Nevin looks for team spirit.

Remember the good old days when a couple of wins were greeted by a gleeful roar of approval as opposed to a massive communal sigh of relief?

The satisfaction at the Reebok Stadium was mixed with relief because a draw or a defeat up there would have, to put it mildly, made the league table look less than pleasing to anyone with blue tinted specs.

Valencia in eastern Spain and then Bolton in eastern Lancashire may appear as alike as sparkling wine and brown ale, but both of the single goal victories were just as highly commendable, just as important and just as potentially difficult in the circumstances.

The side had a reassuringly familiar look about it in both games, particularly when Frank Lampard finally appeared back on the scene on Sunday. That comfort of having the usual suspects available would have been a great help to everyone.

Jose Mourinho’s farewell statement

“I am very proud of my work in Chelsea Football Club and I think my decision in May 2004 to come to England was an excellent one.

“It was a beautiful and rich period of my career. I want to thank all Chelsea FC supporters for what I believe is a never ending love story.

“I wish great success to the club, a club that will be forever connected to me for some historic moments.

“I wish the players happiness in football and in their family life.

“Finally on my wife’s and children’ s behalf we thank the great professionalism of their school teachers and the beauty of so many friends.”

Drogba in tears as Jose bid farewell

From The Sun

DIDIER DROGBA is used to reducing opposition defences to quivering wrecks.

But yesterday morning it was the 6ft-plus powerhouse who broke down in tears after Jose Mourinho hugged him like a son.

The changing room at Chelsea’s Cobham training HQ is usually a hub of noise and banter on any given morning.

Drogba will often try to hog the stereo system to play his rap music while the players get changed and warm up for their daily session.

This time, though, the only sound was silence.

Mourinho had told two of his team he would drop by just after 10 o’clock and collect his belongings before going to say goodbye to ‘his family.’

Nobody was late and barely a word was said as they waited for him.

An open letter to Chelsea fans

Fri, 21st Sep 2007
The following open letter to Chelsea fans from Chelsea Football Club was exclusively revealed on Chelsea TV following the shocking departure of Jose Mourinho and the club’s announcement yesterday.

The Chelsea FC plc board and everyone at the club has appreciated your patience and understanding during what has been a difficult time.

It is only right that we explain the reasons behind José Mourinho leaving Chelsea and also recognise the immense contribution he has made to the club and to English football.

Early this morning we announced that Chelsea and José Mourinho had agreed to part company by mutual consent. The key phrase here is that there was mutual agreement. José did not resign and he was not sacked.

What is clear, though, is we had all reached a point where the relationship between the club and José had broken down. This was despite genuine attempts over several months by all parties to resolve certain differences.

The reason the decision has been taken is that we believed the breakdown started to impact on the performance of the team and recent results supported this view. We did not want this to continue or affect the club further.

Chelsea’s long-term football objectives and ambitions remain unchanged and the appointment of Avram Grant and Steve Clarke is aimed at continuing to achieve those goals.

We also must pay tribute to the great job José did for Chelsea. He has been the most successful manager the club has known and he rightly deserves that place in our history. José has been instrumental in putting Chelsea where it is today, among the leading clubs in European and world football.

He will always be welcome at Stamford Bridge, whether as the guest of Chelsea or as the manager of another club, and he will be given the reception and respect his position in our history deserves.

Chelsea Football Club

Mourinho Speaks: The best of JM quotes

“Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one” – Mourinho introduces himself to the English press after arriving from Porto in summer 2004.

“We have top players and, sorry if I’m arrogant, we have a top manager.”

“If I wanted to have an easy job…I would have stayed at Porto – beautiful blue chair, the UEFA Champions League trophy, God, and after God, me.”

It’s everybody’s Fantasy.

Even American’s. Who would have thought that the fantasy games that we play right now started in America? Bill Gamson. That’s the name. Don’t even try to google his name or all you’ll see is the name of a professor from Boston College. Nowhere will it say that he started the revolution. Of fantasy sports, that is. In Sam Walker’s Fantasyland, he called him “the Thomas Edison of a worldwide sports movement”.

The Times published a feature on this and how it all started. And no, it didn’t start with football.

It was in 1960 that Gamson, a research associate at Harvard at the time, and two friends devised an early form of fantasy baseball, an activity that now occupies some part of the attention of about 6 million adults in North America alone. It was a simple pastime, with participants bidding imaginary dollars for the services of real players, who would score for them in eight statistical areas.

The great leap forward came in 1979 when a freelance editor and writer named Dan Okrent, who had got to know about Gamson’s game, invented a more complex form, known as “roto”, short for “rotisserie” – named after a New York restaurant, La Rotisserie Francaise, where Okrent and the friends who would form the first roto league regularly met.

Scotland’s Secret Shame.

Broken nose, stiches on the face, other forms of assault, or even death. Many football fans experience that in the hands of football hooligans who would never let go of violence to display their pride and passion for the beautiful game. In England and in many other parts of the world, hooliganism was and still is serious a problem. However, moving to another part of the UK, in Scotland, violence is more than just a result of pride and passion for the game. It is rather a result of religious bigotry.

In 2005, BBC Panorama aired a documentary called Scotland’s Secret Shame, which focused on the serious problem of sectarianism surrounding the two biggest football clubs in Scotland- Celtic and Rangers. Two big clubs from one city, every match is a chance to sing offensive chants and utter derogatory terms.

Interview with Kenyon.

From ChelseaFC.com

After some years of change since Roman Abramovich arrived, we’ve had a summer of real stability. How important has it been that José Mourinho’s still our manager?

I think it’s critically important and I think it comes off a season of lots of speculation which didn’t help and I think we got to a stage where nobody thought that José would be here apart from the people inside the club so it’s important from that point of view. But you know, I think what he’s been doing over the past three full years, building a foundation to take the club onward and upwards and I think that was the job day one, and its continued so I think this season is the combination of not just this closed season but what’s been put in place over the last three years.