20 yr-old Houston born Jonathan Welsh accepts "invite" to play with Chelsea. http://www.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=130423&cpid=218&title=Welsh+heads+back+to+the+Bridge"/> i know he was on the BS radar for a bit, especially due to the reporting of Bergin, but i didn't expect this... let's cross our fingers. and can somebody define what an "invite" is with respect to whether this is an opportunity just to train or is it an actual trial?
Can one of you who is wiser in the ways of English Football tell me something about Chelsea? I remember a thread from a long time ago talking about how they felt someone at Chelsea was fairly anti-american (owner perhaps). It went on to imply that we won't be seeing Americans at Chelsa anytime soon. My knowledge of the Premership is pretty limited, so it could of just been idle speculation. Eitherway, it is nice to see an American linked with a club that has previously not really been linked with any Americans.
If I remember correctly, what happened is that Ken Bates, the Chelsea Chairman, when complaining about the terrible performance of his Chelsea Village project, tried to lay the blame at the feet of Americans afraid to travel after 9/11.
The club that actually made him an offer (Sabadell) is in the third tier of the Spanish soccer hierarchy. However, that's not as impressive as it sounds. There are 80 different clubs at that level.
I certainly don't recall any such statement. I think you should be a little careful with crap like that.
Yep. Ken Bates it is. I like the idea of Americans anywhere in English football. However, after reading his comment from last year I am not too excited by any Americans playing for a team controlled by that wanker. http://www.soccernet.com/england/news/2001/1201/20011201cfcbates.html
No he didn't. He made the statement in the article. In any event he doesn't speak for Chelsea supporters or players - as evidenced by the fact that he accused some of his players of the same thing when they wouldn't go to Israel a couple of years ago. He is, frankly, a bit of a tosser. On a related subject can anyone tell me any more than the article about this lad Welsh.
If you want another reason to hate Chelsea, I believe you can search and find a report of a few of their players drunk in an airport on September 12th of 2001 or so and showing some disrespect to Americans stuck in the airports.