Soccer diving as an Olympic sport? Anyone on the list below could win the gold.

Germany's Jurgen Klinsmann, now head coach of the USA national team was condemned as an uber-flopper in his playing days. He conned the referee in the 1990 World Cup Final by spinning airborne then hitting the ground like a man who had just been subjected to an electric shock.

Money can bring you a lot of things power, influence,football clubs. But while cash alone can acquire you the assets, a human touchis needed to ensure things head in the right direction.
Sadly for Chelsea fans Roman Abramovich's trigger finger isonce again demonstrating the fragile nature of his tenure at the club.

Well well well, I thought it might happen after reading AVB's full interview comments that have been heavily featured in the press this week. Now it's normally our foreign players who end up being quoted saying something about the club when they are away with their national teams but in this case it's our manager.

"I don't agree [that I need help.] I don't solve problems on my own; I solve problems with my group of people and my group of players.
Says Andre Villas-Boas, who apparently is already under pressure in his role as Chelsea manager.
True, they face a fight to stay in the Champions League and the premier league odds have drifted to 14/1, but it is still a ludicrous suggestion, but one that is symptomatic of the Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge.

With the Champions League starting again tomorrow night and Michael Ballack making an "emotional" return to Stamford Bridge, I thought I would re post an article I wrote back when the day it was confirmed that Ballack was leaving us was announced (so remember all of the below is back then).
Ballack spoke about tomorrow and said:

"I was very happy.

Fernando Torres is not the new Andrei Shevchenko says Chelsea captain John Terry

Little evidence in pre-season that Chelsea is getting an adequate return for the £50m Fernando Torres.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2011-07-26 21:18:58 from: The Telegraph

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

And now it's statistical The debates over the worst Premier League signings are as old as the league itself. One of the reasons that it has been difficult to gauge is that obviously the cost of players has increased from 1992 to today. However, in their book "Pay as you play" Paul Tomkins, Graeme Riley [.

Carlo Ancelotti has said that he expects Fernando Torres to come good within a few matches. For anybody who saw the match against Fulham, it was a glimpse of the best of Fernando Torres that Chelsea paid £50 million for. Yes, he did not score any goals and in fact, he missed a few sitters . However, his performance came against Fulham in a very tight match.

Michael Cox is the editor of the award-winning tactics site Zonal Marking. He also does regular chalkboard analysis for the Guardian and appears on their Football Weekly podcast. But then, you probably knew all that. So let's just hear about Michael's favourite goal ...

First, let me acknowledge that this is a strange choice of goal.

The recession is finally over! Or so it must be if you consider the record £225million spent this January by English clubs, compared to the measly £30million spent last January.

The excitement of transfer deadline day seems to send the footballing world crazy. Inflated prices are now part and parcel of transfer windows, as clubs scramble around to get the paper work sorted so that last minute deal can go through.

Top of the flops 1. Massimo Maccarone to Middlesbrough for £8.15m (2002) A Teeside transfer record at the time, 18 goals in four years was by no means a rewarding return for chairman Steve Gibson. Massimo did manage some payback a few years on as he will be remembered largely for the brace he bagged [.