Maple Lions

TSN is one tough school of TV love. Winning the Premiership two times in a row and making the CL semis and group of sixteen in the same period just isn’t enough to merit getting on the schedule. Another English team gets that privilege without even approaching those benchmarks in the EPL and the Champions League.

Thank you, TSN and CRTC: how ever could we survive without you?

Paul Canniff

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In escalating his fight with Chelsea over his playing future, William Gallas threatened to score an own goal if he was picked to play in the season opener. One trusts that this go-to attitude will serve him well at Emirates Stadium as the latest recruit in the Légion Étrangère de Londres-Nord.

A bit of advice to Monsieur Gallas: a hostage-taking doesn’t play out well when you put the gun barrel to your own head. Even worse if you survive the ordeal, at least as far as your reputation is concerned.

Wanker.

Paul Canniff

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Quick thoughts after the 2-0 Blues win over Blackburn:

1. With Cech back, the difference is twofold: a better keeper and one who is in real command of the back line.
2. Sixteen members of the Chelsea squad were on World Cup duty: lots of talent but a good deal of it in recovery and trying to mesh in a revamped squad. The corner may have been turned but the real test will be the CL fixture against Barça next month.
3. The Makelele-Savage clash could have gone either way in carding; in truth, it was a bit of a grifters’ convention in mid-field.
4. As the second goal demonstrated, there is real dogged talent beneath Droghba’s irritating field persona.
5. Give Blackburn due credit: they have built a reputation as giant-killers in the EPL and we have not seen the last of them this season. While Rovers did not make a lot of their possession, the big guns should never take that for granted.

Paul Canniff

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Just when you thought that the Special One couldn’t get any more petulant,

• Chelsea faces a slog as they tackle Barça in the group stages
• The Red Devils face Celtic
• Team France go head to head against the likes of former CL winners Porto and former UEFA Cup champions CSKA Moscow
• The Scouse take on PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux, Galatasaray

Only the Blues failed among English sides to make top seed in its group. Full details here.

Paul Canniff

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The acquisition of Shevchenko aside, many Chelsea supporters were confused by the Special One’s fixation with building up what was already an embarrassment of riches in the midfield and back. The past two weeks have shown that perhaps Mourinho was on to the problem but he has vastly further to go.

While today’s defeat at the hands of Boro was in no small part due to the fighting spirit of Southgate’s lads, there were gobsmacking gaps in the Blues otherwise iron defence. When Terry’s back line was off, it was glaringly so. Part of it could have been poor communication with Cudicini, judging by some instances of lazy marking in the box.

One may argue that their lacklustre performance against the MLS All-Stars in Chicago and the loss to the Scouse in the Community Shield are but signs of a newly reconstituted side trying to come together. Well, there’s little time for this theory to be put to the test. If Mourinho is not going to pursue barnstorming strike tactics like the Gooners, then there is little slack available in the back. Then again, having Cech back between the sticks may make some difference.

Paul Canniff

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The Steve McClaren regime takes a great first step by naming John Terry as the new skipper. No sarongs for this Hard Man, it goes without saying.

Oh, and Steve gives Theo Walcott a job more suited to his tender age.

Paul Canniff

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• Chelsea striker and general SW6 big girl’s blouse Hernan Crespo gets his wish and moves on to Italy. How leaving the Blues for a two-year sojourn with Inter Milan could be an upward career move is something only Crespo fully comprehends… we hope. The Telly also reports that William Gallas is staying in London, despite losing his jersey number.
• Sol Campbell does a medical in hopes of completing a move southward to join Pompey. And in a shocker, the Gooners recruit a French footballer.
• Meanwhile the Professor fumes like a carton of Gauloises over the fate of Ashley Cole, who has been left behind in London while the Légion Étrangère de Londres-Nord deploys to Croatia for a CL qualifier.

Paul Canniff

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In a bid to deny Chelsea, it is reported that Arsenal is paving the way for Real Madrid to acquire Ashley Cole as a replacement for Roberto Carlos.

UPDATE:  Now Carlos says he wants to stay with Real. Surely the suits at Bernabeu wouldn’t engage in head games with the sports media.
Paul Canniff

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The Telly covers Mourinho’s take on the Chelsea squad for the coming season. The piece has a clanger over Damien Duff’s direction, and since publication Crespo has taken again to whinging about Italy.

Paul Canniff

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The reliably pompous build-up to the Real Madrid club presidential election sees Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo caught up in the Bernabeu rumour mills.

One can reasonably assume that little will come of this in either instance.  Truly the Galacticos’ management seem more like a casting call for Inside the Actors Studio than a collection of competent football leaders.

Paul Canniff

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