Posts Tagged ‘Richard French’

Ray Wilkins CFC History & Tribute – Thanks For Your Loyalty and Service You Will be Missed

When I interviewed Ray Wilkins two years ago, I found him an interesting, intelligent and likeable individual. He, more than any other person I have talked with since starting out in the world of Journalism, has had the most profound influence on the way I work. His words of advice are still with me every time I write and report:

“Don’t worry about not being liked in this business. If you write with truth, you will make far more friends than enemies.”

Playing Career

Starting his Chelsea career in 1973, Wilkins was just too young to have played in Chelsea’s FA Cup winning side in 1970 and missed out on the Cup Winners’ Cup triumph the following year.

However, it didn’t stop him becoming a hero with supporters. After just two years in the first team he was given the captaincy, taking the armband from Ron Harris at the age of just 18.

But the 1970s were a time of austerity for the West London club. The building of the East Stand in 1974 (amongst other things) led to debts spiralling out of control and the need to sell off top assets. Wilkins was sold to Manchester United for £825,000 in 1979 following Chelsea’s relegation to the second division.

From there he went on to captain England on ten occasions, and his performances were so impressive at United that A.C Milan paid £1.5 million for his services in 1984. Three seasons in Italy didn’t bring the major silverware he craved, but cemented him as one of England’s great players.

Spells with various other clubs followed, including an ill fated time in France with Paris St. Germain, two years with Rangers in Scotland and time as player-manager of Queens Park Rangers.

Coaching Career

After managing Fulham for a year, Wilkins returned to Chelsea in 1998 as assistant to Gianluca Vialli. The two formed a superb bond on the sidelines, putting together a team which came close to winning the title and did win both domestic cup competitions, the Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup. The pair eventually led Chelsea to the Champions League for the first time in their history.

He left the club with Vialli in 2000, following the Italian to Watford where they shared less success.

After several years working in the media and enjoying the odd glass of wine, ‘Butch’ was back in the Chelsea dugout, this time with Luis Felipe Scolari as manager. It was felt that Wilkins was the perfect person to help the Brazilian coach settle in London and get to grips with English football.

When Scolari left after just five months, many thought Wilkins would follow, but ‘interim coach’ Guus Hiddink decided to keep him on and for good reason. Chelsea went on a fine run of form, eventually missing out on the Champions League final by mere seconds, and going on to win the FA Cup for a then fifth time in their history.

Yet another boss came in, but Wilkins remained. This time it was Carlo Ancelotti and the result couldn’t have been sweeter. A league and cup double at the first time of asking took the club to new heights, even higher than during Jose Mourinho’s whirlwind time as coach.

Ancelotti attributed a huge amount of the team’s success to his assistant, who used his fluent Italian to guide Ancelotti through what could have been a difficult time in his first season managing outside of Italy.

This season, the club found themselves five points clear of their nearest challengers in the league, having qualified for the knockout phase in the Champions League with four wins out of four (the club’s best record in the competition since the 2004/5 season).

It seems, however, that the club’s hierarchy wants to take a new direction and a man who has been a Chelsea supporter his whole life was dismissed from his number two spot. A strange decision with the balance and atmosphere at the club seemingly perfect from the outside.

Mr. Wilkins is not one to start talking to the press about his sacking as he is unlikely to start a war. Well liked by the media and all those who come into contact with him, it is clear that he is the perfect gentleman.

And as the saying goes; ‘a gentleman never tells’.

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Why Chelsea Should Never Leave Stamford Bridge!

Some Chelsea fans feel that the club should move from Stamford Bridge to a new larger stadium.

They think that moving to a venue in Earls Court or Shepards Bush would allow the club to develop and compete with rivals such as Arsenal and Manchester United.

 Teams with huge stadiums that generate millions is additional revenue at each home game. 

However the majority of Chelsea fans that I have spoken to disagree and on this issue I have to side with the masses.

Despite the jealous and petty taunts from rivals our club has a rich history.

Chelsea are one of the few clubs to have never moved from Stamford Bridge in our 105 year history and this is something that means a lot to me as I am sure it does to others.

This is a ground where Bobby Tambling, Ron Harris, Peter Osgood, Dennis Wise and Gianfranco Zola inspired generations with their football.  

This is a ground that has hosted internationals and an FA Cup Final.

This is a ground that has seen its fair share of glory and despair during the history of the club that calls it home, this must count for something, right?

As fans we do not want to see our club go the way of Arsenal at the Emirates a soulless corporate machine, money is important in the game.

Yet the battle between heritage and chasing the money a compromise must be found that keeps the club at Stamford Bridge.

This may be a sentimental view but what iss wrong with sentiment or being proud of where you are from?

In my mind only bureaucratic belligerence stands in the way of redevelopment and a compromise that would suit everyone.

Stamford Bridge has changed a lot over its history and maybe it is time to push the council and safety inspectors, to convince them that it is time to allow the ground to morph once agaom to allow the club to expand whilst maintaining its heritage.

Stamford Bridge is the home of Chelsea Football Club and should remain the home of Chelsea Football Club.

Mr Abramovich sir, please find a way to let us stay where we belong.

Why Chelsea Should Move to Earls Court

There is a danger that the club could get left behind even further, as England’s World Cup bid for the 2018 competition could well be successful and result in huge investment in current stadiums up and down the country. Both Tottenham and Arsenal would host matches in London. Liverpool, Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest are also on the list. Chelsea are not. Chelsea supporters must look forward and not to the past. And as their current mantra goes, ‘making history, not reliving it’. Time to live up to that.

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Who the hell are… Olympique de Marseille?

Hailing from the second biggest city in France, Marseille have been something of a sleeping giant in recent years. Their most glorious moment came in 1993 when they became the first and only French club to win the UEFA Champions League. Sadly for L’OM (as they are known locally), the club had to wait 17 years until lifting another trophy, last year’s French title.

The city of Marseille is one of the most ethnically diverse in Europe, with huge numbers of Italian, Spanish, Russian and African immigrants arriving at the Mediterranean port over the last century or so. It was estimated in the first half of the 20th century that 40% of the population of the city could trace its routes back to Italy.

The football club has reflected this ethnic diversity, with a history of having a large number of players with routes in Africa. Names such as the Ghanaian born World Cup winner Marcel Desailly and the Moroccan Larbi Benbarek (one of the first black stars and the first to be given the nickname ‘The Black Pearl’, later made famous by Pele) spring to mind.

Founded in 1892, the club only adopted the name Olympique in 1899 after flirting with various others in the early years. It is said that they settled on ‘Olympic’ to honour the Greek founders of the city of Marseille thousands of years earlier, and wear blue and white to replicate the Greek flag.

With 9 French titles and 10 Cups, they are one of the most successful teams in Western Europe’s biggest nation. This is much to the delight of the fans who have a fierce rivalry with Paris Saint-Germain who have just 2 league titles and are a club with differing traditions to L’OM. Some sections of the Parisienne club’s supporters are affiliated with far-right politics and this has lead to violence between the two in the past before, during and after the fixture dubbed Le Classique in France.

L’OM are managed by former Chelsea star and 1998 World Cup winner Didier Deschamps, who was part of the Blues first ever campaign in the Champions League in 1999-2000, scoring his one and only goal for the club in the competition. He was captain of the Marseille team which won the Champions League in Munich in 1993, also winning the competition with Juventus in 1996. The Frenchman also guided AS Monaco to the 2004 final but saw his team beaten 3-0 by Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto.

The return of Deschamps to the club has resulted in its first silverware since that famous victory. It seems the powers that be at the club are keen to bring back the glory days, giving the manager a huge amount of financial backing as they look to break the hold Olympique Lyonnais have had on French football for the best part of a decade.

Didier Drogba will be looking forward to the matches between the two clubs after he spent a year with L’OM in 2003-2004. He remains one of the most popular players in the club’s history after passionate performances and the Chelsea front man still talks of his love for Marseille. Chelsea supporters who remember him scoring a brace in the away Champions League fixture against Paris Saint-Germain might now understand why his subsequent celebration provoked such a hostile reaction from the home supporters.

The club is yet to find a replacement with the presence and goal scoring ability of Drogba, but having brought in strikers Loic Remy and Andre-Pierre Gignac from Nice and Toulouse respectively this summer, they might well have found a pair who can bring the goals back to the Stade Veledrome.

Those Chelsea fans making the trip to the away tie will get to see one of Europe’s most beautiful and unique stadiums. Built in 1937 and renovated for the Euro 84’ and World Cup 98’ competitions, the Stade Veledrome is certainly striking and differs from most modern day grounds. It has large, uncovered slopes on three of its four sides, meaning players and fans alike are at the mercy of the elements.

The recent success of the club means that they were averaging over 50,000 spectators each week last season, and have been over that mark in six of the last nine campaigns. This shows the huge levels of support for the team which plays in a league with an average attendance of just 20,000. That’s a total of six million fewer people watching French football each year than in the Premier League.

Chelsea should expect to take all three points against L’OM at Stamford Bridge, especially as they look to bounce back from a disappointing defeat against Manchester City at the weekend.

The away leg could prove more tricky, however, as there is a real buzz around Didier Deschamps’ side at the moment. Remy and Gignac will be a handful, but also expect the threat of goals from the midfield through Benoit Cheyrou and the rugged Lucho Gonzalez, both of whom are a danger.

One would expect Drogba to be fired up for the games against his old side and hence having money on him to score against his former employers is probably a wise move. He will miss Tuesday night’s encounter through suspension but will be back for the game in France. The Blues are as determined as ever to go the distance in Europe this season, meaning that victory in this fixture is paramount to Carlo Ancelotti and his players.

Marseille find themselves in a group which one would expect them to qualify from, and they need to bounce back from defeat in their opening game to Spartak Moscow. Deschamps will have his players ready for battle as they look to get points on the board and put French football back on the map.

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Chelsea FC face fight for talents like Romelu Lukaku

by Richard French

follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rfrench1988

With all the talk of Carlo Ancelotti fielding a young side to face Newcastle in the Carling Cup tonight, it is impossible not to speculate on the future of Chelsea Football Club and which of these promising talents will or will not make the grade.

The future isn’t just on show at Stamford Bridge tonight, he will be lining up for Anderlecht in Lierse come kick off time. Romelu Lukaku. Remember the name.

At 17 he has scored 24 times in 53 games for his club, has four caps for Belgium and is 6 foot 3 inches tall. All of these surely signs that he could be the long term replacement for Didier Drogba.

Scoring goals is something of a habit and it seems that this boy is as habitual as it gets, with 68 goals in 68 youth games for FC Brussels and a staggering 121 goals in 88 youth matches for his current employers. This kid is something else.

The Belgian domestic league may not be the strongest in Europe but his goals to games ratio is remarkable no matter what level of the game, even Sunday League down the park.

Perhaps sensing that his days in western Brussels were numbered, Anderlecht got the wonderkid to sign a new five year contract in May this year, theoretically ‘keeping him’ at the club until 2015. This is nothing more than Lukaku ensuring that his club get a fair transfer fee for his services, as for him to leave on a free at the end of his contract would be a disaster for the Belgian champions who can feel a big pay day round the corner.

Hence it is likely that a bid somewhere in the region of €18 million would be needed to get him across the channel and signed up ready to learn from the experienced strikers already at the club.

Traditionally, however, Belgian players have moved to France or Germany initially, only then to head to Italy to ply their trade. This could be the path for Lukaku, with clubs like big spending Marseille and Schalke keeping tabs on his movements.

Valencia and Real Madrid have also reportedly had scouts watch this young goal machine, so Chelsea must act quickly if they are to land the most promising young player in Europe at the moment.

With money thrown away on transfers such as Mateja Kezman and the injury ravaged Juan Sebastian Veron in recent years, this fee is a risk worth taking as Ancelotti looks to build for the future at the club.

With promising young starlets like Gael Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma and Daniel Sturridge coming through, adding Lukaku to the list can only be healthy as Chelsea aim for long term, sustained global domination.