It seems like a trend at the moment. As Jose Mourinho nears his seemingly imminent arrival in West London, every single Chelsea player is getting asked what the return of the Special One will mean to the team. Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid formally agreed to part ways at the end of this season, which can only mean one thing: Mourinho is on his way back to Chelsea.
Chelsea are currently touring the United States as part of their post-season plans. The Blues will face Manchester City, first in St. Louis then again in New York City to wrap up their season. Currently in St. Louis, several players have commented on the reception they have received since being in the States, and what it means to them.
Ahh yes. The Beautiful Game. What makes our sport that much more exciting? When beautiful women can be found playing it! We scoured the web and decided the following five players were the hottest female soccer players in the world. Think someone should've made the list? Let us know below.
5) Heather Mitts
Our only retiree to make the list, Heather Mitts was a stalwart for the Americans for years.
A Chelsea flag is waved during the UEFA Europa League Round of 32 second leg match (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Chelsea finished the season in third place on 75 points after a 2-1 at home win against Everton thanks to goals from Fernando Torres and Juan Mata.
With a season that saw automatic Champions League qualification as well as an Europa League title in the books, the focus now moves to improving for next season and the long speculated changes that could be coming.
Gareth Bale of Tottenham (Google Creative Commons)
With the English Premier League season now over, clubs and their fans have a chance to look back and reflect: "Was this season a success? A failure? Could we have finished higher? Why?"While there will be varying opinions on such topics, what cannot be disputed is the detriment that injuries cause a team over the course of a season.
From an insurance standpoint, he's probably the last Chelsea player we'd trust behind the wheel of a buggy while zipping merrily around and among their expensively-assembled squad at Cobham, but the Brazilian jester somehow got his hands on one yesterday.
He even offered Yossi and Fernando a ride out to the pitch, though the nervous smiles on both their faces suggested the pair instantly regretted accepting a lift from a known loon.
Ko Panyi, a small fishing village in Thailand, is one of the most unique villages in the world. Built on stilts by the community itself, the village is a fisherman's paradise but provides little space for its just over 1,600 inhabitants. In 1986, a group of children on the island decided they weren't going to let the constraints of space prevent them from playing football.
Though France '98 is now fifteen years in the past, the memories and moments created from the showcase tournament still remain engrained in the minds of football fans around the world. Zinedine Zidane put his stamp (and stomp!) on history with his performances throughout the tournament as the French legend lead his nation to glory.
Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud (Google Creative Commons)
Having already wrapped up the Premier League title, Manchester United capped off a wonderful campaign with an extraordinary 5-5 draw against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. United twice led by a three-goal margin, but the home side – inspired by Romelu Lukaku's second-half hat-trick – managed to battle back each time.
José Mourinho's exit from Real Madrid has been confirmed by the club president Florentino Perez after the club officials scheduled an emergency meeting on Monday. PSG manager Carlo Ancelotti, who has been tipped by many to replace Mourinho at the Santiago Bernabeu, asked for his club to accept his transfer request.
The future of Chicharito Hernandez has been a topic of discussion this season as the Mexican international has failed to once again find consistent playing time within Sir Alex Ferguson's team. With the arrival of Robin Van Persie, Chicharito was forced to once again play second fiddle in a team that secured the Premier League title several weeks ago.
We've discussed before on SWOL how Chelsea's midfield has experienced a tactical shift from big and powerful to small and mobile in recent years. Though Frank Lampard still plays a role at the west London side, gone are the imposing figures of Michael Ballack and Michael Essien. The larger and stronger names in Chelsea's midfield have now been replaced by the likes or Ramires, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, and Oscar.
After crashing out of the group stages in the Champions League and subsequently failing to defend their title, coupled with a third place finish in the English Premier League, some Chelsea fans may look at this season as a disappointing one. The Blues did come away from the campaign with a Europa League title, earned direct berth into the UEFA Champions League and cut the point margin between third and second place Manchester City to just three points.
Fernando Torres has played down the negative perception of Chelsea, adding that the club are now striving for a Premier League title.
The Spanish striker was speaking ahead of Chelsea's games this week against Manchester City, when he told reporters, "At least since I'm here it always looks a bit worse than it is really.
The excitement is building for tonight's post-season exhibition game between Chelsea and Manchester City, which will be played in St Louis. Players from both teams have been training in the States this week, with the Europa League champions Chelsea ready to play against Manchester City, the team that has been stealing all the headlines this week after their announcement of their MLS sister club, New York City FC.
Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates the 1998-99 EPL Title (Image Via Manchester United official site)
In my weekly column on SWOL, I take a look back at the weekend's English Premier League and domestic cup action and the talking points that it throws up, as well as any significant news related to English football at large.
For the club's trip to the States (and the announcement of NYC FC), 85 Man City-themed posters designed by Luke Barclay were just put up across Manhattan and Brooklyn. A few have already been found, but the real kicker in this is that tweeting posters that are found to @KICKTV is the ticket to two seats at Yankee Stadium for Man City-Chelsea this Saturday.
The action never stops for Chelsea as at the end of the season we will be travelling to America for a double-header against Manchester City, and Chelsea TV will be bringing you LIVE coverage of both games FREE TO VIEW! • Chelsea v Manchester City - Thursday 23 May, Busch Stadium, St Louis, kick-off 7.
Guardiola v Mourinho on the horizon once more - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
The predicted lull to wash over the footballing world come the close season has altogether failed to materialise. Instead of drab, end of season reminiscing, the airwaves have been flooded with the current managerial runaround, one that threatens to trump the entire summer transfer market.
Chelsea star Juan Mata says Jose Mourinho would be welcome at the club because he is one of the best managers. Mourinho will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season and is widely expected to return to Stamford Bridge. Mata said: "Well, obviously Jose is one of the best. He won everything in [...]
Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola says former manager Jose Mourinho's expected return to the club 'should be good'. Asked about the Special One's imminent return to Stamford Bridge, he said: "Well, it looks like it. He's certainly a great manager, he knows the players, he knows the atmosphere, so... it should be good.
Jose Mourinho has been seen wearing a Chelsea shirt on the streets of London as part of a PR stunt. The Special One appeared in a Blues kit on a digital billboard in Kensington, accompanied by the hashtag slogan #The2ndComing. But the image was just a publicity ploy by the company that owned the billboard.
Last night, Jose Mourinho took a massive step towards his return "home" to Chelsea. He negotiated his exit from Real Madrid with President Perez. Perez confirmed that his exit is by "mutual consent" meaning that Mourinho will be a free agent as of 2nd June. No compensation needs to be paid for his services.
The worst kept secret in football has been officially confirmed: Jose Mourinho will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season. The Special One has been dropping hints for weeks and he is known to be short of allies at the Bernabeu, so the news that he's leaving by mutual consent comes as no [...]
There is a chance that Arsenal could make significant progress in the Premier League next season while the other top three clubs, United, City and Chelsea, get themselves together after a period of upheaval. The fact that the rewards on offer in the English game makes it even more important to have a tilt at the title next season.
Arsene Wenger has already suggested that Arsenal will have a tough time acquiring the transfer targets that the manager wants this summer. The Gunners may have a lot more money to spend in this transfer window, but that in no way guarantees that we will get the players we want.
One of the major problems this year is the competition.
The pod wraps up all of the last day action of the Premier League with a focus on the North London scrabble for a Champions League place and we wave off Sir Alex Ferguson, Jamie Carragher, Paul Scholes and Michael Owen to name a few. We even highlight the chance to own Sir Alex's final piece of gum chewed as the Manchester United manager.
Footballers' contracts usually have a long list telling them things they aren't allowed to do. We would have thought driving a cart round like this with two team-mates on board is one of the items on that list. Chelsea star David Luiz did a bit of off-roading at the club's Cobham training ground this week, [.
After his best goal return for a season in a Chelsea shirt, scoring 22 goals, the future of Fernando Torres at the club remains unclear. In light of the speculation that will build right up to the beginning of next season, I want to ask YOU the Chelsea fan reading this no matter where in the world you are, just one question:
Like father, like son. This looks uncannily like the Fernando Torres we've witnessed for much of his time at Chelsea. It's actually his son Leo, who is one-on-one with Damian Cech, the pint-sized keeper son of Petr. Let's see how he gets on... Just like dad, he looks confident striding towards goal but seems unsure [.
While retiring defender Paulo Ferreira spoke to the Stamford Bridge crowd after Chelsea's final match of the season, backup goalkeeper Ross Turnbull's two-year-old son Josh became one of the highlights of the year. Wearing his full kit, Josh dribbled a ball towards goal all by himself. He stumbled on top of the ball at one point, but continued on as the crowd urged him to shoot.
While the big news of the day is that Chelsea is free to go after a fifty year old child manager of the utmost ability, it's backup keeper Ross Turnbull's son Josh who is stealing the show. After the final match there were some festivities on the pitch. Josh didn't care. All the boy wants it to score goals.
Moving on with the end of season reviews at academy level we come to the U21's league. This is a brand new format for this year replacing the old Reserves league. This would take the same format as the U18's league, an initial group phase followed by second phase with the groups being split depending on where the club finish and then a play off scenario for the winner of the league.
Chelsea and England footballers Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Gary Cahill will miss this Saturday's exhibition game between Chelsea and Manchester City at Yankee Stadium in order to return to London to meet up with the England squad for their upcoming friendlies against Ireland and Brazil.
However, Lampard, Cole and Cahill will be available for Thursday's match in St Louis between Chelsea and Manchester City.
With all the rumour and speculation doing the rounds at the moment about potential signings at Chelsea this summer, I wanted to concentrate on the players we do have and am asking the question of Romelu Lukaku. Do you think he should be heavily involved in the Chelsea first team next season under Mourinho OR do you think he should have another season out on loan?
In today's installment of "Chelsea sprogs being diabetes-inducingly cute" which is rapidly becoming a series in its own right on Pies here's L'il Leo Torres (the fruit of Papa Fernando's loins) seeing his commanding surge into the area shut down by wee Damian Cech, who gets down and makes the kind of save his old man has built a career on.
Twitter was awash with photos of Jose Mourinho in Chelsea shirt today, after a digital billboard in west London showed the soon-to-be-departed Real Madrid boss in a familiar blue top, along with the hashtag #The2ndComing.
However, fans' excitement at the apparent imminent arrival of the Special One was soon dampened when it was revealed that the advert was nothing more than cheeky little PR stunt by digital media sales folkDaylite LED.
Roman Abramovich has long envisaged a time when Chelsea bring through homegrown talent, so you can imagine his was delighted to see Josh Turnbull, son of Blues keeper Ross, score at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The toddler picked the ball up on the edge of the box, dribbled into the area, stopped to literally pick [.
