Ronaldinho would bring problems to Blues’ party

I’M usually bored out of my head on international breaks, but this was no ordinary weekend and we were reminded of what a fantastic game football really is; how it can affect the mood of an individual or indeed an entire nation.

The Israel-Russia game must have had the biggest viewing figures of any international game in England not involving the team, bar perhaps the World Cup final.

The Chelsea England boys played their part in ensuring an Israeli win. Ben Haim had not only been promised a holiday by Joe Cole, but had received a phone call from the England captain wishing him luck and no doubt warning him of the consequences of failure which would be carried out at Cobham. I suspect Ben Sahar received similar instructions.

The Israeli result also managed to smash the various Abramovich conspiracy theories to bits. All I would like to see now is safe passage for England into the European finals guaranteed by a Frank Lampard goal tonight — that should shut the morons up. I imagine if England do qualify it will be reported as Gerrard’s heroics and if they don’t it will be Lampard’s fault.

I think we all know that big signings will happen in the summer, but one rumour that doesn’t seem to be going away concerns Nicolas Anelka.

Anelka is a good player and a great goal-scorer — that’s not where the issues are. He is an individual that seems to cause discord wherever he goes, and that is certainly not something we need with the last three months we have just had.

At the same time we do need someone that can score goals, has played in the Premiership and can hit the ground running. And Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Hughes weren’t everyone’s cup of tea before they pitched up at Stamford Bridge. Now they’re both much loved.

Could Anelka play with Ronaldinho though — that’s the question? Despite the denials, this rumour continues to grow legs. He is exactly the kind of player our owner would love to have at Chelsea. We are one of a very few clubs that could afford him; his disco dancing late night antics seem to have upset his current club and of course we have Ten Cate here who worked with him for a number of years. I am less than enamoured with the prospect of him joining though.

Ronaldinho is veering towards the end of his career and I’m not sure he would really fit into our style of play which I would be opposed to changing to accommodate him — that would lead to chaos and we already have our share of misfits.

Also, London’s nightlife is pretty hectic to say the least, so who is to say his excessive lifestyle would not continue?

The other rumour that won’t go away is that involving the Croatian Luka Modric. He is described as a “playmaker” who prefers to operate in the middle. Could we be preparing for Lampard’s departure? Ballack who is fast reaching fitness could take over Lampard’s traditional role and the Croatian will do all the fancy stuff to feed the Brazilian mullet man?

We are also going through our annual centre-back crisis. Although we are not in such dire straits as previous seasons, to lose JT and now Carvalho will have a significant affect on our results until they are both fully fit. Ben Haim, although looking competent against Russia, has not really impressed since joining us, but would probably have been acceptable as a decent enough squad player. Our current situation means that not only is he playing for the majority of games, but means he is alongside Alex rather than one of our experienced players.

Alex looks very promising and has played relatively well, but is by no means the finished article in Premier League terms. What with Cech injured too, I am getting an uncanny feeling of deja vu — I suppose we can’t complain too much as in our back-to-back winning seasons we were very lucky indeed with injuries. Indeed, even Damien Duff had the longest injury free period of his career with us at the time. I just hope that we come out unscathed from this latest round of internationals as I don’t think the squad can take anymore hits.

The Premier League’s whipping boys this weekend, Derby, are in a desperate situation and despite the aforementioned injuries we should have no problem with this match — there can be no excuses not to come away without three points from here. And without playing that famous “attractive football.”