Paul Canniff
The Sun claims that Barca is chasing Frank Lampard for a £30 million departure from Stamford Bridge, including a swap for Deco and then some:
Barca boss Frank Rijkaard met with president Joan Laporte earlier this week and discussed moving for Lampard, 28 later this month, and out-of-favour Eidur Gudjohnsen.
Then, yesterday, Mendes flew to London with a Barcelona representative for a meeting with Blues chief executive Peter Kenyon to thrash out a fee for Gudjohnsen and discuss a possible deal for Lampard.
It is highly unlikely Mourinho would not know Mendes was in town and what his intentions were.
Chelsea would want at least £10m as well as Brazilian-born Deco, 28, to even think about selling Lampard.
Barca believe Lamps can be tempted as partner Elen Rives is a Catalan who wants the couple’s baby daughter to grow up in her home city.
Icelandic ace Gudjohnsen, 27, has been interesting Manchester United but Barca believe they are in the boxseat and hope to clinch a £9m deal in the next fortnight.
It’s no surprise that Gudjohnsen is being rendered surplus with the acquisition of Sheva but selling Lamps is sheer lunacy. Abramovich spends more on the caviar-greased slide into his hot tub than any profits he’d gain in such a deal.
Paul Canniff
The rumours were true: Andrei Shevchenko is coming to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho last night described the signing of Andrei Shevchenko as a dream come true after the Premiership champions finally landed the Ukrainian striker in a deal worth about £30 million.
Following a medical and talks with Mourinho and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon at Stamford Bridge yesterday, the 29-year-old player put pen to paper on a four-year-deal worth around £115,000 per week.
Although Chelsea refused to disclose the value of the fee agreed with AC Milan, describing it only as a club record which beats the £24.4 million paid last summer for Michael Essien, the sum is thought to be around 42 million euros. Depending on exchange rates, it should just beat Rio Ferdinand’s £30 million move from Leeds to Manchester United in 2002 to become a British transfer record.
[…]
Despite Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s vast wealth, the club have until now struggled to attract truly world-class players at the height of their powers. But the capture of Shevchenko and the arrival of Germany captain Michael Ballack takes Chelsea to another level and is a major shift in tactics for Mourinho, who is now focusing the club’s efforts on landing Europe’s top prize next season.
Damian P.
In today’s Guardian, Christoph Bierman of Suddeutsche Zeitung looks beyond the imminent signing of Michael Ballack by Chelsea to examine how Ballack and his game have been affected by ongoing German prejudices against Ossis — former East Germans.
Paul Canniff
The Rovers’ 1-0 win over Chelsea yesterday (which triggered the inevitable whining from Jose Mourinho) clinched sixth place and a UEFA Cup spot:
Blackburn Rovers took full advantage of Chelsea retaining the title with two matches to spare to secure the victory they needed to bring European football back to Ewood Park next season.
The clinching of sixth place in the Premiership completes a magnificent rebuilding operation at the club by Mark Hughes, who took charge last season with the team fighting to avoid relegation.
[…]
Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s manager, praised Blackburn for their impressive rise under Hughes but was less gracious in accepting the way they crossed the European finishing line, courtesy of what he regarded to be over-sympathetic officiating by referee Steve Bennett.
“I can laugh about it because I am champion,” said Mourinho. “But I don’t think the people in Newcastle will be laughing,” he added referring to Rovers’ principal rivals for the remaining Uefa Cup place.
“If I had come here needing points for the championship my career in England might have ended tonight because I probably would have been banned forever,” reflected Mourinho on the rejection of three strong penalty appeals.
Note that Blackburn’s remarkable turnaround started only after Graeme Souness left the team. As for the Geordies, we’ll have to settle for a spot in the Intertoto Cup if we beat Bolton into seventh place. Newcastle are three points ahead, but Bolton have a game in hand.
Damian P.Â
Former Chelsea star Pat Nevin takes an in-depth look at how Jose Mourinho has restructured the Blues tactically for a winning edge.
Paul Canniff
The Blues only needed one point in their last three matches to clinch the Premiership title, so this doesn’t surprise me. I didn’t expect Man United to fold so quickly, though:
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho threw his medal into the crowd to celebrate his side’s second successive title after they cruised past Manchester United.The Blues only needed a draw to retain their crown but a 3-0 win saw them do it in style at Stamford Bridge.
And Mourinho said: “It is a fantastic feeling, unbelievable.
“This is my second in England and my fourth consecutive title if you include Porto. One day we’ll lose but, for now, we are the best team in the country.”
Damian P.
Since there’s not much to write about with respect to their Prem progress, I guess I’ll write about their financial situation. Everton FC were the most profitable club in England last season.
Chelsea were one of only four clubs to be in the red - and Roman Abramovich’s losses were a staggering £140million in 2004-05 according to a Financial Times survey.
Everton outstripped Manchester United, Arsenal and neighbours Liverpool with profits of £23.5million but the encouraging news for the Premier League is that, excluding Chelsea, the other 17 clubs who have published figures made a combined £75million profit compared to a £27million loss in 2003-04.
Unfortunately, it’s almost all due to the Rooney sale.
(Wyness) said: “We would have to sell a Wayne Rooney every year for five years to consistently beat the big clubs in a table such as this.
In hopefully unrelated news, Everton has signed 17-year old striker Scott Spencer from Oldham Athletic. Spencer has been hailed as [gulp] “the new Rooney“. Surely, they wouldn’t sell him off after a year or two ~ ‘once a Blue, always a Blue’, right?
With young strikers like Spencer, James Vaughan and Victor Anichebe to work with, the Toffees may just put a few more into the back of the net next season. As a former Preston player and gaffer, Moyesie has been sniffing around young striker David Nugent, so who knows if we’ll see him on Merseyside one day. After ‘04-’05, you would have thought Moyes would understand that the club needs some firepower; if he doesn’t figure it out after this season, he ain’t never figuring it out.
Mike C
Another win for the Geordies today: 3-0 over West Brom, who will almost certainly not escape relegation two years in a row.
Newcastle is now even on points with sixth-place Blackburn - with an identical goal differential, to boot - but the Rovers have a game in hand. Still, the Geordies are on a tear, leading into next week’s match against another club frantically struggling to stay up: Birmingham.  We have Chelsea at home to close out the season on May 7 - which could make the Birmingham match the quintessential trap game.
Damian P.
Despite finding themselves among the Top 20 Richest Clubs (perhaps a fleeting position thanks to the Rooney sale and last year’s Europe qualification?), who knows what Everton will come up with for the rest of the season and beyond. They could finish 7th this season, or, more likely, more or less remain where they are, or, even, find themselves finishing in 13th or 14th spot. Moyes had a least a few busts from his acquisitions from last summer — Digger Davies hasn’t panned out, and Per Kroldrup was a huge waste of money. Big Dunc’s career is winding down fast, and Marcus Bent has left for The Valley without being replaced; surely (surely) another striker or two will be arriving this summer. Moyes has been very hit-and-miss with his acquisitions (but, I suppose, so are most managers) - he can find the Tim Cahills and the Mikel Artetas, but to what end? A season or two of development and a taste of success?
The Rumour Mill over at ToffeeWeb.com contains tales of Joseph Yobo possibly heading off to Arsenal and Tim Cahill going to Manchester United this summer. There was also the much-denied rumour that Mikel Arteta was missing from the Merseyside Derby not because of a back injury but because a move to Liverpool was in the works. But’s he’s said that he’d never go red (yeah, yeah, we’ve all seen Wayne Rooney in his Born To Be Blue shirt). Add in Thomas Gravesen’s departure for Real Madrid, and you come up with some pretty heavy damage done to the Everton roster by the good old G-14. Hopefully, the rumours are just rumours.
Hasn’t Stelios Gianakopoulas said recently that he wants to move to a bigger club like Liverpool? A sad realization that he can’t win the silverware where he is? Is this the lot of the Evertons and Boltons of the EPL and other top leagues, merely to be farm teams for the G-14?!
But there is some market logic, even in the oligopoly-esque superclub reality of Europe. The big clubs end up paying big money to the ‘farm teams’ in order to acquire those players; likely much more money than they’re probably worth. This gives the middle clubs funds to go out and acquire and develop more players. Could there come a day when the big guys just spend too much money in their acquisitions and leave their ‘middle’ competition in the ascendancy? Could the out-of-sight spending contribute to some eventual balancing of the situation? That would be sweet, but we won’t hold our breath, will we?
Yeah, I’m talking bout you too Chelsea! [I’m a Hearts fan too, mind — I don’t mind big eastern-European money when it is invested in a noble cause like busting up The Old Firm!]
8-)
Mike Campbell
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