Dead man walking
Tue Apr 15 08:53AM
Yesterday, Early Doors mentioned Justin Hoyte as one of those people whose presence on or near the pitch increases his team's chances of failure by about 300 percent.
We can probably add to the list the names of Alex, Wayne Bridge, John Obi Mikel, Florent Malouda and Chelsea's dead man walking Avram Grant.
The Israeli's decision to leave out Joseph and Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba and Ricardo Carvalho against Wigan was compounded by Frank Lampard's last-minute withdrawal due to his mother's illness.
Meanwhile Petr Cech appeared with a chinstrap possibly borrowed from a royal guardsman. Had he also loaned a bearskin hat, to create a deluxe version of the David James afro, he might also have headed Emile Heskey's equaliser off the line.
Chelsea were clueless in the first half. So completely and hopelessly inept the notion that they were in contention to win 'The Best League In The WorldTM' seemed not just fanciful but borderline insane.
Joey Cole perked them up after the break, but it was inevitable that their inability to finish teams off would eventually haunt them, as the prolific Heskey popped up to snaffle his third goal of the season.
Grant's team selection was dodgy at best but, as always in football, you only get pilloried when you fail to win.
Had Manchester United lost to Arsenal on Sunday, more questions might be asked about why Park Ji-Sung played instead of Ryan Giggs or Carlos Tevez. But United won, so nobody cared.
- - -
However bad the Chelsea players were, they paled in comparison with the crowd, who exceeded their fickle, complacent, pampered reputation.
You don't have to like Grant, but when he has led your team to the brink of the title, playing much the same football as Jose Mourinho, it's probably time to cut him some slack.
But instead of getting behind their team as they laboured through the first half, the audience (a better word than crowd, as it reflects their passivity) chose only to show their displeasure, booing them off at the break.
Had Manchester United, Liverpool or even Arsenal conceded a 90th-minute equaliser, their fans would have whipped up a three-minute cauldron of noise, hoping to inspire a dramatic injury time winner.
The only sound at Stamford Bridge was that of plastic seats flipping back to their upright position as a mass exodus ensued.
The few who stayed jeered the introduction of Andriy Shevchenko, booed at the final whistle and booed again as the players left the field.
These players have not been vanquished in a league game in front of their ungrateful 'supporters' for over 80 games, and yet Heather Mills would have got a better reception at a Beatles gig.
As well as remaining unbeaten at home since something like 1963, Chelsea have 75 points from 34 games.
If they won their three games against Everton, Newcastle and Bolton, and draw against United, they would end the season with 85 points.
While less than they managed in each of their two title-winning seasons, it would still have been enough to win the championship both times (the runners-up had 83 in both 2004-05 and 05-06).
And 85 points would have won the title in the first four years after the Premier League was reduced to 20 teams.
All of which statistical mumbo jumbo goes to show - you'd have to be an idiot to boo Chelsea off after a draw.
- - -
Amazingly, Chelsea do not have the worst fans in the world (they are equal second with Groningen supporters, who carried out an arson attack on their own stadium at the weekend).
That honour goes to Beitar Jerusalem, who may lose their league title after a pitch invasion forced the abandonment of their game on Sunday.
Four minutes from time Beitar led 1-0, a result that would have given them an unassailable 15-point lead. But as jubilant fans poured onto the field, the referee had no choice but to abandon the game.
Beitar now face a possible points deduction and owner Arkady Gaydamak (daddy of Pompey big cheese Alexandre) prepared a superb rant to put the club's errant followers in their place.
"It's my team, not their team. They should go out from the stadium, they should go out from Beitar, they should go out from our lives. Those people are hopeless, they are insolent...and stupid," he stormed.
So you see: Avram Grant is actually having a whale of a time in England.
- - -
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I know all about Gazza and I feel I can help him. A lot of top sportsmen have suffered in their private lives, including me, and that is why I want to help. I still see him as a superstar and would like to meet him if he feels up for it. Back in 2005, Wayne Rooney was on a downer and I met him and lifted his spirits. I am sure I can do the same for Paul Gascoigne." Aren't you the same Mike Tyson who once gnawed a guy's ear off and promised to eat Lennox Lewis's children?
FOREIGN VIEW: Ronaldinho won't even arrive in Milan until July, and yet the backlash has already started. Marco van Basten says the rossoneri don't need him, while Clarence Seedorf tells Corriere dello Sport the transfer is "not a priority".
TALKING POINT: Harbingers of football doom: Djimi Traore, Andriy Voronin, John O'Shea, Andy van der Meyde, Zinedine Kilbane, Lasagna (sic) Diarra and, er, Emile Heskey. Want to reconsider, gossagemartin?
Today: Who has the worst fans in the world?
COMING UP: Bums in the Championship have been squeaking for some time. There is action at both ends of the table as Wolves play West Brom and Barnsley take on Hull. Follow those live from 7.45pm.
Grant claims drogba was injured. Maybe it's just covering his tracks....but he could have easily played part in both these matches. Atleast one half of this match and arnd 70 mins. angainst everton. Then they have 5 days off again before liverpool and UCL. I don't know. hopefully man utd slip up against blackburn away...and the westham jinx hits them again....then wigan away is also there and could help chelsea like they helped man utd.
From rohit0110 on Tue Apr 15 01:30PMAs commercial slogans say the most important game is the next one and we all live in the present... forget yesterday and so on. And Chelsea fans did forget the past, the great years before King Roman arrived. Something like half-a century without a title. So being in the title contest, playing semifinals in the Champions League and final for the Carling cup is not enough?!?! Come on! Do they know it's Christmas?!?!?!?! (thank you Bob Geldoff).
From raykov_t on Tue Apr 15 01:33PMValencia has the worst fans in the world. As they can boo so incredibly loud, you would think they could sing loud too. But no one knows if they can, since they never do sing at all.
From g_tande on Tue Apr 15 01:37PMthey must as well go to hell
From sir-pride.t21 on Tue Apr 15 01:40PMNice one ED, best match report I've read for years! Wise words also from tosinsbox. Pity nobody has had slated the sulky players for last nights result, I can never work out why experienced international players have games where they simply don't turn up. Is pampered and fragile a good enough description?
It seems people don't appreciate that United are a world brand, match days make me wince with all the day trippers clapping away(with their gloves on). Unfortunately the seat allocations means that die hard reds are spread out around the ground amongst the many day trippers, no more Stretford and Scoreboard end creating a great atmosphere. Sadly the Old Trafford roar disappeared when the seats came in.
Ta very much Wigan
From old_dubya2004 on Tue Apr 15 01:42PMI don't believe it's high time Chelsea changed their coach. I'd be much pleased if the Premier League got rid of this new trend of changing coaches en masse. It does the game no good...and I don't believe it inspires players nor does it instill respect for the coach in them (if they're made to believe the coach is less indispensable than they are). Coaches should be allowed to build a team and then get to know how its springs and gadgets work.They should be allowed to preach their message. The devil u know is better than they angel u don't. Arsenal haven't won naught in sometime now...but I can't imagine them getting rid of him. I was born a Man United fan and I'll most certainly die one. The only face I remember on the bench is Sir Alex. I believe there's no Man United fan who likes to think of the fact that he will retire sooner than later (due to his age). In the good or bad days, he's our coach. Every team he puts out there is good enough to do the job. When I saw the line-up against Roma, all I did was announce to the world around me that, "Rooney and Ronaldo are on the bench!!" with a smile on my face. Of course if we had lost, I would have lamented that Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney would have done a better job. I would have screamed at Park and wondered if Pique is experienced enough...BUT A MANCHESTER UNITED FAN never asks for Sir Alex's retirement. In good or bad, at OT or in Europe...win, draw
or lose:/ he'll be our coach...till that day when he will have to retire (I feel sad just writing this)...that day we will all cry...we will all wonder...we will pray...but he'll still be Our Coach.
From tosinsbox on Tue Apr 15 01:43PM@ rohit0110: keep dreaming
don't worry about my team bro. just support yours. one game at a time. that's the way it goes. as I wrote earlier: it's Our League. it's our Cup. and we're taking it back home via Sir Busby Way.From tosinsbox on Tue Apr 15 01:49PMI think I've finally found something as boring to watch as a Chelsea match... All those boring and repetitive posts!
Kop2003
"Also you were f u cki ng out of order the other day. Like i said, get a facebook, get some friends."What did he say lol?
From double_t_uk2002 on Tue Apr 15 01:58PMED should not let some people post anything on this site, its just MADNESS.
To Barny, dont waste your time explaining yourself, some people here are just clueless. I hope you do, but if not, pls u can post your arsenal thots on the arsenal forum, its much appreciated there.
From toksonice on Tue Apr 15 02:16PMThe worst and also best fan in the world is undoubtedly Jose Mourinho, who is a fan of.... well... himself.
From general_ashworm on Tue Apr 15 02:19PMNB - @ those who believe there's any sense whatsoever in posting such comments: "comments in here are boring! comments in here are senseless"..eh, well, if you guys/girls actually had anything better to offer, I guess there'd be less senseless posts, innit?
From tosinsbox on Tue Apr 15 02:25PMhttp://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15042008/58/premier-
league-hello-brucey-remember.htmlthis is why we love him and you hate him.
From tosinsbox on Tue Apr 15 02:30PMMy point was if something's been said, there's no need to go and repeated it over and over, it's becoming a hastle trying to read through the posts now, esp. those that look like mini essays and just ramble on
From double_t_uk2002 on Tue Apr 15 02:34PMso dont read em...u have the option to skip to the next one...like this one for instance..i didnt need to comment but ure reading it arnt ya?
From jpaes28 on Tue Apr 15 02:35PMi.e. in your opinion an ideal post on this forum should be a 3-liner containing 1 "compound" sentence with multiple punctuation errors?? Point taken.
I still believe our time would be better spent commenting/replying what we deem sensible and worthwhile, thus ignoring the rest.From tosinsbox on Tue Apr 15 02:37PMWell i wouldn't know if it was a repeated comment unless i read it first would i? As for the long ones that i cant be bothered to read then yea, I do tend to skip em if i feel they're just rambling on
From double_t_uk2002 on Tue Apr 15 02:42PMTosinbox
Ha ha, as a gooner I concede that the prem league is more than likely yours this season, but you are a trifle presumptious sir to say the CL trophy is on its way to Old Trafford? Less counting your chickens eh, there are still other teams involved.........
From barny1158 on Tue Apr 15 02:53PMHere in belgrade Partizan and Red Star have a small hooligan element who can be relied on to try and burn down the US, UK, and Croatian embassies and I wouldn't want to walk into a bar where they were after a bad game. What worries me is that globalisation means fewer teams coming through to the top and lasting. When I was a kid Leeds, Derby and Nottingham Forest were European teams and now where are they? Their fans were just a s passionate, but now they must be few and far between. With the big clubs turned into big businesses what are the chances of a small team developing into a big club or is it going be a like Blackburn a few years ago with ione year at the top and then subsiding. There's passion in the fans, but is there romance in the beautiful game?
From james_ssmith on Tue Apr 15 02:58PMWhen u watch Exeter play United and the whole town goes on a drinking spree...you know there's still beauty in the game.
All it takes for a small team to start moving foward are average players, team spirit and the coach to glue all that together. Yes, it's possible that without money, players might not come...but still, was anything ever achieved without money?From tosinsbox on Tue Apr 15 03:02PMHmm, without the big investment though, there is only so far a team can go.
Honorary "best fans" mention to Brighton & Hove Albion (my old team), who have survived without a ground for donkey's years since the Goldstone got flattened for some shops, but are still pushing for a playoff spot to the championship (apart from losing two on the spin of course, including at home to Port Vals...)
From garethcoletranslations on Tue Apr 15 03:07PMToksonice,
thanks for your comments, will bear them in mind. The posts that were directed at me a few days ago, were unpleasant to say the least. I have made a pact to try and stick to the footie and not get riled by sexist, chauvenistic or nasty comments,.The people with such intentions as to post them in the first place should be treated with the contempt they deserve.If it riles certain individuals that I post on this site, Ce la Vie....Nobody HAS to read what I post, and I think we still have freedom of speech, and CHOICE as to read or ignore. I am trying to take my own advice, hard as it is sometimes.........From barny1158 on Tue Apr 15 03:09PMre: double_t have a look back at i think fridays blog, he made a sly comment at the very end. I personally think he sleeps in a bed with his mother, but that's just my opinion.
From the_kop2003 on Tue Apr 15 03:57PMI don't understand what Grant is doing with chelsea. A big mistake was made by Abramovitch last september. You should bear in mind that Mourinho is probably the best manager in the world.
From mbousbia_salah on Tue Apr 15 04:41PMRegarding all the Chelsea posts today,
My opinion to whether or not Grant should be the manager, is not relevant. What is , is whether the "manager" of Chelsea is allowed to be just that, or is the case (as the media would have us all believe at times)a Yes man for Abramovich and all his money? Was that why Mourinho went? . I may not have liked Mourinho's demeanour, but his record at Chelsea was second to none, the finacial backing aside. In the "business" world that footie is now in, how many owners/conglomorates/chairman/ want a man in position that just goes along with what THEY want, in order to make profits, is anyones guess. Mourinho did never strike me as being a"yes" man for anyone.The cliche is, that footie men are not necessarily good business men, and as we are seeing in the prem, to strike a fine balance between the two is more difficult than first thought.From barny1158 on Tue Apr 15 05:08PMhey guys! give grant a break. when i watch soccer i do that objectively.
i may be manutd fan but that has nothing to do with telling the truth. chelsea played fantastic football through out the 93mins with the same known standard of jose day, it's sometimes baffle me why people seem to kill at instance of lack of luck.with or without the big namesthe blues had the greater dorminance but lacked incisiveness and luck which is normal for every football GAME. CHECK OUT RECORDS an you will realise that the man is only few point from 85point, which could as well win the title some years back. PLEASE LEARN TO HAVE SOME COURTESSY AND PATIENCE.
I WISH TO THANK MANUTD PLAYER FOR THEIR FOCUS AND KEEPING THEIR PISTONS FIRING. ROLL ON RED DEVILS.......HEAGREAVE I LOVE THAT FREE KICK,Try that next time and you could improve even better than c-boy who often hit the wallsFrom mails4joe3k on Tue Apr 15 05:11PMI didn't realise I was so vile and disgusting. What a preposturous notion it is to suggest that there is anything inherently different between fans of all clubs. We are all just fans who for whatever reason hitched ourselves to a particular team. There is nothing different or special about any of us. Perhaps sometimes our circumstances cause us to react in a certain way to different events but that's it. Where I sit at Chelsea, we do sing and we don't boo. We do pose quizical questions sometimes and express our feelings but we have a right to do that. It's true that most Chelsea fans loved Jose (and how many Liverpool fans would turn him down if Rafa leaves, or Man U fans when Alex retires - not many I would guess) and we don't think Grant has proved himself (and boy, he doesn't seem to be a motivator) but we are not any different to the rest of you. We just want our team to be successful and right now we don't think we are likely to win anything and we don't like the way the team are playing. (And I do blame the manager for that - he picks them, trains them and prepares them.)
Anyway - enough from me. I am sorry I am not going to indulge in the juvenile abuse.
From michelangeloindeed on Tue Apr 15 06:44PM*C i r c u m s t a n c e s !
From michelangeloindeed on Tue Apr 15 06:48PMSurely the worst fans in the world are the hardcore Roma supporters. If you cannot attend the Stadio Olimpico without fear of injury or violent death, you are surely among the most wicked of crowds. Common actions of these trigger happy supporters include pitch invasions and the throwing of objects on to the field or against rival supporters. Roma fans are particularly partial to the throwing of stones, bottles, heavy marbles, flares, fireworks, firecrackers, stadium seats, taps stolen from stadium toilets, flagpoles, knifes, baseball bats, and traffic signs. Nothing to be too concerned about.
From samuelbanks on Tue Apr 15 06:55PMWhats all this nonsense about Avram Grant.If Chelsea go on to win the league, Grant will still be out on his ear.The fact of the matter is that the Chelsea support (and plyers) are still mourning the loss of Mourinho.Therefore Avram Grant is on a hiding to nothing ,no matter what silverware he wins this season. The plain truth is that Mourinho suited the image of the Chelsea franchise whereas Grant clearly does'nt.Lets face it, Avram Grant would'nt look out of place at an undertakers convention.
From samuelbanks on Tue Apr 15 07:11PMBarney
By the way Barney-are you male or Female? I hope that is'nt a stupid question.Im just confused after the posts about sexism and stuff.There is alot of that going on is'nt der.?From samuelbanks on Tue Apr 15 07:15PM
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