[1]Hello from the most vilified club in the country – possibly the world!! So what have we learned this week? Well, it seems that if one of your employees comes to you claiming that he has been racially abused, you should tell said individual to forget what he heard and just carry on as if nothing has happened for fear of upsetting those who somehow have equated this as being either hypocritical or purposely malicious.
We have also learned that certain managers and players have super-natural powers – they are able to confidently tell us what happened between Clattenburg and Mikel without even being there!! Perhaps they could furnish me with this week’s lottery numbers?
The poisonous and vitriolic troll Neil Warnock has been particularly toxic claiming that Chelsea are “trying to kill” the referee – that is really what this whole incident needs isn’t it, someone with no business making any comments bandying about inflammatory statements like that.
As far as I am concerned, the club (for once) have done exactly the right thing. Accusations have been made – they have taken those accusations seriously (as they should) and reported them through the correct channels. The club then carried out an internal investigation. Based on that investigation, they decided to formalise one of the complaints and not take the other forward. The rest will be out of their hands.
Some will question the decision to make this issue public – I too initially thought that this was an unwise course of action. However, given that the Chelsea camp leaks like a sieve and the fact that the Clattenburg camp (including the referees union) could have also put it in the public domain, it could have looked as if Chelsea were trying to hide something; so I think with hindsight it was the right thing to do.
Chelsea, just like any other employer, had no option but to report this incident and in my mind have acted properly yet are being castigated by the usual suspects for doing so. What would they have had them do? Not report it?
As far as I am concerned, I cannot believe that a referee would use such a term, but equally I cannot believe that a player would make something like that up. I’m hoping it was some innocent misunderstanding as the ramifications of anything else would be pretty serious. Sadly, I think that there are too many people in the game with too many agendas to allow this to play itself out by following due process. I just hope whatever happens it’s dealt with quickly and does not drag on for over a year as the Terry issue did. That looks unlikely now that the Society of Black Lawyers (not Chelsea) have made the complaint to the police.
So what happens if the accusations cannot be proved? It seems that should this happen all and sundry think that Chelsea should be taken to task in some way – this is just madness. When John Terry was cleared in a court of law, was anyone demanding that Anton Ferdinand be prosecuted? Common sense and even-handedness seems to have been replaced by a witch hunt mentality and hysterical car crash journalism which has created a monster which simply doesn’t exist. This needs to stop – now.
Remember the football? We had to win midweek against United, and, of course, eventually after an extraordinary game we did, but we made hard work of it and it did not make up one iota for the league game. We had a wobble at this point last season and we cannot allow the same thing this season – we have already conceded top spot and the slide needs to stop now.
I don’t want to take anything away from Swansea as their players showed desire and skill and their tactics were spot on. That said, we looked lethargic, pedestrian, and totally bereft of any organisation at the back and any responsibility in the midfield. We have been very unfortunate indeed to have both Mata and Lampard out at the same time, as if either of them had been fit, I have no doubt that we would have won down at the Liberty.
Never do you see how important John Terry is to the team as when he doesn’t play. He may have the pace of Dean Windass and the turning circle of the QE2, but the team as a whole misses his leadership qualities – whatever is going on off the pitch – on the pitch he is able to put that out of his mind completely and read the game and the opposition. His competitiveness and leadership ensures that every Chelsea player carries out their instructions, and we have been missing that in recent games.
Cech is a valued senior player, but he is no JT and I will be glad to see that Captain’s arm band back where it belongs. Terry plus anyone still seems to be our best centre half pairing despite the other players being younger, more agile and faster. Cahill has the makings of a Chelsea captain but he has a lot to learn, but he is learning under one of the best.
Liverpool is a game where form goes out the window to a certain degree – they beat us twice at about this time last season in the Premiership and the league cup and the alarm bells of AVB’s competency began to really clang in the wake of those losses.
I am one of those people (in the minority it should be said) who remains unconvinced about Di Matteo. I am of the opinion that the quality of some of our new players has masked his tactical naivety up to now – but that will be something that will be increasingly difficult to hide as the season progresses. Although it is still relatively early in the campaign, last season demonstrated that we cannot allow any sort of gap to form between us and the top four as making that up can prove impossible.
Torres continues to be a concern – many of us excused his lack of goals by pointing out his hard work for the team – that’s gone now too – he is now a shadow of his former self who you even forget is playing half the time. I won’t be surprised if he is used as some sort of make-weight for Falcao (please) when the time comes.
I am perhaps making too much of the performance against Swansea but it was quite depressing to watch and very reminiscent of some of those very frustrating games under AVB. As an aside, speaking of AVB, see how the papers are crucifying the Tottenham manager whose team currently sits 5th, yet Rodgers is apparently performing admirably in difficult circumstances while Liverpool languish in 11th.
So to prevent a wobble becoming a slump we need to beat a very good Donetsk side and a very average Liverpool – onwards and upwards.
Posted by Trizia
(You can see all of Trizia’s articles here) [2]