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All's Well That Ends Well!
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The FA Cup victory last Saturday ensured that what was a turbulent season ended on a high note and a familiar ending under Jose’s reign, silverware at The Bridge.
I do not use the word reign lightly here. Jose’s tenure at The Bridge has been nothing short of regal. Of the nine domestic trophies on offer since he joined in June 2004, we have won five, two Premierships, two Carling Cups and Saturday’s FA Cup. For those of you who struggled at maths in school, that’s more than half of the trophies we played for. Add two Champions League semi finals, one lost to a non-existent goal and the other on penalties, and the tally is unmatched in the history of British football, except possibly by Bob Paisley.
Throw in two hotels in a chic part of London plus a football stadium into the bargain, and one can see that Mr. Abramovich got much more than what Rick Parry, in one of his fits of petty jealousy, implied in his statement about the return on Roman’s investment in Chelsea.
Could we have done better? The short and simple answer is, that in the circumstances, no we could not. Whatever everyone may say we lost the league in four games – Fulham, Reading and Villa over Christmas and Liverpool away in January. That’s nine points lost, which is less than what we lost the title with. It would also have altered the whole physiognomy of the title chase. It would have been United chasing us and not the other way round, and we know how that went the previous two seasons.
I do need to remind anyone that for the three draws, two of which were at home, we were missing both JT and Cech. For the Liverpool game Cech was making his return from his horrific injury but we were missing JT and Carvalho.
On top of all this we missed our two most creative players, Arjen Robben and Joe Cole, for practically the whole of the season. These are facts that are often ignored by the bloodthirsty press who enjoy nothing more than seeing Chelsea and Jose’ fail.
Well, fail we did not and we are still the team that sets the standards in the Premiership. That is not to say that mistakes were not made, notably in the transfer market during the summer. Letting Gallas go was madness. His contract issue should have been settled long before it came to a head and all the unpleasantness that followed could have been avoided. Gallas had made many statements that he wanted to stay during the season, so an agreement was not outside the realms of possibility. If the injuries were the number one reason for us not doing even better during the season just ended, Gallas’s departure was number two.
Eidur’s departure was more perplexing. The club didn’t want to offload him but choosing to go to be a reserve at Barcelona looks strange to me. I am sure that he would have got much more playing time at Chelsea.
Back to the incoming players, Ballack and Shevchenko were the two big signings of the summer. I was surprised to see a poll somewhere that, while the majority are willing to give Sheva a second chance, most want to see Ballack out. Both are world class players and need time to adapt to the pace of a new league and even more so to a different playing style to what they were used to. Contrary to popular opinion I think Ballack had a good season. He has a particular style of play that makes him look nonchalant and fans think he isn’t trying. To those I would say - look at the amount of ground he covered in every match. Just because he doesn’t slide around making tackles doesn’t mean he wasn’t doing his bit. Look at the results of the last few games of the season when he wasn’t in the team. They don’t make pleasant reading do they? Two wins in eight, in case you need reminding.
With Sheva it is a different matter. By his standards he undeperformed. But one has to take into consideration that he arrived short of fitness after a tough season that included the World Cup and carried an injury for the first few months he was at The Bridge. He started coming good in the second half of the season until injury struck again. Rest assured he will be much nearer the top of the scorers table this time next year.
Kalou and Mikel look outstanding prospects and their form improved as they got more games under their belt. I admit to having my doubts when I saw them play early on in the season, but like Ballack and Sheva they needed time to adapt to the pace of the English game. It could be said that they adapted quicker than their more illustrious team mates.
Ashley Cole, by his own admission, had a below par season but even he was struck by a series of niggling injuries that he played with throughout the season.
The one major disappointment was Khalid Boulahrouz. In the home match against Barcelona I thought he was Man of the Match, keeping Ronaldinho quiet for most of the evening. I thought he did well at the Nou Camp too. His great chance would have come when JT was out injured, but he was injured at the same time. Since he came back he has looked a shadow of the player who annihilated the great Brazilian.
All the statements coming out of Chelsea seem to indicate that it’s going to be three out and four in, the four to include Glen Johnson coming back from Portsmouth. The other three will be a defender, a midfielder and a striker. Steve Sidwell looks like a done deal. Alex from PSV in exchange for Boulahrouz sounds very plausible. I like Alex. He is a fine defender and a leader and will fill in well for either JT or Carvalho. Tal Ben Haim has also been mentioned but with his connections with Sam Allardyce and Newcastle being desperate for someone who can defend, I can only see one destination for the Israeli international.
It is more difficult to guess who the forward will be. Jose’ wants Crespo, who is still a Chelsea player, back. Make no mistake, Crespo is still at the very top of his profession and was probably the best centre forward in Serie A this season. Claudio Pizarro seems to have entered the running but my money is on Benni McCarthy. His connection with Jose’ is well known and more significantly he has announced his retirement from international football.
Finally there remains the small matter of the contracts of the three most important players currently at Chelsea – JT, Lampard and Robben. Recent news is encouraging and I hoping that common sense will prevail and we will all live happily ever after.
Richard Micallef
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