The tedium of the international break was worth enduring given what England served up last Saturday evening. Somehow I doubt they’ll produce another display to match that one anytime soon. (I’m an eternal cynic when it comes to a Sven-Goran Eriksson managed England team.)
Apologies for the lack of updates recently; I took the opportunity to… disappear during the first ten days of the current break in Premiership / Champions League action.
Not a lot of note has happened. The usual pre-January transfer window rumours have started in earnest, and the speculation surrounding Hernan Crespo and Arjen Robben’s futures seems to be ongoing, the latter even being linked with a move to Three Point Lane.
In the interests of keeping this blog reasonably up-to-date I’ve added a number of links to recent news stories, grouped accordingly.
Youth team:
- Compensation figures for three youth players signed by Chelsea from Football League clubs
- Chelsea and United prepare for battle over seven-year-old
- Chelsea’s temptations ‘send wrong signal’
- Fury at £200k Sinclair deal
- Scally unhappy over Bertrand cash
Players:
- Drogba settled at Chelsea
- Lampard nets player of the month
- Lampard eyes new Blues deal
- Cole sights Chelsea starting spot
- Chelsea in new alert over ‘club and country’
- Rejuvenated Diarra out to repeat Toulon display
- Makelele tutors Diarra to take on Chelsea role
- Chelsea/Man Utd face player rows
Rumours:
- Vieri out — Crespo in?
- Crespo slams Mourinho rift report
- Cole reveals Crespo discontent
- Crespo denies Cole claims
- Crespo vows to stay with Chelsea
- Crespo crisis for Chelsea
- Jose silent on Robben row
- Jol in Robben hint
- Tottenham eye Robben developments
- Barcelona preparing to pounce for unsettled Robben
- Chelsea cast eye over Casillas
- Blues eye Kuyt
Premiership:
Misc.:
- Roman empire taps into Rise of the Dossier
- Chelsea snubbed by Europe’s power brokers
- England is caught between Rooneymania and Pa-roo-noia
Other clubs:
- Liverpool — Rafa has upper hand
- Bugging claims probed by Man Utd
- Kenyon takes swipe at Glazers
- Wenger says title race is back on
- Mourinho attacks ‘desperate’ Reds
But the most delicious news of the last ten days has to be the prospect of travelling to Liverpool to watch Chelsea play the Reds in the all-new Dairylea Dome. The Kraft Kop will no doubt treat us to a rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
Only two-and-a-half days to go till ‘proper’ football starts again — with a home win over Newcastle United to look forward to.
