Let's hope it's not the long covid that buried kai for so long. Fully expect him to be back at it in no time but it opens the door for more minutes for ziyech and CHO at a time when competition is increasing with rom taking on the striker role full time.
On his social media he shared that he’s vaccinated and asymptotic. Hopefully it remains that way and he just trains away from the team for the required isolation.
Draw is imminent. Pot 2 looks stronger than pot 1! Nightmare draw for us would be psg and milan with a take your pick from pot 3. Pot one: Chelsea, Villarreal, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Lille, Sporting Lisbon. Pot two: PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester United, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund Pot three: Porto, Ajax, Atalanta, RB Leipzig, Zenit St Petersburg, Benfica, Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg Pot four: AC Milan, Wolfsburg, Club Bruges, Malmo, Besiktas, Young Boys, Dynamo Kiev, Sheriff Tiraspol.
Ivanovic doing the draw looks like someone just ran over his puppy before going on stage. Chelsea into group H. Join us over the next 5 hours as we find out who joins us there...... Update 1: Essien now on stage putting pot 2 teams into groups. He looks happier to be there. The audience on the other hand, do not. Update 2: PSG grouped with City. Which means Messi v Ronaldo (or not!!!l Update 3: Our first opponent is Juventus. Not unhappy with that. Update 4: Mendy and Kante win their positional awards as players of the year. Well done lads, well deserved. Update 5: Zenit the 3rd team in group H. Very tidy so far though a bit of travel to factor in. Update 6: Candidate for group of death is atletico, liverpool, porto and milan. Oof. Update 7: The final opponent joining chelsea, juve and zenit is malmo! Nice draw. Shouldn't present any real issues to qualify. Update 8: Tuchel picks up coach of the year. The only choice. POTY next to wrap things up. Update 9: Jorginho wins mens award beating kante and (the fake) kdb. Good day for the lads all around.
Barcelona get a clean sweep of the Women's awards no surprise there. So. Jorginho is not the best midfielder, but beats the best midfielder to the best player award just because he is in teams that won cups
its a good draw. a loss and draw against juve is acceptable at worst. 2 wins apiece against the other two.
You'll know better than me but this our first meeting with zenit, right? I know we played malmo in the europa league a couple of years back. Expect to see some callbacks to the late 70s when they were runners up. Back then qualification was much harder but the standard of competition significantly weaker than it is today.
Pretty sure this is first. We played Dimamo Kiev, Spartak, Shahtar, Krasnodar, Kazan, and I think CSKA. Well, and Dinamo Moscow in 1945.
https://www.goal.com/en/news/chelse...ell-has-yet-to-play/2n2i5zpr5fm31grblhmu86loz For those of us wondering about chilwell. Looks like he isnt being tammy abrahamed and fingers crossed will see him soon after the break (during which he will not be in the england squad). Alonso is great at LB but chilwell is a more rounded option. Maybe not as much going forward (with a run I think he becomes as potent a threat) but much more defensively. Given some of the players yet to get major minutes, we should get stronger in the coming weeks. The rotation of players is going to be very important.
Good (and expected) news about the World Club Cup - Japan pulled out as hosts. I'm expecting the middle east will be the new location which would be much better for our squad in terms of travel. (Now watch them put it even further away....) https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/58505463
Final PL squad announced. Barkley and Baker in there to fulfill homegrown. But you never know who you might need during a season.
Same thing happened last year when we switched to a 3 back both under Lamps and Tuchel. They went with Alonso for a run of games before Chilly took back the spot as the lock starter.
https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2...ter_UK&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter So Silva could get suspended for not traveling…by whom. PL or FIFA? Given the circumstances, this is beyond ridiculous.
They can’t force anyone to play for the national team. Players turn down invites for various reasons. Would be shocked if he was suspended. Especially as a qualifier was abandoned cause players didn’t quarantine.
Silva didnt turn anyone down, he wanted to play. It was the club that denied permission and that's why it's a 'thing'. Theres a balance between national FAs and the clubs who pay the players and that's the dynamic here. Brazil FA pushed for and got fifa to suspend the player, not because they are unhappy with silva but because they want to send a message that clubs must release players. The premier league made the call I believe but seems clubs had power to override (as sp*rs release their argentinean duo). The fact they monumentally effed things up and silva couldnt have played for them anyway unfortunately doesnt seem to have factored. If I were the clubs I'd counterclaim against the ineptitude of the Brazilian FA in this particular case. Fifa will almost always back the countries though as it relates to their golden goose, the world cup.
I thought he denied and then came out and said it was the club that had him deny. Semantics but important semantics. Yea FIFA can suspend him for qualifiers but idk if they can step in and force the PL to do anything. I also don’t think they want to start a war here either cause there will be ramifications and nobody will win cleanly.
Common sense prevails as it looks like brazil have dropped the ban request. Given how badly they handled everything it's for the best for everyone.
The whole thing is bananas. What authority does FIFA have over clubs? Clubs have a financial stake here, why is that invalid? I feel like NBA clubs discourage participation all the time and I’ve never heard of FIBA saying boo.
FIBA have far less power than the NBA, only one winner there. FIFA vs associations is a different situation completely as the world cup is still the pinnacle event and fifa own that. The whole thing is a balance and the rules are presumably there to ensure clubs dont abuse the situation by withholding players (which they would do far more often if there wasnt some sort of system in place). FWIW, this is the rule that brazil invoked. "A player who has been called up by his association for one of its representative teams is, unless otherwise agreed by the relevant association, not entitled to play for the club with which he is registered during the period for which he has been released or should have been released pursuant to the provisions of this annexe, plus an additional period of five days." The ridiculous thing here isnt the rule it's that brazil activated it after they were incompetent in how they went about things. Fact is even if the ban had stood we still would have silva back before the spud duo are free to return. Laughable. And I expect fifa were part of the reason brazil dropped it as even they saw it as a nonsense.
Nice tribute to the late, extremely great, Sean Lock in the chelsea programme this weekend. If you dont know who he is, you have sorely missed out on one of the funniest and most genuine comedians.