John Terry will be undergoing an operation today as a result of a depressed fracture on his cheek bone following a challenge from Fulham’s Clint Dempsey.
His availability for the Champions League match this week against Valencia will be assessed after the operation.
Manchester United manager claims it is rubbish to count the London club out of the League race this season after 3 consecutive failures to victory or score a goal in their league matches. The club has only managed to pick up a point following a defeat to Aston Villa and Manchester United, and a draw against Blackburn Rovers, leaving them 5 points behind current leaders Arsenal.
Fergie said: “I don’t think you can dismiss Chelsea,” he said. “How could you with the players they have got?
“They played a strong team at Hull on Wednesday, probably because Avram Grant was keen to get a win under his belt.
“They got a good result and that will help him no end.
“You cannot exclude from the top four. As I said at the start of the season, one of those four will win it.”
A former Portugal prime minister walked out of a TV interview after he was interrupted by a reported to show Jose Mourinho’s arrival in his home country.
“Do you think this justifies [the interruption]?,” former Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes asked the television presenter.
“This country is going crazy. With all due respect, I am not going ahead with the interview. People have to learn.” said Lopes.
The Portuguese manager said that he is not looking at managing a small home team even for short-term. Rather he wants to go back to managing a big European club or one that aspires to be big.
Post-Man Utd defeat last Sunday, Chelsea have been charged by The FA on two counts.
The FA statement read: “Chelsea have been charged with failing to control their players during their match against Manchester United on 23 September.
“This charge relates to the conduct of Chelsea players towards referee Mike Dean following the sending-off of John Obi Mikel.
“Clarke has been charged with using abusive and/or insulting words towards the match officials after the end of the match at Old Trafford.”
Chelsea responded by saying: “Chelsea Football Club will be strongly defending the two charges issued by the Football Association and will be considering that defence until we have to respond on October 12.”
On the other hand, captain John Terry escaped being charged after he attempted to take away the red card from Dean as he raised it.
That came after The FA rejected the club’s appeal to withdraw the charges against John Obi Mikel for allegedly doing foul play on Patrice Evra during the first half of Chelsea’s match against Manchester United last Sunday, in which they lost 2-0 courtesy of Carlos Tevez and a Saha penalty.
The FA said in a statement: “At a regulatory commission hearing, a claim for wrongful dismissal from Chelsea’s Mikel John Obi was rejected.
“Mikel was shown a red card for serious foul play during the match at Old Trafford on 23 September.
“As a result, Mikel will serve a three-match suspension with immediate effect.”
New manager Grant said about the charge: “It was the wrong decision and it changed the game.”
The current Russia national team coach claims he was offered by Roman Abramovich the position just after it was reported that Avram Grant was to take Mourinho’s place permanently.
“Abramovich asked me ‘What do you want?’,” he said.
“I told him that right now I want to do nothing else except concentrate on Russia.
“I want to see this through now and then see what happens.”
Possibility lies in that if Russia face an early exit in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Having said that, it might still be difficult to convince the manager to move to Stamford Bridge.
“We like living in Moscow and they seem to like us.
“We have started a project here with this team and they want us to stay for another two years after the European Championships.”
That is despite the fact that he doesn’t hold a Pro License, which is an issue currently being discussed by the Premier League.
“We are awaiting the outcome of the discussions between Chelsea, the Israeli Football Association and the English Premier League,” said a UEFA spokesman.
“But we have no intention of banning him from the touchline or taking any other such disciplinary measure.”
There would only be consideration of Grant’s case if they receive a complain from the Premier League regarding lack of qualifications.
Friday afternoon, the first press conference with Avram Grant as the new manager was held. Along with him were Bruce Buck and Peter Kenyon. Buck opened the conference by saying,
“It won’t come as a surprise that it has been an eventful few days at Chelsea.
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Sept. 19, 2007
