Football News

Well the Champions League final is almost upon us and although many English football fans would love to see German side Bayern Munich capture the title once again, there are still some hopes that Chelsea will be able to add the one trophy that has eluded their trophy cabinet for so long to their collection after a poor season in the Premier League.

The Blues have had a rough time throughout the season, seeing their manager Andre Villas-Boas given his marching orders and results clearly going the wrong way for the London side but no one could have predicted that a former player would have the ability to rescue their season thus far and give them the chance to be able to compete for a title that any Premier League club would love to be contesting next week.

Roberto Di Matteo has stepped up from his coaching role and has shown that he has more than special powers to be able to calm the storm within the Stamford Bridge side following uncertainty towards the season ahead of the club but it seems that even a win in Munich would result in a step down from the managerial responsibilities entrusted to him by the club, a clear showing that the club are more concerned about the name at the helm than the results in which the current boss is able to generate.

Football gossip columns this morning have revealed that former England boss Fabio Capello has been tipped to take over Di Matteo following the closure of the season, saying that the Italian would be willing to take a 12 month placement while the London side wait out the year-long break that Barcelona boss Josep Guardiola has revealed that he intends to take away from the rat race but with the Italian showing that he can’t handle a changing room full of ‘expressive’ players during his time as the English national coach, surely the club should instead reward their current caretaker with a chance to be able to prove his worth throughout the upcoming season rather than upsetting the apple cart once again.

With the prospect of Champions League glory very much a reality for the club, they will have to look past the excitement and focus on the dangers that the German side possess, such as French international Franck Ribery and striker Mario Gomez, both of which have shown impressive form throughout the last 12 months.

With John Terry now confirmed as a spectator from the stands, the Chelsea boss will be looking to defenders Gary Cahill and David Luiz to be able to offer the foundations on which the side will build from but with both players still only recently coming back from hamstring injuries and a lack of match time, surely the Germans will be looking to exploit the centre of the Chelsea defence with their frightening pace, of which they have in bucket loads?

You can expect to see Fernando Torres being left on the bench for the start of this one in our eyes, the scoring record of powerhouse striker Didier Drogba seems enough to edge him out in front of the Spaniard in terms of the selection process and with the Ivory Coast international looking likely to leave Stamford Bridge this summer, he will have a point to prove as he looks to show that he can still offer quality at the highest level of club football possible.

Will the Blues be able to make a new addition to their club history with the UEFA Champions League trophy being added to their growing number of cup trophies or will they experience the painful experience of losing the in final all over again?

No one can honestly have expected to have witnessed such a game as the Manchester derby from Monday night this week, the two heavyweights of the Premier League fighting it out to take or retain the number one position in the title race and yet the game produced very little in the way of action when you look at the red side of the city.

United not only failed to even hit the target with one shot but at times they looked shakey and their performances showed sparks of the defensive lock down that Chelsea were able to display when they played in the Champions League semi final against Barcelona last week, just the Manchester based side failed to win.

We have become used to the consistent mind games that Premier League managers try to perform on their rivals ahead of big matches, each claiming that their opponents are the number one contenders and that they have to be considered the underdogs as they enter into the match, but often nothing more spans from those conversations and the game tends to serve up some tasty football action for all to see, not Monday night!

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was seen to clearly lose his head as he disagreed with actions that his counterpart, Roberto Mancini, had made following a tackle on one of the United players and the little angry Scot was only too happy show the Italian that he was not about to accept that from him.

The two Premier League bosses had to be held apart by coaching staff and the fourth official as they both mouthed complete garbage at each other for what could be seen as the most exciting moment of the match, something that shows just how poor the game really was to watch.

Speaking out after the game, Ferguson stood firmly behind his actions, honestly digging deep into his excuses store to mutter that it was Mancini that had sparked the row as “he was saying stuff to me all game”, the sort of excuse that you would expect to hear on the school playing fields, not the Premier League showcase that we were watching.

Neither of the managers have been told that they will face charges for their little show but I have to say that if the governing bodies want to cut out that sort of thing from the game, you have two examples that you should be making examples of and it would offer a much bigger loss with both clubs now locked on the same points with just two games to go…

Meanwhile in London, talk is breaking that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is hot on the trail of Spurs boss Harry Redknapp following the news that he will not be leaving White Hart Lane this summer in exchange for the top position with the English national side.

The Russian seems keen to have a well known manager put into control of his side for the upcoming season but with Roberto di Matteo continuing to steer the club to the points that they need so badly, surely he is looking further afield than he needs to?

Finally for today, England have appointed West Brom manager Roy Hodgson as the new England manager, an appointment that has split the nation and one that will be very interesting to see played out.

Hodgson has a track record of successes throughout his career but whether he really is the right man for the job is still to be seen, I mean we have all seen the huge amount of work that he will have on his hands if he is looking to kick off his first tournament in charge in a good, winning fashion.

The news that he has signed a four year contract with the Football Association is a complete shock, not in relation to the name on that contract but purely due to the length of the contract after so many managers before have been given their marching orders years before they were due to finish their term, costing the FA millions in compensation.

Well there has never been a season as a Chelsea fan in which you have been able to simply sit back and watch the sort of football that you expect from the club but this season has been a sea of emotions, from seeing the club trying to keep the pace with the Premier League leaders to now trying to fight for a place in the Champions League next season, but would i swap it?No.

The club has had its own fair share of problems, whether those be on the field or behind the scenes, either way, things have not been flowing as they should for a club that have the spending power to be able to purchase over 50% of the clubs they face off against during their Premier League season. With the Champions League final now set up against German side Bayern Munich, the club finally have a chance to lift a major title this term after hopes fading within the league or any of the other domestic cups but the lure of Champions League success is enough to wet the whistle of any football fan.

Okay so the journey to the final has been a scrappy one and the second leg against Barcelona was by far not the most attractive style of play from the Chelsea Blues but who cares, the lock down within the defensive third was enough to prevent the likes of Lionel Messi showing off why the Spanish side are considered to be the best team in football history. Sometimes you have to go ugly in order to secure the victory.

One of the most disappointing things from the game has to be the fact that John Terry honestly thought that he was acting within the laws of the game in the heat of the moment as he thrust his knee into the back of Alexis Sanchez, the Barcelona striker. The English international clearly has issues, whether that be that the wives and girlfriends of his team mates aren’t paying him any attention or whether Sanchez had said something that triggered the anger streak, regardless of the reasoning, he is paid enough to learn to count to ten and remain focus.

The success of the club in that game doesn’t span from his contribution, it was the character of the players after his dismissal that left Chelsea fans proud, not his childish actions that placed the club’s existance within the tournament firmly on the line. With strength shown and Roberto di Matteo at the helm at the moment, the club seem to be steering in the right direction, something that reports are showing that even the Chelsea board aren’t able to deny, saying that the former player could be handed the permanent managerial role for 12 months in a bid to allow him to be able to prove that he has what it takes to succeed at a club that has swapped and change managers more times than Ashley Cole has been in the headlines!

One positive that seems to have come from the push to the Champions League final is that owner Roman Abramovich seems to have woken up to the news that his club is in drastic need of alterations, his side being flooded with aging players that are now clearly showing that it could be time to step out of the Premier League and into a football league that will allow them to once again become the larger force, something that can’t be said in the Premier League this season with the youthful ranks making the headlines on a frequent basis and leaving the older players like Terry to have to act stupidly to be able to make his face appear on the back pages.

Transfer gossip this morning is that the London based club have continued their interest in one of the most feared strikers in the European leagues, Hulk who currently players at Porto. The Brazilian was named as one of the wish list that former Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas gave at the time of taking on the managerial responsibility at the club but with the striker playing a major role at the Portuguese side, they slapped a hefty £71m fee on his head and left the former Chelsea boss having to look elsewhere, which then resulted in no arrival for any player!

The managerial job at Chelsea is something that any manager would dream of when you think about the resources that the club would be able to offer you but having invested over £300 million into new players within the first two years of ownership, Roman Abramovich has since failed to show such willing and has become more involved within the daily happenings at the club, something that pushed Jose Mourinho out of the door as he clashed with the Russian.

Caretaker manager Roberto di Matteo has shown that he really does have the magic touch when it comes to turning the club around, a fate that looked to be a big ask for a backroom coach that was more used to playing the game than telling others how to do it. Further rumours this morning have revealed that although senior players like Frank Lampard have called for the caretaker to be handed the job on a permanent basis, the club are ready to speak to Josep Guardiola who was in the opposite technical area as the Blues battled through to beat Barcelona last week.

The Spaniard has said that he is ready to step down from managerial responsibility at the Spanish club but insists that he is now ready for a 12 month break from the managerial game, but Roman Abramovich will fuel his plane in a bid to make contact with the Barca boss and try to convince him that the grass is greener at Stamford Bridge.