City struggling to create chances and score? Give them a free penalty to open the gates.

They fired Di Matteo!!! Honestly??!!! Top of the league, and they lost a CL match. And they fired their title winnign coach?!?!?

Abramovich is like Moratti with more money and less sense!!! They're gonna get Pep aren't they?

Abramovich never wanted Di Matteo for the long run, he planned to keep him for several month as head coach but was forced to continue with him after the CL win and waited for an excuse. Guess he's not attractive enough name for him. Pep to Chelsea sounds logical since RA can fill all of his demands.

I would take Di Matteo to Milan, we are not going to get anyone bigger with our funds anyway.

LOL...

Can't say I'm surprised, last night I was thinking Abramovich wouldn't tolerate this. I hope he regrets this decision.

What a clown!

Get him Galliani!!

I don't see it happen though. He's a Laziale for life.

Oh Roman...

This comment made me laugh.

Rafa Benitez appointed interim manager.

I wouldn't let him manage my neighborhood team.

Same. WTF is going on?

Good luck with him. At least they took him of from Gallianis potential speed dial.

Wow Abramovich is just bat-**** crazy! First firing a coach less than a year after he led them to an unexpected CL cup? Then hiring Benitez in his place! Unreal!

Don't be too sure guys. You're right this could misfire, but I always felt he got unfair schtick at Inter. If he shows any improvements this season, then Roman could seriously back him at which point, we can't laugh at him anymore. He is a good tactician though rigid. Perhaps not so much a charismatic man-manager.


P.S: I'm biased having met him, and I found him a really down-to-earth chap if a bit too serious. I actually like him (as a person).

Yup, you're biased.

Nah! Well Abramovic wants to see Torres shine, so he brought in the last coach who had done that.

Not to be a Brütal Legend (look it up), but the brutally honest truth is that the Torres train has come and gone. The guy peaked too early. His best moment was the winning goal against Germany in the Euro 2008 final. That was his peak, and no matter how much anyone tries, the mojo ain't coming back.

Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong, but it'll be hard for Torres to even get back to his Liverpool days now.

I would disagree there buddy, as I believe tactics matter a lot in exploiting your team's strong points. 50MM quid, they could have invested in Ibramovic instead

Apparently throw in 15m more and you'd get Silva in a 2 for 1

See this is why I'm still so bitter about selling those 2 off so easily. Chelsea payed a staggering amount for both Torres and Luiz and they're not even half the players Silva and Ibra are. And we're talking PSG here, who have more spending power than Chelsea as well.

The truth is Galliani got taken for a ride, at least he should have tried to include a PSG player coming our way as well along with that money

Cautiously agree with R7, and wholly agree with Han. Yeah, Galliani got a good one, his eyes probably bulged out when he heard the amount we were getting. Add in the amount we were saving, he didn't even think before pushing the button. Some of the decisions he's made in the last 2 years are downright appalling.

And he didn't have the pressure of any players wanting to actually peave Milan.Both wanted to stay.Maybe he had the pressure of Berlusconi begging for regaining some money from our losses.But, Galliani still should have known better how to play his cards.

I think someone must have recommended Luiz as some sort of joke. I know Roman wants entertaining football, but I think he meant entertaining for him and not everyone else, Luiz is such a clown. He thinks he's Beckenbauer.

Interesting article in the papers today about how we are missing a few prime-time footballers and characters in the league at the moment. Mentioning the return of Cristiano & Mourinho to these shores on Wednesday as something the league has still not really recovered from losing. I'm not sure I wholeheartedly agree but I can see what the article is getting at.

He's a great footballer imo, just a terrible defender.

You shouldnt be so bitter han, if you could only comprehend the fact that in such an economy and with FFP, we cant afford them.

Its like you buy a Ferrari and a Lamborghini, they cost a lot initially, but they cost a lot more to maintain than a Toyota. When Berlusconi says we saved 160MM for the next 3 years, he means that such players will affect our ability to balance the books. The matter of buy one get the other free is not true, in truth we sold both because their respective contracts were too much for us to accommodate.

I would have loved for Silva to have stayed, let alone Ibra ... But reality is one thing, and fantasy is another. This is why I used to always defend Berlusconi, because all our superstars were bankrolled by him. Milan alone can not afford these players, as you are witnessing now.

Then its his fault for offering out silly contracts.

Come on, you're a smart guy. He had no intention of honouring the Silva contract and did it to try and make it sound better when we sold him. Given that Silva just signed a new deal, I'm amazed at how little we got for it, so much for being good negotiators.

But these players have a market value. Like Kaka in Madrid, we cant match his 'current' market value, ie his contract.


I cant 'assume' the details Kurt, whether Berlusconi was willing to honor the contract or not. Could very well be as you described it, or could be another issue related to the PSG deal ... You never really know.

See the Chelsea 'fans' are discontent, one of the sports retailers should really do a half price Man City shirt when you trade in your Chelsea shirt offer

Rather than spending time in a rage or such, I think i'm going to give benitez a chance, Even if the guy has a bad history with chelsea I want to see what he can do on a footballing level then i will judge him, If he gets us success then he will be good in my books if not then ehh, But i just don't find getting hung up about the liverpool stuff worthwhile, waste of time just being....Angry.

I still remember about 3 years ago drogba Said something about glory hunters as chelsea fans and such, People love him still, I say too, and you know what any footballer even at their own club could say bad about it but not get any publishment or such, So the one you love could just be as guilty as the one you hate with saying words...you just can never be sure.

I really would love to see Di Matteo with the Ac Milan job, Give him a place where he can settle and frigging prove his metal, Though Napoli isn't all that bad i'd way rather the Milan job

Thrash, black, death or plain heavy?

Acid?

No objections from this keyboard! Finish him!

West Ham 3-1 Chelsea

I hope Abramovich is enjoying this

Chelsea are just so lazy. And they were playng like this under RDM as well.

All their flare players seem to think that they should be allowed to pass through everyone and that a win is their right. Such an arrogant bunch they have. Hazard especially gives off this impression, and when are they going to stop insisting on Torres?

Reading 3 - Man United 4... 34 minutes gone...

It's the Champions League aftereffects. It happened to us, it happened to Inter, now it's happening to them: teams who overachieved in the previous season that become too lazy/tired/demotivated in the next.

True, but Chelsea actually invested into the squad after the CL. Unlike us and Inter who took it to mean that we're the best and don't need to do anything. They have a really good set of players imo. The center of defense is the only area really lacking imo as Luiz is a nutso, Terry is in and out injured and nowhere near the level he used to be at and Cahill is meh for me.

@ MAB, wasn't RVP's last goal offside? At least I know that Serie A isn't the only league where such blatant mistakes are made

Don't know was only half watching it, don't tend to bother with most Saturday evening games, tend to be damp squids and usually focusing on the College Football by then.

If it was offside though things got evened out by a decision where RVP should have had a goal, which was ruled to have not crossed the line, even though it was incredibly obvious it was.

Don't know about that one, only switched on right before the RVP goal

Still like I said in the match thread against Catania. Trying to correct one mistake with another shouldn't be accepted as a good thing in football. It's ridiculous the amount of games which are ruined on a weekly basis because of this and until some technology is introduced it won't change

Thrash


and EXPLODE! 8D

Interesting game in the FA Cup today.

MK Dons to in AFC Wimbledon. Huge hatred from AFC towards MK because of the history. Wimbledon FC were going into administration and a rich bloke bought the club and moved them to Milton Keynes. A new club AFC Wimbledon was created as the fans felt they 'stole' their club.

I'll be amazed if there isn't a red card in this, even the players are slagging off each others clubs.

MK are considering dropping the 'Dons' name and have already officially dropped the Wimbledon history and handed back trophies, but theres still a hatred between the 2.

And the club stealing wankers won.

Olympic stadium given to football team.

'Inspiring generations', ladies & gentleman

Stupid actually. Especially with that track around it. It would suck.

I think it had to be done, and to West Ham. A football team is the only possible tennant that could afford to pay it properly.

I can't even believe Tottenham were being considered. Their plan was to knock the damn thing down and build a new stadium on the grounds!

Couldn't give a F what it's like for West Ham to be honest. Before anyone says they are going to use it for athletics, no they aren't not to the level it could have been used for. First off there's another £115m that needs to be spent on it to turn it into a suitable football stadium, of which West Ham will pay 10% - where's the rest of the money coming from?! Tax payers... good job. Apparently an investment firm will put £40m into it but that still leaves £60m...

Oh, but it's ok because there maybe one weekend a year it's used for athletics?! There are tons of weeks this could have been used for athletics throughout the summer. I don't buy they need a football team in there to make it financially stable, if that was their business model then this country is led by bigger morons than I first thought, and that's saying something. A lot of European cities have athletic stadiums and get by financially with hosting... athletics. After this summer there would still have been a buzz for a good few years in athletics and they could have easily built upon that, get newcomers into the sport, get kids involved for potential careers within it etc. If it wasn't working 2 years down the line you could put your hands up and say, ok, we tried. You're still unlikely to cost the public £60m from this, something you are committed to doing by giving it to a football team.

Though, no, the majority of this country can't look past this sport and only this sport so we have to have it dominate, yet again, just like it did a few years back and then wonder why other sports suffer, shambles. I don't dislike the sport obviously but people need to realise there's more than just football over here, which in reality as an International team we hardly set the world alight with either.

I don't care for West Ham either. They're up there with Leeds, Newcastle and Spurs as irrelevant clubs who think they're relevant despite winning **** all. But in the region it's really them or Leyton Orient and Orient couldn't afford to keep it running, the tax payer would basically have to keep the stadium running as well as pay for it. West Ham will at least account for the running costs.

Of all the Olympic Stadia dating back to 1972 the only ones not used currently are the 1972 Olympiastadion (was used by Bayern and 1860 Munich between 1972 and 2005, was paid of by the time they left), the 1988 Seol Olympic Stadium and the 2008 Birds Nest (which is going to take 30 years to repay and is barely used). All others are still in use, most by major sporting teams from the area.

The Olympic Stadium will still be used for athletics and I don't know it would be be able to cope with just athletics because of the running costs. There's places around the Midlands that've closed over the past decade or so because they have no other income (some had small teams play, but even then not enough). If we want our legacy to be used for a few months a year where it's not going to bring that much money in (check attendances for other track and field events) and have the stadium eventually be pushed aside as running costs are too high, that's fair enough. I hate West Ham, but I'm more than happy for them to keep the stadium going personally.

Interestingly enough, there was more interest from American sporting bodies to use the stadium after the Olympics than there was athletics bodies, if they aren't going to make the effort then they aren't going to get the stadium. We'll see how much it gets used in the next 4 years before West Ham move in.

This all prior to the Olympics mind, people thought that would flop too. Oh well, as long as football is catered for in this country everyone's happy...

It only takes looking at Wimbledon to show how to run something like this properly. Give it a few years and that will be a football ground with a week off for tennis.

Well it's to be expected that it revolves around football. At the end of the day it is the people who decide. It's the people who go and spend money on football each week. I imagine football attendances each year are probably over 100 times that of attendances for track and field meets, so it's no surprise why it's gone where it has.

When people put their money where their mouth is, things change. But in this case, they aren't so it won't.

But football is looked after well, incredibly well in this country. Why should tax payers have to pay for £60m to make this a football stadium... ah forget it, whatever.