Duff on stuff

He’s a notoriously reluctant interviewee, but when he does open up, Damien Duff is firm and frank. He spoke to Liam Mackey ahead of tomorrow’s capital confrontation with Arsenal on Chelsea, Ireland, the Champions League and George Best.

WITH Christmas fast approaching, it seems like an appropriate question: what do you give the footballer who has everything?

At Chelsea's expansive training ground in Cobham, the sight of flash cars getting the full wash and wax service lets you know that you're in the land of the Premiership elite, as does the on-going construction work on a new state-of-the-art clubhouse which, with its plans for a curved, grass-covered roof and surrounding moat, will double as something of an architectural wonder to blend in with the leafy Surrey countryside.