Post by Salem6 on Jan 9, 2004 18:17:46 GMT
By Myles Palmer
_______________________________
ON Wednesday night I was planning to watch Chelsea v Liverpool live on Sky.
But I went to see THFC, who thrashed Birmingham 4-1.
On Thursday morning friends phoned and told me how Chelsea had lost 1-0.
Millions of Londoners must have had conversations about Claudio, conversations like this :
“Ranieri’s blown it ! He’s really blown it.”
“I haven’t read anything about it,” I said. “What side did he have out?”
“He had Mutu, Gudjohnsen and Joe Cole.”
“Jesus !”
“He had Gudjohnsen on because he had started Crespo, with Cole and Mutu behind him. But Crespo got injured after 11 minutes, so he brought Gudjohnsen on. And Liverpoool couldn’t believe their luck.They could not believe their luck. It was like :the guy’s given us the game ! You don’t play 4-3-3 against Liverpool and put Lampard out wide.”
“He put Lampard wide right? No!”
“He did ! He played him wide in the diamond !”
“No!”
“He did.”
“He’s a nutter!”
“Abramovic went in the dressing room and handed out a bollocking to all of them, includiing the players.”
“He didn’t !"
“He did.”
“How d’you know?”
“It’s in the papers.”
“Well, that’s the end of Chelsea. They started the year and ended the year on the same day.Was Jimmy on the bench?”
“I’ve no idea where Jimmy was. He wasn’t a sub. Real Madrid refused Ronaldo permission to watch the game. Ronaldo flew in for it, but Real Madrid said : Youre not allowed to go to the game.”
“Amazing ! ”
“It’s a circus.If you’d have watched it, you’d have gone mad. It was insane. Joe Cole, I wouldn’t pick Joe Cole for a girls team.It was ridiculous. Eventually, after an hour, Cole goes off and Gronkjaer came on, and that was slightly better, with a bit of width. If you’re gonna play without a centre forward, you need some width.”
“If you’re gonna play Mutu and Gudjohnsen, you’ve gotta play Frank in the middle to run into centre forward positions. He’s not a centre forward, but he scores a lot of goals from the sort of positions that centre forwards get into. This is the A-B-C of football. This is the alphabet. To have Mutu and Gudjohnsen, and not have Frank making runs into the box, because he’s stuck out on the wing, is the biggest conceptual absurdity I’ve some across in 40 years as a football fan !”
“He really blew it. I thought he had it under control now. But,for some reason, he just went loopy.Abramavich is gonna say: I can’t cope with this.”
“Bottom line, you don’t move Frank to play Joe Cole. That’s what he did. You don’t move Frank. You play Frank or you rest him. But you don’t move him. I’ve heard that the reason he’s so good this season is that he’s given up smoking.”
We went on like this for a while.
“Who was any good for Liverpool?”
“Nobody ! They’re terrible. This Premiership has fallen apart on us.There’s only two decent teams. And one’s got a lot more money than the other.”
LAST NIGHT I dropped in to see Kevin and Pauline, Chelsea fans.
Kevin said, “It’s not over, we’re playing well, we can still win the title. We’ve scared Arsenal and Man United and made them raise their game in the first half of the season, but they can’t sustain it. Nobody can play like that for nine months. Man United’s league results will fall apart when the Champions League starts again.”
Pauline said, “Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink drove me crazy last season, walking about. I was thinking : you should play with passion! Why should I pay forty quid to watch you walking about?”
Precious, their daft but friendly cat, lay on my shoulder, furry face facing mine, purring.
THFC PLAYED WELL .
Apparently, Dalmat was upset because his girlfriend could not join him from Switzerland due to a visa problem. He was overweight and could not concentrate on his football.
Dunno where his girlfriend is, but Dalmat is slim again.
He had a blinder against Palace, and he scored the first two goals against Birmingham.
Simon Davies and Robbie Keane’s goals came from sweet, swift moves.
Ledley King and Gary Docherty were solid at the back.
It was good fun, especially when Robbie’s legs were going like pistons. Darren still covering a lot of ground and still making some very good passes.
Kanoute is an Asprilla-Collymore type. He is either excellent, or rubbish.
EVERTON 1 ARSENAL 1 was an accident waiting to happen.
Surprised by Arsene’s excuse. That his team was haunted by the trauma of losing 3-2 there last season.
If that was a big factor, then his team does not have as much collective confidence as I thought.
But all teams have nights like that, games like that.
18 Prem matches to go, three points behind Man United. Plenty to play for.
And the joy of four games against Middlesbrough in 18 days.
Who could ask for more?
www.anr.uk.com/articles/m-2004-01-09-13-57-20.html
_______________________________
ON Wednesday night I was planning to watch Chelsea v Liverpool live on Sky.
But I went to see THFC, who thrashed Birmingham 4-1.
On Thursday morning friends phoned and told me how Chelsea had lost 1-0.
Millions of Londoners must have had conversations about Claudio, conversations like this :
“Ranieri’s blown it ! He’s really blown it.”
“I haven’t read anything about it,” I said. “What side did he have out?”
“He had Mutu, Gudjohnsen and Joe Cole.”
“Jesus !”
“He had Gudjohnsen on because he had started Crespo, with Cole and Mutu behind him. But Crespo got injured after 11 minutes, so he brought Gudjohnsen on. And Liverpoool couldn’t believe their luck.They could not believe their luck. It was like :the guy’s given us the game ! You don’t play 4-3-3 against Liverpool and put Lampard out wide.”
“He put Lampard wide right? No!”
“He did ! He played him wide in the diamond !”
“No!”
“He did.”
“He’s a nutter!”
“Abramovic went in the dressing room and handed out a bollocking to all of them, includiing the players.”
“He didn’t !"
“He did.”
“How d’you know?”
“It’s in the papers.”
“Well, that’s the end of Chelsea. They started the year and ended the year on the same day.Was Jimmy on the bench?”
“I’ve no idea where Jimmy was. He wasn’t a sub. Real Madrid refused Ronaldo permission to watch the game. Ronaldo flew in for it, but Real Madrid said : Youre not allowed to go to the game.”
“Amazing ! ”
“It’s a circus.If you’d have watched it, you’d have gone mad. It was insane. Joe Cole, I wouldn’t pick Joe Cole for a girls team.It was ridiculous. Eventually, after an hour, Cole goes off and Gronkjaer came on, and that was slightly better, with a bit of width. If you’re gonna play without a centre forward, you need some width.”
“If you’re gonna play Mutu and Gudjohnsen, you’ve gotta play Frank in the middle to run into centre forward positions. He’s not a centre forward, but he scores a lot of goals from the sort of positions that centre forwards get into. This is the A-B-C of football. This is the alphabet. To have Mutu and Gudjohnsen, and not have Frank making runs into the box, because he’s stuck out on the wing, is the biggest conceptual absurdity I’ve some across in 40 years as a football fan !”
“He really blew it. I thought he had it under control now. But,for some reason, he just went loopy.Abramavich is gonna say: I can’t cope with this.”
“Bottom line, you don’t move Frank to play Joe Cole. That’s what he did. You don’t move Frank. You play Frank or you rest him. But you don’t move him. I’ve heard that the reason he’s so good this season is that he’s given up smoking.”
We went on like this for a while.
“Who was any good for Liverpool?”
“Nobody ! They’re terrible. This Premiership has fallen apart on us.There’s only two decent teams. And one’s got a lot more money than the other.”
LAST NIGHT I dropped in to see Kevin and Pauline, Chelsea fans.
Kevin said, “It’s not over, we’re playing well, we can still win the title. We’ve scared Arsenal and Man United and made them raise their game in the first half of the season, but they can’t sustain it. Nobody can play like that for nine months. Man United’s league results will fall apart when the Champions League starts again.”
Pauline said, “Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink drove me crazy last season, walking about. I was thinking : you should play with passion! Why should I pay forty quid to watch you walking about?”
Precious, their daft but friendly cat, lay on my shoulder, furry face facing mine, purring.
THFC PLAYED WELL .
Apparently, Dalmat was upset because his girlfriend could not join him from Switzerland due to a visa problem. He was overweight and could not concentrate on his football.
Dunno where his girlfriend is, but Dalmat is slim again.
He had a blinder against Palace, and he scored the first two goals against Birmingham.
Simon Davies and Robbie Keane’s goals came from sweet, swift moves.
Ledley King and Gary Docherty were solid at the back.
It was good fun, especially when Robbie’s legs were going like pistons. Darren still covering a lot of ground and still making some very good passes.
Kanoute is an Asprilla-Collymore type. He is either excellent, or rubbish.
EVERTON 1 ARSENAL 1 was an accident waiting to happen.
Surprised by Arsene’s excuse. That his team was haunted by the trauma of losing 3-2 there last season.
If that was a big factor, then his team does not have as much collective confidence as I thought.
But all teams have nights like that, games like that.
18 Prem matches to go, three points behind Man United. Plenty to play for.
And the joy of four games against Middlesbrough in 18 days.
Who could ask for more?
www.anr.uk.com/articles/m-2004-01-09-13-57-20.html