Wily Reid happy to tough it at Turf Moor

WHEN the Chelsea team bus snakes its way past the rows of terraced housing surrounding Turf Moor, Jose Mourinho and his players will be left in no doubt they are a long, long way from the stucco-fronted piles that surround Stamford Bridge.

The welcome afforded them inside Burnley’s compact stadium will be equally forbidding. A Monday night in East Lancashire is a hard sell, and for Diego Costa and Filipe Luis — Chelsea’s Brazilian-born newcomers — the culture clash will be profound. For Steven Reid, though, it will feel like home.

The midfielder is back in the area, just down the road from Blackburn’s Ewood Park where Reid spent seven successful seasons, after mixed four years at West Bromwich Albion. After narrowly avoiding relegation last May, the player has signed up for what he knows will be another relegation fight, without a scrap of regret.