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07-11-2009, 03:19 AM
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#5676 (permalink) |
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Forum Guru
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Here is something to liven up this thread a little...
 Lucy Evangelista, otherwise known as "The Linfield kit girl". I don't know about you, but I'm in  Imageshack - image24rr.jpg http://www.myfootballkits.co.uk/wp-c..._thumbzoom.jpg Linfield away kit image by footballer2009 on Photobucket I will be making a post each week (probably Fridays or Saturdays) with a different lass for you to enjoy, or at least I hope you do  No naked pictures are going to be included, for obvious reasons. Enjoy!
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07-11-2009, 03:47 PM
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#5680 (permalink) |
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Age: 24
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saw this while looking on the internet
CHELSEA TV EXCLUSIVE: GETTING TO KNOW GOURLAY | Latest Chelsea News | Team & Transfer News | Chelsea FC | Chelsea Maybe he could try and get some of your young players up here on loan lol
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 Mon' The Dee's |
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07-11-2009, 04:38 PM
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#5681 (permalink) |
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Forum Guru
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Atlanta, GA
Age: 19
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to be honest, chelsea have looked much stronger than manchester united this year, without ronaldo manchester is much weaker, while chelsea have upped their game. i honestly don't think it's two horse race, it's chelsea this year to win the league, and go to CL final
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 I bleed Red and Black...Forza Milan!!!  |
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07-11-2009, 06:01 PM
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#5682 (permalink) | |
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Forum Junkie
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Armagh, Northern Ireland
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Quote:
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 Proud supporter of Chelsea and Celtic. Yep, you heard me Last game: Chelsea 4-0 Wolves 
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08-11-2009, 01:58 AM
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#5683 (permalink) |
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EA Veteran
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In Brazil, every kid grows up wanting to be Pele but Alex was sent to play in defence. That's how he became... The Tank
Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa tells a story about John Terry. A story that dates back to the 77th minute of the second leg of the infamous Champions League semi-final against Barcelona last May. To the moment, at Stamford Bridge, when Tom Henning Ovrebo showed a yellow card to the player better known simply as Alex for a crunching challenge on Lionel Messi. It amounted to a devastating setback for Alex. Chelsea, as things stood, would be going to the final in Rome but not with him. The booking meant a suspension, and he knew it only too well. So, it turns out, did Terry, and to the astonishment of the powerfully built Brazilian, the Chelsea captain rather mischievously tried to convince Ovrebo that he had got the wrong guy, that it was Terry, not Alex, who had caught Barca’s brilliant winger. A case, he dared claim, of mistaken identity. ‘We had gone in on Messi together and JT did his best to fool the referee into thinking that he should have received the yellow card,’ says Alex. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I thought, “Wow, for me?” But the ref was having none of it, and the booking stood.’  Yellow peril: Ovrebo books Alex in the infamous clash at Stamford Bridge It was one of the few decisions the hapless Norwegian got right that night but the story nevertheless reveals Terry’s respect for his team-mate. If they were going into battle in Rome, in another Champions League final against Manchester United, Terry wanted the one they call The Tank, or The Grenade Launcher, at his side. As he no doubt will when Chelsea meet United at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. There is, it seems, a mutual admiration between these two defensive gladiators, and not only because of their obvious ability. Terry prides himself on his courage, on his willingness to play through the kind of pain that some professionals he has encountered — Arjen Robben among them — would consider too much. And he sees the same qualities in Alex. Terry once soldiered on for months with a piece of bone in his foot protruding through the skin. For much of last season, particularly at the business end when Guus Hiddink was in charge, Alex stood at the heart of the Chelsea defence when he actually needed an operation on a double hernia, an operation he eventually had in the summer that meant he missed the first 10 weeks of this season. ‘I was in a lot of pain last season,’ says Alex. ‘I was playing but not training, and I was also missing games for Brazil. Just so I could recover, have treatment, and be ready for Chelsea. ‘The last four months of the season did go well for me, and people at Chelsea finally saw what I could offer. But it wasn’t perfect because of the injury. There is more I can give’  Target man: Alex shows his strength as he tackles Fernando Torres The son of a shipyard worker, Alex is as hard as nails. He is a guy who grew up playing football barefoot on the dusty streets of the favelas in Rio de Janiero. A guy who only got his first break when Nike staged a ‘championship of the slums’ for all the under-privileged kids. ‘Some kids had shoes and some kids didn’t,’ says Alex. ‘So we all played the same, in bare feet, just so the kids who didn’t have shoes didn’t feel bad. It was a tough place. No proper roads, no running water. I guess what you would expect. ‘Then one day there was this tournament, organised by Nike. They gave out boots to all the kids, organised an event on proper pitches. We just played in the street. And I was spotted by a couple of scouts, who then organised a few trials with some clubs.’ In the end he settled for Santos, progressing through their youth system before finally breaking into a first team that won the Brazilian championship in 2002. A first team that included Manchester City’s Robinho. ‘We are friends but we are very different,’ says Alex. ‘He is a funny guy, always talking, always clowning around. I am more reserved.’  Last line of defence: Alex The deal was a memorable one. Between them the two clubs did pay Santos a sizeable, so far undisclosed, sum but the ‘transfer fee’ Chelsea paid PSV was one pound. ‘Two dollars,’ says Alex, holding up two fingers proudly. Maybe then but not now. Whatever the state of the British economy, it does make Alex one of the finest pound-for-pound footballers we have seen, even if his style of play is most unlike the average Brazilian superstar. Alex is more European, English even, in the way he performs. ‘In Brazil every kid starts out wanting to be Pele,’ he says. ‘That was never going to be me. I tried to be a tough-tackling midfielder. Like Michael Essien! But even then I was pulled back and told to stand in defence.’ His defending has earned him much praise. When he was winning three consecutive Dutch league titles with PSV and playing an important role in their journey to the semi-finals of the Champions League, Hiddink — then the PSV coach — declared him the best centre half in Europe and prior to becoming Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said much the same. ‘It was nice of them to say those things but I don’t know,’ says Alex modestly. ‘But I’m strong, I’m comfortable on the ball and when I’m fit I feel I’m as quick as any player on the pitch.’ Fitness is not a problem for anyone at Chelsea now that Ancelotti is in charge. Not when every player is now fitted with GPS monitors in training. ‘In every training session,’ he says as he refuels with a plate of pasta in the swish Babbo restaurant in Mayfair. ‘It’s a control. A way of knowing if you’re well or not well, and if you’re working hard enough. ‘You can’t hide. They are checking on you every day, and they show you the figures. Psychologically it has had a big impact because everyone is worried they haven’t run as far as the next guy. They show everything and if they are not happy they come after you. If the goalkeeper runs further than you they definitely come after you! ‘Frank Lampard is incredible. The best. He runs and runs in training and he plays every game. Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, without any problem. And it’s not like he’s 21.’  Midfield dynamo: Lampard is floored by Simao ‘As a coach he has shown to us that he has real ability and in his first season in the Premier League he has already come up against some hard tests and passed them,’ he says. ‘But it’s not just him. It’s the whole coaching department he has assembled. ‘Everything they do for us, on and off the pitch, is geared towards making it possible for us to perform and win trophies. Everything is set up for it and now it is simply up to the players. ‘They want to know if you have any problems, off the pitch, and if there is anything they can do to help. They want to be sure that my family is well. That my life is good away from the club. ‘The club has had to deal with changes at the top but now we have stability, and in terms of being ready to win trophies, I feel we are. There is no question we are. ‘Two years ago the team came within a penalty kick of winning the Champions League and last year I think most people would agree that we should have been in the final. ‘We had the measure of Barcelona in those two games, in the way that Manchester United did not. Against Barcelona we controlled the game, we had a lot of chances to score, and we should have won it. ‘We more than matched them in midfield. We knew the strength of Barcelona was in midfield, until the ball got to Messi, so our game was more about marking and controlling the midfield. And I think it worked. I think we overpowered them.’ They did, until that yellow card for Alex was followed by Andres Iniesta’s stoppage-time goal that meant none of them would be going to the final. They are united now with a desire to ensure such dejection is something for the past. In Brazil, every kid grows up wanting to be Pele but Alex was sent to play in defence. That's how he became... The Tank | Mail Online
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Chelsea - Rangers - Linfield Last edited by King-Osgood-1690; 08-11-2009 at 02:01 AM.. |
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08-11-2009, 07:23 AM
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#5685 (permalink) |
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EA Veteran
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Name game shames clubs
Chelsea’s new chief executive, Ron Gourlay, seems determined to enhance still further the club’s reputation for modesty and humility, qualities that have endeared the team to all neutral supporters. In his first interview since taking over from Peter Kenyon, he said Chelsea were expected to win the Champions League twice in the next five years and hoped that this didn’t sound too arrogant. No, no, Ron. There will be a few Chelsea fans saying, “Well, once would be fine by me” but pay no attention to them. Kenyon expected them to win the trophy twice in 10 years but has left halfway through that period with the cabinet for the Champions League gathering dust; perhaps Ron could keep his hubris in it. Gourlay’s explanation for not having won the Champions League is that “we’ve been very unlucky”. Well, that’s the problem. Who is to say that those manifestations of bad luck — such as not being able to convert a penalty, or perpetually losing your temper, or not being able to defend from corners — may not crop up again over the next half-decade? Gourlay also dealt with the controversial renaming of the stadium to extort money from corporate sponsors, which is now very much on the agenda. “Retaining the heritage of the stadium is paramount,” he said. I suppose that rules out Liverpool FC becoming Chelsea’s corporate sponsors and renaming Stamford Bridge “The Flash Arriviste Morons Without A Sense of History Stadium”, although I suppose Liverpool could bid. But what possible corporate deal could retain the heritage of the stadium? That’s not the sort of thing that happens. Talk to Leicester City, for example, who trousered the grand sum of £1.5m (about enough to cover Drogba’s wages over the summer break) for the benefit of having their ground — the Walkers stadium — named after a packet of crisps. At least people like crisps; Chelsea’s new backers will probably come from the financial sector, probably a bank the rest of us now part-own as a consequence of its stupidity and greed. Or possibly a Russkie oil concern operating in some disused freezing Gulag. The Leicester deal suggests football is losing a little of its allure in the corporate world, although there are still decent sums of money for the so-called Big Four. Arsenal wrung more than £100m out of Emirates Airlines, for example, and Chelsea, after a loss of nearly £70m last year and with a wage bill of more than £150m, could do with that sort of cash now their owner has muttered that he’d quite like them to become self-sufficient, if at all possible, in the near future. A degree of self-sufficiency was imposed by the ban on them signing players for ludicrous amounts of money, but that ruling has been suspended pending an appeal and they will soon be scurrying around Europe wide-eyed and breathless, like Imelda Marcos in a shoe factory. This may seem unfair but I don’t think the renaming of Stamford Bridge would produce quite so much animus among fans as the renaming of Anfield, say, or St James’ Park. Let’s be kind and call Chelsea fans more pragmatic than the norm and perhaps less concerned with intimations of history and community. Chelsea have not been a community club for a very long time. They play in an ephemeral and transitory area of London and their support has come from beyond the perimeters of the city, particularly southwest and west, along the Thames and its tributaries. The irony is that when Chelsea taunt Fulham fans by singing “There’s only one team in Fulham”, they are right — it’s Fulham. And there aren’t very many Fulham fans, either. The dispersal of the fan base of London’s teams has been most marked in the west of the capital (although it has also happened with my club, Millwall, who tend to draw their supporters from north Kent and Bromley). The changing demographics of the capital and, more importantly, the enormous change wreaked upon the game’s finances by the power of television and the egotism or generosity of owners has been more easily welcomed at Chelsea than at any of the northern clubs (with the possible exception, lately, of Manchester City). Don’t forget that Chelsea are the only Big Four club who would not be in the Big Four were it not for their current owner. Liverpool are defiantly part of their local community, deeply connected to it and responsive to it, in a manner that is seen, these days, only in the north of England. And so you might hope that the Liverpool fans exert sufficient pressure to prevent their ground — wherever it might be, in the future, if the club finds a bit more money — being named after some corporate monolith. The same applies at Newcastle United, whose fans — deluded though they might be from time to time — have a connection to the club which is far stronger than simply a wish to acquire vicarious success through the performance of the players on the pitch. Not least because their last vicarious success occurred in 1969, which is a long time to wait for vicarious success. Name game shames clubs - Times Online  Does raise a few legitimate points though.
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Chelsea - Rangers - Linfield |
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08-11-2009, 07:38 AM
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#5686 (permalink) |
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EA Veteran
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GOURLAY CONSIDERS RENAMING GROUND TO PLEASE ROMAN
Yesterday, on his fourth day in charge, Ron Gourlay, Chelsea’s new Chief Executive, announced that the club would consider the naming rights for Stamford Bridge, provided that the words Stamford Bridge were also kept in the title. This was met with obvious discontent, and we at CFCnet decided to run a poll to gauge the reaction and are not surprised that the huge majority hate the idea, we are overwhelmingly (yet unfortunately from the clubs perspective insignificantly) opposed to any name change, and feel that the true impact of such a name change hasn’t been considered. Stamford Bridge, the only place us Chelsea fans have ever called home, is a stadium that pre-dates the club. Since it’s inception in the mid eighteen seventies, the ground was used for athletics, until Chelsea founder Gus Mears bought the leasehold in 1904. We do have history, especially where it matters and that’s in the very origins of our club, we’ve always been called Chelsea Football Club, and we’ve ALWAYS played at Stamford Bridge. Ron Gourlay, who at the last Fans Forum managed to keep a straight face when declaring to us that he was a Glasgow Rangers fan first, and a Chelsea fan second, rightly points out that with other clubs expanding their capacity and in order for us to keep up with domestic and European competition we need extra ways of revenue. “What we are not prepared to happen, and I am sure our fans will appreciate this, is allow our rival clubs in England and Europe to gain a competitive advantage over us in terms of the revenue they can generate through either expanding the capacity of their existing stadia or moving to a new stadium and then invest that upside in their team or the club,” The commercial and financial value of a new name has clearly been given serious consideration, but there seems to be a complete disregard for the comical and farcical aspects that also comes with it. Whilst we should all be aware of the need to increase revenue, and economically there is obviously pressure from Roman breathing down on Gourlay, we cannot believe that this is really the strongest possibility being considered. Just as the club claimed to explore every avenue to expand the current stadium (yet the Fans Forum Minutes omit a suggestion from Cliff from the CSG that to ease congestion there could be a Walkway alongside West Brompton – a point that was discussed in the meeting) it seems that true to form there have not been alternate avenues explored first, Gourlay has gone for a quick win in the eyes of the owner, with seemingly complete disregard for the attachments the fans place on our name. The obvious point isn’t really valid, that we will always call it Stamford Bridge regardless of it’s corporate name, and only Richard Keys will call it by it’s new name. This devalues the price of the stadium further making less business sense, and whilst we’d like to see it perceived as being more prestigious because for us it’s groundbreaking (no pun intended), the truth is it isn’t, and corporates won’t see it this way either. Gourlay, was also quick to point out that there has been ‘subsidised or free travel to a significant number of away games.’, something that yes, we are grateful for and always make a point of thanking them in the Fans Forum and other committees, but we have never asked for free travel, just that a break even figure was identified. They’ve taken the hit on that much more then the fans expected. It was also mentioned by Ron Gourlay himself at the last Fans Forum, that a few years ago the Fans Forum raised bigger points (i.e. reverting back to the old badge), and that now the discussions are about smaller issues. Well, if this is the case Mr Gourlay, then how about using the Fans Forum as a platform to offer new ideas such as renaming our ground. The next Forum (Dec 12th) is strictly on ticketing, an area that although headed by Graham Smith is a meeting that last season Gourlay also intended and got actively involved in. So I assume that he will be at this one, although we won’t be given the platform to discuss fans feelings on a potential name change (although the cynics amongst us will likely feel that it’ll be in place by then). Here’s three quick ways I believe we could have avoided pondering a ground name change:
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Chelsea - Rangers - Linfield Last edited by King-Osgood-1690; 08-11-2009 at 07:40 AM.. |
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08-11-2009, 08:09 AM
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#5689 (permalink) | |
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The simple fact of the matter is that it's a sell out, we wouldn't need to be exploring these absurd revenue streams if it wasn't for the economic mismanagement that has plagued us for several years.
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Chelsea - Rangers - Linfield |
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08-11-2009, 08:12 AM
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#5691 (permalink) | |
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Forum Guru
Join Date: Jul 2008
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I rather have the bridge as it is right now than an Emirates Stadium Mk.II 
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08-11-2009, 08:13 AM
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#5693 (permalink) | |
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Have you not gathered that i'm opposed to the renaming of the ground, in any way shape or form?
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Chelsea - Rangers - Linfield |
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08-11-2009, 08:14 AM
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#5694 (permalink) | |
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Forum Guru
Join Date: Sep 2009
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Posts: 1,131
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Just indicating the fact if the board goes ahead with the name change,Then the disadvantages. |
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08-11-2009, 08:27 AM
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#5695 (permalink) | |
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I don't want either of them at all, I would hate to see having the name changed.
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08-11-2009, 08:33 AM
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#5696 (permalink) |
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No i meant the 'move' to jump on the corporate sponsorship bandwagon that hasn't been a feature in England for very long. I fear that it will be like America in ten years time, with every stadium in the top flight named after some shoddy bank or electronics company
I'm certainly opposed to the idea of moving as well, just because the club has evolved it doesn't mean we have to abandon our roots in Fulham.
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08-11-2009, 08:47 AM
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#5698 (permalink) |
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It's beneficial in many ways, but a line has to be drawn in my opinion.
Turning football supporters into walking billboards is about as far as I'll tolerate it It's good to have the telly companies involved to a certain extent, but at the moment they control fixture times to suit themselves and the traditional 3 O'clock kickoff on a Saturday is almost a thing of the past. We've got to have big business involved to a certain extent, quid quo pro and all that, but renaming grounds that have been around for far longer than the companies is something I'm opposed to in theory and practice.
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Chelsea - Rangers - Linfield |
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08-11-2009, 10:20 AM
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#5699 (permalink) |
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Elite
Join Date: May 2008
Location: OLD TRAFORD WITH RONALDO AND MAN U
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,139
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Well Arsenal could of named the Emirates "New Highbury" or something like that
Anyway...and here we thought that this bloke is supposed to be an improvement on Kenyon Changing the name for a few extra dollars is basically throwing away one of the few traditional and proud things the club has left |
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