The Official Thread of Chelsea FC

[Ping Pong Santa]

That's not the meaning of it at all. The thing he has to get over is Chelsea getting beat. Building a bridge helps you get over things. Building a wall doesn't.

Google it.

Ok I was wrong, oh no.

[Norf Tyrone]

Build a wall....

No idea what that means.

Are you still shying the who do you support question?

....and get over it!

So for the 3rd time, what soccer team do you support? Machester United or Liverpool

Leicester City

Ha. As someone PM'ed me, 'I think his refusal to answer means he's busted  '

Their words, not mine. Good luck.

[Ping Pong Santa]

Build a wall....

No idea what that means.

Are you still shying the who do you support question?

....and get over it!

So for the 3rd time, what soccer team do you support? Machester United or Liverpool

Leicester City

Ha. As someone PM'ed me, 'I think his refusal to answer means he's busted  '

Their words, not mine. Good luck.

Busted for what?

I didn't realise you had to nail your support to any team as a condition of posting on the board?

[Norf Tyrone]

Build a wall....

No idea what that means.

Are you still shying the who do you support question?

....and get over it!

So for the 3rd time, what soccer team do you support? Machester United or Liverpool

Leicester City

Ha. As someone PM'ed me, 'I think his refusal to answer means he's busted  '

Their words, not mine. Good luck.

Busted for what?

I didn't realise you had to nail your support to any team as a condition of posting on the board?

You don't. You did though. You claimed to be an 'avid Manchester United fan', and then stated that you couldn't stomach seeing United in the final as well as complain about 'home decisions' at Old Trafford, as well as numerous other shall we say anti-United comments.

I am afraid your integrity as a football fan, and a poster has evaporated.

Good luck PPS.... and hopefully your latest reincarnation will not be as soon.

[Ping Pong Santa]

Build a wall....

No idea what that means.

Are you still shying the who do you support question?

....and get over it!

So for the 3rd time, what soccer team do you support? Machester United or Liverpool

Leicester City

Ha. As someone PM'ed me, 'I think his refusal to answer means he's busted  '

Their words, not mine. Good luck.

Busted for what?

I didn't realise you had to nail your support to any team as a condition of posting on the board?

You don't. You did though. You claimed to be an 'avid Manchester United fan', and then stated that you couldn't stomach seeing United in the final as well as complain about 'home decisions' at Old Trafford, as well as numerous other shall we say anti-United comments.

I am afraid your integrity as a football fan, and a poster has evaporated.

Good luck PPS.... and hopefully your latest reincarnation will not be as soon.

So because I lied in my first post about being a Utd fan that means I have to go?

What is your obsession with me and your obsession with calling me a reincarnation? Is this the way you go on with every poster that disagrees with you on something?

Catch a grip.

[ludermor]

i dont think anyone has made such a **** of themselves since the bard

[Ping Pong Santa]

i dont think anyone has made such a **** of themselves since the bard

Are you talking about me?

[fred the red]

i dont think anyone has made such a **** of themselves since the bard

Are you talking about me?

[fred the red]

Chelsea's big game atmosphere:

[Norf Tyrone]

Only pride at stake today in London's big derby. The winners essentially will be the team that get over midweek the quickest, unless these is a Norwegian ref that is.

Chelsea's players will have one eye on Wembley, and the shadow of injury or suspension. It's also important to try and rest one or two somewhere along the way. Nonetheless it's important to keep winning games, and maintain the momentum.

If I was selecting I'd go for.

                                                                           Big Pete

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                                                          Obi One Kenobi


                                    Lamps- I'll Marry Him someday        Ess Express


The mysterious case of Ricardo Quaresma       Anelka                                  Kalouless 

[Norf Tyrone]

UEFA prepare to shaft Chelsea, by making sure the ref rewrites his report. He has obviously not included something that Platini and his cronies spent all week cackling and ringing their hands in anticapation of...........If the fecker cannot submit a report properly, why the feck is on the UEFA list?



THE referee at the heart of Chelsea's Champions League KO has been ordered to refile his match report by UEFA.
Tom Henning Ovrebo has been given an extra 72 hours to expand on his official report before UEFA bring any charges against Chelsea.

The Norwegian referee faxed his original report from his London hotel on Thursday morning before flying back home to Oslo.

But UEFA officials immediately told the psychologist, 42, that his summary was not detailed enough. Ovrebo is expected to name and shame Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack for their threatening behaviour during and after the Blues' exit against Barcelona.

Drogba, who has apologised for his f-word tirade, is expected to be charged this week and could be banned for the entire group stage of next season's Champions League.

Ovrebo went into hiding with his family after returning home and neighbours say they have not seen him since before Wednesday's game.

Depth
He has contacted local media expressing a wish to talk about the incidents but he has been gagged from speaking publicly by UEFA.

Ovrebo is due to return to domestic action on Saturday when he takes charge of a game at local club Brann Bergen.

The fact UEFA have given him more time to compile his report and asked for greater depth and detail suggests they are preparing to throw the book at Drogba and Chelsea.

A UEFA spokesman said: "Regarding the report from UEFA's referee observer - this will never be made public. But that report will of course play a major part in deciding Tom Henning Ovrebo's future.


"When it comes to the reports that detail what happened after the match we need the coming week to analyse those.


"At the same time we will continue to collect information about what really happened - that's information from witnesses and from video cameras."

[A Quinn Martin Production]

Sex up the dossier, Tom?

[EC Unique]

Ping pong has made some c**k of himself.. Hilarious

[cavan4ever]

Ping pong has made some c**k of himself.. Hilarious

[Norf Tyrone]

Good result yesterday, although I only seen bits and pieces of it with the 125 year celebrations etc. However that's us back into that cup for 09/10 again. It'll do the old confidence, moral, and team spirit no harm as Chelsea prepare to compete in the 'world's greatest cup competition' in 2 weeks time.

Anyhow... Barcelona.

Almighty Barcelona more than a club? Not when they claim moral authority

Apparently, Barcelona will be wearing a new shirt for this season's Champions League final. Across the chest will be emblazoned one word: 'puppies'. They tried to get 'cute ickle babies' or 'fuzzywuzzy snuggly bears' but it wouldn't fit.

What a pity for the world's most perfect football club. And it is not just Thierry Henry who faces a race to be ready for the match with Manchester United, either. It seems that so many Barcelona players, officials, former managers and journalists have ascended to the high moral ground since Wednesday's win at Stamford Bridge that they might not all be able to get down and board the charabanc to Rome in time.

So now we know. A single shot at goal in 94 minutes is total football, according to Daniel Alves, who did not speak so boastfully of his own record, that of the dirtiest player in the Champions League with 30 fouls (10 more than the nearest player in Chelsea's starting line-up on Wednesday, Michael Ballack). Playing on the counter-attack, meanwhile, is, in the words of one particularly overwrought Spanish commentator, evil.
Not so divine: Barca berate referee Ovrebo
Whatever happens in Rome, such adjectives will be reserved only for Barcelona's opposition and their style of play, for the divine Catalans can do no wrong. They have a saying at the Nou Camp, mes que un club (more than a club), and it would seem some observers have taken this clever piece of marketing rather literally.

Barcelona play fantastic football, but in the rancid fall-out from the match at Stamford Bridge, it has become rather too easy to review a simplistic confrontation between Josep Guardiola's saints and Guus Hiddink's sinners. Old ground has been revisited, such as the clashes between former managers Jose Mourinho and Frank Rijkaard that predated the resignation of referee Anders Frisk.

Even this is only half the story, because the common perception is that Mourinho slandered an innocent man, Frisk, by falsely stating that Rijkaard got to him at half-time. Mourinho's deception was to say he saw an incident. From his vantage point he could not; but that does not mean nothing happened because the UEFA report has evidence from the stadium supervisor that Frisk was forced to tell Rijkaard to go away three times.
Barcelona, for all their pious rhetoric, do not have the copyright on principle in football. Indeed, for a club so dedicated to fairness, the geography of the Nou Camp stadium has always intrigued visitors, as one of the two entrances to the home changing room leads to the secure area where the referee resides.
    More from Martin Samuel...  MARTIN SAMUEL on the Manchester derby: Carlos too good for sorry City 10/05/09   MARTIN SAMUEL: We are really going down the pan, gents! 07/05/09   MARTIN SAMUEL: Handballs, fouls and a late swing of the boot do the job for Barca 06/05/09   MARTIN SAMUEL: Messi will be hard pressed to top this Ronaldo supershow 05/05/09   MARTIN SAMUEL: What Hiddink can learn from the principles of Pokemon 05/05/09   MARTIN SAMUEL: Our league is healthy when youlook below Platini and his 'big four' 03/05/09   MARTIN SAMUEL: Pig flu? Send for that lucky swine Sven 30/04/09   Martin Samuel: Just come in No 32... the price is too high for United's Tevez 29/04/09   VIEW FULL ARCHIVE   This means that in the tunnel, one team turn left, the other right, and the home route can, if a manager is particularly absent-minded, end up with him on the wrong side of a glass partition rubbing shoulders with the man in charge. Not that any Barcelona coach would ever seek to turn such a design fault to his advantage. Rijkaard simply got lost in his own stadium that night.

There was the game between Chelsea and Barcelona in which claims were made about doctoring the Stamford Bridge pitch; the defeat that ended with Rijkaard publicly haranguing referee Stefano Farina in the centre circle. And while this year we are to be given the dream final, last season when Manchester United and Barcelona met, and Barcelona failed to score over two legs, Rijkaard whined that United lacked adventure and originality, and accused them of negative tactics. Barcelona never really lose a football match because, even when they do, they assume a default position of moral superiority.
Indeed, to complete this vision of holiness, Barcelona have the name of a charity, Unicef, on their shirts, where Champions League finalists United will have AIG, a bankrupt American insurance company and symbol of all that is wrong in the world. It is a noble gesture, even if marketing experts predict that the Unicef logo, the first to be placed on the hallowed red and blue, is the thin end of a wedge that will end with Barcelona embracing capitalism with the biggest shirt sponsorship in history.

The current deal runs out in 2011 and by then supporters will be used to the concept. Certainly, Barcelona are not so naive in other commercial areas and currently have arrangements with Nike, Coca-Cola, Audi, TV3, Estrella Damm, La Caixa, bwin, Acer, MediaPro, NH Hoteles, Vueling and Babybel.

The reality is that Barcelona are a great club and this current group of players are a great team, perhaps the best ticket in town; but that is all they are. They are not on a mission from high to save football, they are not above the odd foul, or the odd game that is not so beautiful. Barcelona players have been shown 21 yellow cards in the Champions League this season, compared to 11 for Manchester United. They have conceded 13 goals, as opposed to six by United. United have had more shots on target, too.

The latest twist in the build-up to the final is Barcelona's pledge to endorse United's attempt to have Darren Fletcher's red card rescinded, on the understanding that United are similarly supportive of the reinstatement of Alves (30 fouls, remember) or Eric Abidal. A carve-up? Surely not.

There is a huge amount to admire in Barcelona's play and their ethos under Guardiola. Yet this is best left for others to judge. Self-praise is no recommendation and every time Barcelona smugly remind us of their wonderfulness, they become less than a club, more a puffed-up pain in the neck.