do you justify that?


Do go on, no point in making accusations if you can't justify them.

[Giampinho]

Originally Posted by Ciudad-B

No offense, but you guys aren't anything better than City.

i'd like to see the justification as well...

[Tazy999]

Man city cant compete for trophies and become global domination unless they have established and fixed players like chelsea had before the takeover and also a good manager who is ambitiouse and young and has character and power to controll big players and their egos and also attract players e.g (Mourinhio). Man city got long way to go.

well who knows with the amount of money they have anything is possible. Time will tell

[Ciudad-B]

Originally Posted by King-Osgood-1690

How do you justify that?


Do go on, no point in making accusations if you can't justify them.

No offense m8, but it's just my opinion. imo its wrong to let your club be bought by some rich guy (sure, ofcourse you won't decline it if someone decides to pump some lalalalaloads of money in the club) but it's wrong imo. You have managed to end top 6 top 8 etc, but then the Russian guy came and you guys started spending big money and started buying ALOT of players in 1 season. Look at Villareal for example. Back in 2000 or so they were a Segunda team, and now they're competing for a top 3 place in La Liga and were in the Quarter Finals of the CL. Now that's something I have alot of respect for. I don't really mind what City is trying to do, but it's not good either.

[WallerWalla]

OFFICIAL: Yuri Zhirkov Joins Chelsea On Three Year Deal - Goal.com

Welcome yuri. So what number he going to get then?

[WallerWalla]

Chelsea make fresh bid for £70m Bayern forward Ribery | Mail Online

[Aus-Rotten]

Originally Posted by Ciudad-B

No offense m8, but it's just my opinion. imo its wrong to let your club be bought by some rich guy (sure, ofcourse you won't decline it if someone decides to pump some lalalalaloads of money in the club) but it's wrong imo. You have managed to end top 6 top 8 etc, but then the Russian guy came and you guys started spending big money and started buying ALOT of players in 1 season. Look at Villareal for example. Back in 2000 or so they were a Segunda team, and now they're competing for a top 3 place in La Liga and were in the Quarter Finals of the CL. Now that's something I have alot of respect for. I don't really mind what City is trying to do, but it's not good either.

You are utterly full with fecal mass.

So it's wrong to let our club be bought by some rich lad? Had we opposed, nothing would have changed and that is a fact with a capital "F". Look what the protesting United fans got from complaining about the Hicks family taking over...

We bought a lot of players in one season, oh dear who in the world does that?! We truly are the enemies of football

[Katarinaccio]

Chelsea has had 25 players in, and 60 players out, since the summer of 06.
Barcelona has had 11 in and 16 out. since the summer of 07. So yes Chelsea has dealt more with the transfer market, but we've done more getting rid of players than buying.

[KingAndyXVII]

So, Bruce Buck says there will be a big name signing...

I'm not too sure about that, can't see any of the superstars around Europe being sold.

Thoughts ?

[MFC_LukeCarter]

Originally Posted by Aus-Rotten

You are utterly full with fecal mass.

So it's wrong to let our club be bought by some rich lad? Had we opposed, nothing would have changed and that is a fact with a capital "F". Look what the protesting United fans got from complaining about the Hicks family taking over...

We bought a lot of players in one season, oh dear who in the world does that?! We truly are the enemies of football

Glazers.

[King-Osgood-1690]

Originally Posted by KingAndyXVII

So, Bruce Buck says there will be a big name signing...

I'm not too sure about that, can't see any of the superstars around Europe being sold.

Thoughts ?

I don't want a big name signing for the sake of signing a big name, I'm content with our current squad.

[chris louie II]

I would say Zhirkov is a fairly big name? But you mean players like Messi I think?

[King-Osgood-1690]

Zhirkov is class, players don't get short listed for the Ballon d'or for fun

He seems humble, quiet, hardworking, brilliant player to have at the bridge, rather than some arrogant cocky show pony only here to collect the cash.

I can certainly see him holding down a first team spot, Malouda's form in the last few months of the season was brilliant, but as they say, form is temporary, class is permanent, and Yuri is far classier thn Malouda from what i have seen and heard.

[King-Osgood-1690]

Real Madrid Are Killing Football

Real Madrid are killing football. It`s a deliberate strategy from megalomaniac president Florentino Pérez, who wants to destroy any competition.

It could sound hypocritical for a Chelsea supporter to make such a declaration. After all, didn`t Abramovich`s millions already cause a serious shift in football`s finances? Possibly. There is a key difference though: Chelsea`s aim was to haul the Blues up to football`s top table. Real Madrid`s is to smash that top table, to cause a war of attrition they feel that they have the best chance of winning.

Let me explain the theory with an analogy. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan (then President of the USA) launched a new arms race with the Soviet Union. He developed new missile launch platforms, and went ahead with the infamous 'Star Wars` initiative, which never actually worked.

Reagan did this deliberately. The intel that he had from the USSR was that the Soviet system was having difficulty adapting from an essentially industrial economy to one that needed to produce consumer goods for its population. The US considered that there was scope to place an additional stress on the system by entering into a new arms race that which would see the USSR deviate resources from the rest of the economy to the military-industrial complex to try to compete with new US technologies.

And the strategy worked. The USSR simply could not do everything. They could not find extra billions to developing new weapons systems at the same time as meeting the growing needs of the Soviet population. Just trying to keep up exhausted the USSR and obliged it to open up to reforms. Those reforms ended up hastening the demise of the USSR, both as country and as political system. It didn`t matter that the Reagan strategy was hugely costly to the USA, or that it left the world a rather more dangerous place due to a build up of weapons, the key was that the arms race contributed to the USSR`s demise.

Let`s develop the parallels with Real Madrid. According to the Deloitte and Touche figures, Real Madrid are the wealthiest club in the world, despite their relative sporting underachievement these past few seasons. That underachievement is what has brought megalomaniac President Florentino Perez back to the Bernabeu.

Perez has been back barely a month, he has embarked on a spending spree the like of which the world has never seen. A good €200 million has already been lalalalalaed up on Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul Albiol and Karim Benzema. The club has indicated that two more players will come in.

The strategy is absolutely deliberate. No wonder such emphasis has been placed on the fact that Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo are the most expensive players in the world, this is part of the strategy. The 4 most costly transfer of all time were all made by Florentino, and this summer Madrid smashed the transfer record twice over, most notably paying some €96 million for Cristiano Ronaldo. The numbers have provoked a tidal wave of distaste and reprobation, most recently from Michel Platini, who highlighted the danger for football as player prices are pushed up.

But this is exactly what Madrid want. They want the prices of players to be pushed up. Possible transfers of David Villa and Franck Ribery have taken Madrid prices as a reference: "If Madrid paid €96 million for Cristiano Ronaldo, that`s what we expect for Ribery" is what Bayern are saying. Hilariously, Real Madrid have inserted a buy-out clause into Ronaldo`s contract of one billion Euros.

A separate inflation is taking place in player wages. Ronaldo is on a sliding scale that will take his salary, at the end of the contract, to an unbelievable 500,000 per week. Pounds, euros, does it matter? The point is that these are numbers that no other club is prepared to match. That is, even if they can.

It is a deliberate strategy. It is important that Madrid create this kind of inflation to skew the market. They want to create a separate football economy in which only Real Madrid can operate. If a player becomes one of the best in the world, the price and salary inflation kicks in so that said player then operates in a sphere were only Real Madrid can entertain the idea of recruiting him.

And all this has its collateral effects. It means that all other clubs are operating in a separate market, a market that excludes the very best players. These clubs are having a difficulty operating even there: there are reports this morning that Barça are looking for a loan in order to carry out a big-name signing (David Villa or Franck Ribery) because right now they simply can`t afford them. This is the same Barça who won an unprecedented treble last season, but now have to ask money from the banks in order to keep up with Madrid.

Madrid have financed their war of attrition with a series of loans, the nature of which have not been fully explained. It is one of the huge unknowns about Florentino`s behaviour, he has spent €200 million already (he gave a one-off cash payment to Manchester United), but where did this come from? Nobody has a clear picture. After all, Madrid were already in debt, Florentino has managed to increase this. Officially, the club is declaring that they expect to recover the costs (yes, €96 million) through increased merchandising and image rights. Those numbers simply don`t match up.

The truth is that Madrid don`t want those numbers to match up. It doesn`t matter that Madrid have incurred a huge quantity of debt and upped their operating costs by buying these players: the club is better placed than anyone else to survive: they can expect a certain return on investment as a result of additional merchandising, and their television rights alone have been sold for over €120 million per year, which is the biggest contract in the world. We have no doubt that, as a construction magnate, Florentino managed to negotiate a series of favourable loans.

The point is that Real Madrid are trying to drag other clubs into this war, to enter into an arms race. For Madrid, in Florentino`s calculations, this is a win-win: either clubs try to compete or they drop out. If they try to compete, they will have difficulty surviving a war, given that Madrid are the richest club in the world. Any competing club could well kill themselves trying. Or they drop out, and try to recruit players outside of the Real Madrid sphere.

Make no mistake about it: Real Madrid are trying to kill football. It`s a sinister, evil strategy, it reflects the character of the megalomaniac autocrat who is pushing it.

But there is just one flaw in this strategy: it might seem good on paper. During the transfer season, Madrid seem to be 'winning` a war, but come the kick-off, there is no guarantee that Madrid can win. The last time that Florentino tried this, he ended up hamstringing the club to the extent that it went 4 years without winning a single trophy. That`s the longest trophyless period in Real Madrid`s history. Hilariously, the guy hasn`t learnt the lessons of his first time around: he is trying to pack so many offensive players into the squad that it will probably line up a 2-4-4 formation.

But it`s not by buying more of these players that you can guarantee success. Madrid`s squad was already unbalanced last season, and if they didn`t win anything, it was not because they didn`t score enough goals, it was because their defence was so poor. The changes to the squad are only going to serve to undermine that defence even more, on order to shoehorn all these galactico players into the offensive part of the pitch. Of course, Madrid have no intention of buying any real defenders (Raul Albiol barely counts): in the moronic view of Florentino, a defender can never be a galactico, it`s best to pack the backline with kids from the youth system. The pivotal moment in Florentino`s first reign at Madrid was when he considered that Claude Makelele was totally dispensible … and sold the epitome of the defensive midfielder to Chelsea. After that the club went downhill, and all because Florentino didn`t understand the role of defensive players who don`t really sell any shirts.

Any club wondering how to react to Florentino`s nuclear assault (and that includes Chelsea) would to best to try to learn from the last time Florentino tried this … and failed. Don`t enter into a war off the pitches. Don`t try to go head to head with him, because come kick-off, a well-balanced team has a pretty good chance of winning where it should count: on the grass.



www.vital-chelsea.com

[King-Osgood-1690]

Brilliant shot.

[KingAndyXVII]

Everything seems in place for Madrid to mess up spectacularly again. Apart from one thing which I feel is different from the last time he was in charge.

Ronaldo.

As much as most people hate him, he can single handedly win matches like nobody else can.

[WallerWalla]

Originally Posted by KingAndyXVII

Everything seems in place for Madrid to mess up spectacularly again. Apart from one thing which I feel is different from the last time he was in charge.

Ronaldo.

As much as most people hate him, he can single handedly win matches like nobody else can.

Messi comes to mind

[KingAndyXVII]

Originally Posted by WallerWalla

Messi comes to mind

Messi has quality all around him playing for Barca, so when he doesn't play well, Barca can still play impressively. It wasn't like that at Man Utd with Ronaldo.

Sure Messi can have a massive influence on a game, but Ronaldo usually has a bigger effect on the result.

Anyway lets not turn this into a Messi Vs Ronaldo discussion

[Ciudad-B]

Originally Posted by KingAndyXVII

Messi has quality all around him playing for Barca, so when he doesn't play well, Barca can still play impressively. It wasn't like that at Man Utd with Ronaldo.

Sure Messi can have a massive influence on a game, but Ronaldo usually has a bigger effect on the result.

Anyway lets not turn this into a Messi Vs Ronaldo discussion

We've had like 4 games this season when Messi was rested and we were either 1 or 2 behind or it was looking to end as a draw. We put Messi on and we enden up winning.

[BMxJoga]

Originally Posted by Ciudad-B

No offense, but you guys aren't anything better than City.

Please how do you back that, Fulham is better then City....

[Aus-Rotten]

Originally Posted by MFC_LukeCarter

Glazers.

My bad. They are both American anyway

[WallerWalla]

Cole set for new deal | Chelsea - EatSleepSport

Good to hear it.

[kop2k8]

Originally Posted by King-Osgood-1690

Zhirkov is class, players don't get short listed for the Ballon d'or for fun

He seems humble, quiet, hardworking, brilliant player to have at the bridge, rather than some arrogant cocky show pony only here to collect the cash.

I can certainly see him holding down a first team spot, Malouda's form in the last few months of the season was brilliant, but as they say, form is temporary, class is permanent, and Yuri is far classier thn Malouda from what i have seen and heard.

who would that be then?