It wasn't so long ago, I was completely outraged by Chelsea FC's spending. 16.6m for Mekelele. 24.4m for Essien. 19.8m for Carvalho. 24m for Drogba. As a business, the club could sustain a 140m loss on a year because Roman Abramovich was there to bankroll the transfers. This was bad for football. The value of […]

Everton's Pienaar launched the ball into the box from the left side. Chelsea's Mikel got his head to it but could not clear. Fellaini headed the ball back into the danger area where Louis Saha waited, unmarked, uncontended. He spins into the volley to catch it perfectly with his left foot, catapulting the ball past […]

Well, the most unsurprising managerial appointment of the summer has thankfully been completed this morning, with Carlo Ancelotti taking over as the new manager of Chelsea on July 1st. It was no real surprise at all really and a couple of weeks ago, I posted my thoughts that Ancelotti was making sure that Chelsea really […]

The last dance of the season, of every season, the FA Cup Final is the jewel in the English Football Crown. Last year's final between Cardiff and Portsmouth was arguably the exception, but this year's certainly isn't: Underdogs Everton come into the final for the first time in 14 years, since Joe Royle's infamous 'dogs of war' […]

I was completely seduced by last year's FA Cup. Barnsley and Cardiff City charged toward the final in a gripping giant-killing warpath. They toppled Liverpool, Chelsea and Middlesbrough in their wake. (Boro were still a mid-table Premier League side, so their undoing was still a feat.) While only Cardiff made it to the end before […]

With the Premier League race done and dusted and the Champions League trophy spending the summer in Catalonia, there's only one more piece of silverware on offer in the 2008-2009 season, and either Everton or Chelsea will lay claim to it tomorrow at Wembley. Who's in and who's out – Frank Lampard, Alex and […]

Before todays mixed signals coming from the Giussepi Mezza, we were 90% sure that Carlo Ancelotti was coming to Chelsea. However, there is still a strong possibility of this and we expect to find out this week. Rossoneri vice-president Adriano Galliani confirmed last week that the club will make a statement on Ancelotti's future this coming monday, […]

With another season drawing to a close and the usual suspects in their normal places in the top four, isn't it about time that the second level of teams finally pushed up to join them? With Everton once again in a Europa League place, Villa making massive strides, despite the fall away they suffered after […]

When Guus Hiddink stepped into the breach after a heartfelt plea from Roman Abrahamovich, the only definite thing we knew was that Hiddink would only be there until the end of the season. Hiddink has stuck to his line of response throughout his time at Stamford Bridge, politely but firmly dealing with the increasingly banal […]

Well another week has meant another win for the top two, another bad week for Arsenal and of course another week of transfer rumours. For months now specualtion has never really gone away that Manchester United will not stump up the reported £30 Million or so that Media Sports Investments want for him. Carlos Tevez has […]

When the final whistle went after Sunday's match, Arsene Wenger could possibly view the previous 7 days as one of his worst weeks since he began his 13 year tenure in charge of Arsenal. In two massive matches, Wenger has seen his side start fantastically well in both games, get caught by a sucker punch […]

With their typical class, Chelsea players and staff asserted their belief, following their 1-1 agg defeat to Barcelona, that UEFA conspired against them to prevent an all-English final in the Champions League. Players, such as Didier Drogba, displayed their sentiment by all but physically assaulting the referee as he left the pitch. Manager Guus Hiddink […]

While yesterday’s antics by Chelsea and the drama in dying minutes get all the coverage, today’s semi-final matchup between Werder Bremen and Hamburg provided significantly more bang for the buck, and a real game to boot. And while there were a few questionable calls, the only German to cover himself in shame, this week, was […]

I was having a good look at Tottenham's proposal for a new stadium overlapping their current plot at White Hart Lane last night and my brain started to tick. However difficult these proposals appear to be (and indeed I hope they go through) it seems Spurs are not alone in their ambitions and indeed there are a glut of […]

Yes, the first half of Bayern's match against Barcelona at the Camp Nou was embarrassing for the Bavarians. Sure it could have been worse had Barca not taken their foot off the gas in the second half of that game. And no, we can't know what the outcome would have been back at the Allianz […]