England fans show true colours

I HATE international breaks — I miss going to see the Blues, the pundits bore the pants off anyone remotely interested in football with the Lampard/Gerrard ‘dilemma’, and inevitably the England ‘support’ do something to sink even lower in my estimation. This last weekend was no exception.

The aforementioned ‘fans’ love a scapegoat, and — excuse the paranoia — but that goes double if that scapegoat happens to play for Chelsea. So the boo boys have done with Lampard for now, and have turned their attention to Ashley Cole, just because he had a lapse in concentration. Why stop at booing? Fifty lashes at least I say.

The interesting thing about this whole episode is that almost without exception, the media has condemned the boo-boys targeting Cole, which is great, yet where was the condemnation of those that put Lampard through the same, game after game after game —– never mind how well he played?

I see Septic Bladder has been gobbing again and, as usual, the target of his latest witterings is the English league. He and Platini, are moaning that the influx of the various billionaires into the Premier League is bad for the game. Although we can all see potential issues with what is happening, what seems to have upset Bladder is that it has now made the English league the most powerful in the world in terms of the transfer market. Having finally got their head round the fact that Roman does not look like getting bored with football any time soon, the papers have come up with a new bogeyman to try and scare Chelsea fans with. If you believe these prophets of doom, Abramovich is on the bread line and will need to sell players to recoup his losses from the credit crunch.

Alrighty then. Now if we believe these geniuses, the loss is around the £12bn (€15.3bn) mark. Lets pretend that this isn’t just a theoretical figure based on the value of certain shares when they were at their peak and their value now, should he sell them; and let’s also try and forget the fact that he bought them for not much more than they are worth now so the loss (should he sell) would be negligible anyway.

But for arguments sake, let’s go along with the presumption that he has lost that amount. Who exactly do they suggest Chelsea sell to recoup that money? Roman could put up his partner’s complete Francis Bacon collection, Stamford Bridge, the team and Chelsea FC in its entirety and throw in a couple of his spare yachts and it still would struggle to make a dent in one billion never mind 12.

Needless to say, I shan’t be losing sleep over this latest attempt at undermining my club. Many don’t seem to understand what floated the Abramovich boat right from the off. He’s in it for the sport, for the profile, for the love of the game, for the need to be successful. While a top football team gives you plenty of liquidity (all that turnstile and TV money and the replica shirts) owners also need to be prepared to dip into their pockets often. Although the money in football is unimaginable generally, the owners do not see that much of a financial return on the level of the investment While money can get you along the way to success, it needs more than that at European club level. That is where the likes of Mourinho, Ferguson and Wenger come in. All of them different, all of them serious football men.

And my bet is that we will be adding Scolari to that European club roll of honour this season

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