Chelsea Terrace Talk – Irish Examiner Article By Trizia
I DO not believe for a moment that there was anything sinister about our game against United being called off on Sunday.
Why would Carlo want such a thing? Lampard was back, Drogba is over his malaria and the performance against Tottenham was the perfect build up to what promised to be the most important game of the season.
It seems that, for once, thought was given to those travelling to the game and that can’t be a bad thing. I live barely six miles from the ground; the roads around me were at a standstill and littered with abandoned vehicles; the trains were decimated. So all in all, as disappointed as I was, it’s not the end of the world.
For one brief moment we were linked with Carlos Tevez, and what a delight it is that he has somehow been able to overcome his longing to be back in Argentina and bouncing his children around on his knees and pledged his loyalty to Manchester City. Money can’t have had anything to do with setting aside his paternal devotion, can it? Surely not, after the example of Wayne Rooney reverberating around Manchester.
Tevez is an unquestionable talent but with Chelsea on an austerity drive which has damaged the first half of the season would they have even considered his financial demands anyway? Other Chelsea players would have been demanding parity and the chemistry between a player who has gone out of his way to publicly goad John Terry on the pitch since Bridgegate and the rest of the Blues would have been interesting. In addition it was Tevez who started the brawl which led to Drogba being sent off in the Champions League Final in Moscow. So there would have been plenty of legacy to deal with. All in all, a bullet dodged I think. As was Robinho.
I have recently discovered Twitter and I have to say it’s a bit of a revelation. Not only can you debate any number of issues that interest you with your chosen circle but you can “follow” individuals who normally you would have limited or no access to whatsoever.
Rio Ferdinand is a prolific “tweeter” and, I have to say, someone who I “unfollowed” very quickly — it’s a wonder he has any time to train at all judging by his number of tweets. Although I accept that one doesn’t expect prose of a Shakespearean level, Ferds could quite easily be confused with a 13- year-old with a very tenuous grasp of the English language. His tweets also demonstrate why he sticks mainly to often repeated clichés in his post match interviews.
Robbie Savage, on the other hand, is hugely entertaining, but his obsessive tweeting gives you the most detailed view into the life of a footballer today, confirming what we all know: loads of time on their hands, loadsamoney to buy expensive toys, and an inflated sense of their own worth.
Through Twitter I now know what Savage’s house looks like (inside and out), how he enjoys singing and dancing and then uploading the videos of himself, and how, when bored, he films himself doing impressions and invites us all to guess who he’s doing (his Louie Spence is particularly poor).
Rooney too seems to spend an inordinate amount of time tweeting — but then I’m sure new Hello magazine cover girl Coleen wholeheartedly approves of this “vice” rather than the other extra-curricular activities which he has been accused of lately.
Of course, I have questioned my own voyeuristic tendencies, but there is something very addictive about being able to “speak” to a famous person and have access into their day-to-day goings on. Surprisingly, despite the money, and the toys and glamour they seem to be on the whole, well, bored really. And a bit lonely. Either that, or they employ someone exclusively to tweet for them all day every day (badly)— and that’s about as close to a definition of being super sad as you will find in 2010.
Anyway, back to the football. The United game may not be played for a couple of months given match congestion already building up. This could make it very important indeed when it finally does come along. I imagine by then we will have determined whether the blip we suffered has actually done for us or not as far as the title is concerned.
Obviously the Bolton and Arsenal games will have a significant say in that matter too, but with odd results all over the place in the league so far, nothing will be decided in the next couple of weeks no matter who is top of the league at Christmas this year.
It just remains for me to congratulate Arsenal on the stunning success of their cunning plan to meet Barcelona in the Champions League Round of 16 and wish you all a very merry Christmas.
Come on Chelsea!