Last week Arsene Wenger was quick to squash any hope Alex Song may have had of returning to Arsenal. Song has failed to establish himself in Barcelona's star studded midfield and was hoping that a return to the Emirates might be his solution to a lack of game time at the Spanish giants.
I appreciate that to many Arsenal fans of a younger vintage, or perhaps converted to the cause
by the success and high profile brought to the club by Arsène Wenger, might not remember or even
know that once upon a time we had a forward called Nic Anelka.
the dust has settled somewhat following Sunday's drama, and if anything illustrates how quiet
things have gone from the club's point of view, it's that one of the main stories on the official
website is the news that Luis Boa Morte is joining South African side Orlando Pirates of the
Caribbean.
Scared off but the wage demands of Didier Drogba, Juventus have gone with a cheaper former Chelsea striker, signing Nicolas Anelka on loan from Shanghai Shenhua for the rest of the season. Anelka is reported to be getting paid €600,000 for five months, plus performance-related bonuses and an option to extend for another year.
Former Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka is eyeing a return to the Premier League after struggling to settle in China, with his preferred choice of transfer being Liverpool, according to The Sun. The 33-year-old moved to Shanghai Shenhua in January 2012, where he was briefly named player-manager following the sacking of Jean Tigana.
All good things have to come to an end eventually and the long shot that was Shanghai Shenhua belatedly saving their season and qualifying for the Asian Champions League is now off the table after the team was humiliated 4-2 by the high-flying Guizhou Renhe on Sunday.
It occurred to me the other day that Robin van Persie must be one of the best pieces of business Arsene Wenger ever made for Arsenal, just on goals alone. When I thought about it further, I wondered where he would rank among the top strikers over the last 20 years or so, in terms of the cost of each goal scored; there can't be many strikers who score 100 goals or more for a club that come cheap.
31.07.2012 - El Shanghai Shenhua dirigido por Sergio Batista carretea sin levantar vuelo en
China. Con 6 puntos cosechados de los últimos 15 en juego se mantiene a 3 puntos de puestos de
descenso y esta vez, por la 19º jornada de la Super Liga, rescató un empate en su visita al
puntero Guangzhou Evergrande (de Darío Conca, Lucas Barrios y Marcelo Lippi) remontando (2 veces)
el resultado.
Keeping with our recent tradition of doing really random posts in the off-season, we must now
naturally move on to pre-season friendlies. Pre-season friendlies are a time of joy for the
marketing heads of football clubs, assorted brands and Chinese-names-on-tshirt-writers. The global
tours of English clubs this summer have practically reached the opposite ends of the world,
everyone apparently glad to avoid the traffic back home during the Olympics.
Apparently, there's some small sporting event kicking off in London (we've sent our top
reporters T.Cleverly and R.Giggs to check this out), but on the other side of the world, United are
in pre-season. Already having thrashed Amazulu 1-0 with Kiko Macheda's goal, and a 1-1 affair with
Ajax Cape Town, this match notched the level into serious.
Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa scores his first goal for the club since his Summer move from
Germany, while also picking up the Man of the Match award as United beat Shanghai Shenhua minus
Anelka and Drogba in United's pre-season tour of Asia.
I have to say all these rumours linking Chelsea with a whole host of players is taking me back to
the beginning of the 2003/4 season when Roman Abramovich first came into the club and started his
revolution.
In winning the Champions League as we know, Roman Abramovich told the players in the changing room
afterwards that this was "only the beginning" and so far this summer, all the signs are there that
Roman now wants Chelsea to take the next step.
Fresh from scoring his 100th Premier League goal for Chelsea against Stoke at the weekend, there is
yet more speculation about Didier in the press. Why is it when players leave the club, they just
can't help themselves but to start rumours and speculation when if they say these people are
"friends" they should just let them concentrate on the rest of the season!
The Andre Villas-Boas era at Chelsea is over after he sacked today. Chelsea also announced
assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo would take charge of the team until the end of the season.
Chelsea said in a statement on their official website, www.chelseafc.com:
"Andre Villas-Boas has parted company with Chelsea Football Club today.
The Andre Villas-Boas era at Chelsea is over after he sacked today. Chelsea also announced
assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo would take charge of the team until the end of the season.
Chelsea said in a statement on their official website, www.chelseafc.com:
"Andre Villas-Boas has parted company with Chelsea Football Club today.
Nicolas Anelka has been outspoken since he left Chelsea hasn't he. We hardly heard a peep out of
him during his time here but since he left he has taken the opportunity to "comment" on how he
left the club and now his attention has turned to "his pal" Didier Drogba.
Anelka speaking after being introduced to the Chinese media and press has apparently let slip the
fact that it looks more or less certain that this will be Didier Drogba's final swansong at Chelsea
this season.
After my piece in defence of Aaron Ramsey on Sunday, it seemed only fitting that whoscored.com
would publish this piece today, which looks at the Premier League's most creative players since
2007.
It divides the number of minutes played by the chances that a player created from open play,
producing a mixture of expected and surprising results.
Ducky's Note: Rathna Prashanth looks at a novel way to solve Torres'
striking problem. By getting rid of Drogba!
Legend, proven goal scorer, leader on the pitch- these are some of the terms that describe the
powerful Ivorian Drogba, aka the Top Dog of the Bridge. At 150 goals and still counting, not only
has he been an amazing goalscorer for Chelsea, he has also been a tremendous athlete.
The full time whistle had barely sounded when Shanghai Shenhua's goalkeeper, Wang Dalei turned
to the home fans behind him with a face of unchecked elation. Overwhelmed with relief, stalward Yu
Tao fell to the ground and remained there for several minutes.
The arrival of Weder Bremen's Marko Marin at Stamford Bridge could spell doom on the careers of
some of the club's seasoned players. Florent Malouda who has had one of his worst season's as a
Chelsea players is now unsure of his stay at West London.
With 2 goals and 37 appearances for the Blues this season, it is easy to see why the 31 year old
is a worried man.
I wondered being honest, how long it would take until we heard from either Nico Anelka or Alex
after their departures from Chelsea back in last month's transfer window and it hasn't taken
long.
The Sun over here in the UK leads with an interview Anelka has given about the end of his Chelsea
career and claims he was left to rot with the reserves.
To anyone who follows the beautiful game, Anelka's move to Chinese Super League club Shanghai
Shenhua did not make sense. What is even more interesting is Anelka's recent revelation that he
snubbed PSG and a chance to re-unite with former coach Carlo Ancelotti for a little known Chinnese
team.
OK people, time to get back to the reality of the Premier League and the situation we find
ourselves in, chasing for fourth place.
This Sunday, Chelsea take on QPR at Stamford Bridge and will be looking for a massive three points
to keep the pressure on Tottenham and Newcastle above us with Newcastle coming to the Bridge next
Wednesday.
Well after signing Gary Cahill, it hasn't taken Chelsea long to get their business done before the
game tonight as the Belgian side have announced that we have signed Belgian International Kevin De
Bruyne on a five and a half year deal for a reported £7m. DeBruyne will remain with Genk on loan
until the end of the season.
Nico Anelka, speaking ahead of his "new adventure" in China has taken the time out to release a
statement thanking the Chelsea fans for their support in "four wonderful years" at the club. The
statement in full says:
"I want to thank you all for the support you have always provided.
Events in Shanghai have taken a dramatic turn in the last week and suddenly a season of promise
is teetering on the edge of complete chaos following a dressing room mutiny that ousted Joan Tigana
from the Shenhua bench and put in its place, the team's star player, Nicolas Anelka.
With the Chinese Super League (CSL) now in full swing, Shanghai Shenhua, having spent an
offseason gleefully cranking up expectations, are now being forced to finally back up their big
talk - and so far it is not going well.
It's headlines like this we wake up to this morning with The Sun claiming from their so
called "Chelsea source" that there is player unrest and AVB has lost the dressing room.
The basis of this information has come about because apparently Nico Anelka was banned from the
club's Xmas do by AVB so the players organised a separate one and didn't tell AVB for Anelka.
Our friends at 3NIL are back, and this time they're paying homage to two of the world's most
famous football academies, or schools, in the world. Without further ado, here are ‘La Masia' and
‘Clairefontaine'.
Rafael Benitez's agent has reiterated his desire to return to work in England but stressed there
had been no contact from Chelsea.
There have been several reports today that Chelsea had approached Benitez with a view to him
replacing Andre Villas-Boas at Stamford Bridge. But Manuel Garcia Quilon told journalists that
Chelsea had not been in touch.
When Wenger first came to England, the other title contenders had more or less sewn up the
scouting network on the British Isles, the next George Best or Denis Law was going to be snapped up
by United or Liverpool.
He had his connections in France and other parts of the continent... he stole a massive march on
Fergie and Co by signing the likes of Anelka and Fabregras whilst the rest were scouting on a cold
evening at Turf Moor.
