£900 million doesn’t always get you what you really need…
SO it turns out, you can spend £900 million on players and still not have enough talent to beat Arsenal. And if just two of those players get injured – Drogba and Terry – it just isn’t fair any more.
I mean how can a club like Chelsea be expected to find the money to buy back-up?
Dear, oh dear – how they whined after losing to Arsenal on Sunday.
That Fabregas is a diver, they moaned, referring to an incident in injury time when Chelsea were already well beaten and bad sport Ashley Cole was trying to knock his lights out.
That Eboue is a thug, they moaned, forgetting that former England captain John Terry had spent half around desperately clattering into people.
Truth is, behind all of Chelsea’s bad-sportsmanlike excuses for the defeat their loss was rooted in their uncontrollable arrogance and greed (aside from the fact that none of big-boned Frank Lampard’s deflected shots went in).
Look at the facts. There was no need for Chelsea to chase Ashley Cole when they already had Wayne Bridge.
And as it turned out, Arsenal didn’t need him either – Gael Clichy has more than filled his boots and now looks a better player than Cole.
Worse still for Chelsea. While neither side needed Cole – both clubs, it seems, need William Gallas, the new inspiration in the Arsenal ranks.
He was the difference on Sunday and Chelsea, so lacking in any class or pride, gave their best player away in a swap deal for a man unable to do much more than flick a v-sign.
Chelsea blamed injuries and bad luck.
They should have blamed themselves
A CHRISTMAS message to Jermain Defoe:
Dear Jermain,
It has been some time since you were given a run-out in the first team, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your services to the club and implore you to ignore the fact you are no doubt at the top of half the Premiership managers’ Christmas wish list.
I felt for you at Manchester City – the ref should never have sent off Didier, and it was a shame you had to be sacrificed for the good of the side as you were the best player on the pitch.
But the team is what matters, and if we are going to challenge on four fronts this term – I haven’t given up the hope of sneaking into the top six – then we are going to need you.
Forget the signing of Darren Bent – my theory is he was purchased as the board thought they were going to lose Berbs in the summer and panicked a bit. And it is unfortunate that neither you nor Robbie are strong in the air. But every time you take to the pitch I can’t help thinking of Jimmy Greaves or Gary Lineker – and that if you stay patient, you’ll get a run in the team and prove to be the goal-scoring machine we all know you are.
I recall with happiness the time you skipped past three Gooners at the Lane and nailed that pile-driver into the top right hand corner. More of the same, please, starting on Saturday. If you could also stay on your feet a tad longer and not keep getting caught off-side, then that would be good, too.
Anyway, Merry Christmas Jermain. Don’t slip out of the window come January.
