Posts Tagged ‘Diego Costa’

Chelsea Must Reinforce Adequately To Match Manchester Clubs

Posted: January 22, 2018 in Champions League, Chelsea, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Guest Author: Mark Weasley of retrofootballnews.com

When Chelsea won the league last season, they were at their brilliant best. Playing some breath-taking football and displaying an efficiency rarely seen in the division, they won the league courtesy of a 13-match winning sequence out of the 30 wins they recorded. They also reached 93 points, just 2 points behind the record haul of 95, set by Jose Mourinho’s swashbuckling side of 2004/05.

This season, however, has seen Chelsea struggle for form and consistency with their manager, Antonio Conte, coming in for criticism at the beginning of the season following a bad run. (more…)

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Unhappy Players, Friendlies After The First Game Of The Season And Champion’s League Qualifiers

Posted: August 16, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion
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Diego Costa

Diego Costa is in Brazil. Hardly surprising when considering the fact that the Spanish international is Brazilian. He wants to leave Chelsea, (we think), and return to Atlético Madrid in Spain. His manager certainly wants him to leave and doesn’t appear to be shedding many tears at his absence.

The problem is that he shouldn’t be in Brazil at present owing to the fact that the Premier League football season has started and his team, Chelsea, could do with him being in London even though he wouldn’t get picked. Consequently they have fined him around £300K for not being where he is supposed to be. (more…)

Manchester City And Chelsea Have Identified Weaknesses And Strengthened Them. Manchester United Have Identified Strengths And Strengthened Them, (Slightly)

Posted: July 30, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Transfers
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It is still too early to judge the success or otherwise of this transfer window as far as City, United and Chelsea are concerned.

Chelsea fans will argue that they have strengthened in positions where strengthening was required and Manchester City fans will say exactly the same about their club.

In Chelsea’s case, and depending upon who you choose to believe, either Diego Costa had already decided he was going to leave, or Antonio Conte had already decided Diego Costa was going to leave. Either way a striker was a pre-requisite in this window. (more…)

José Mourinho Has A Few Options In The Transfer Market

Posted: June 22, 2017 in Chelsea, European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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We mere mortals can only speculate on what it must be like to have several million pounds available to spend. There is, however, a limit on how much of these several millions can actually be spent due to something called Financial Fair Play.

This was all the rage just a few short years ago and was tested out on Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. Both of these clubs benefitted through being purchased by Middle-Eastern billionaires who immediately went about spending some of their wealth on improving the teams. (more…)

The Truth About Who Is Going To And From Manchester United And Some Who Are Doing Neither

Posted: June 8, 2017 in European Football, Football, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League
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Now that Antoine Griezmann has shown his true colours by saying it would be a low move to leave a club who are being punished for even lower moves, and Romelu Lukaku is probably going to Chelsea to replace Diego Costa, which is fine by us, we look at who may actually turn up at Old Trafford and who won’t.

The number of publications we have waded through in order to find some transfer stories with real foundation as opposed to just simply being pure invention to be used as click-bait, is exhaustive but, as always dear readers, it was worth every hour just to bring you a measure of truth to your rumours. (more…)

Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City And Chelsea All Start To Look To Next Season

Posted: March 31, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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It’s official! Arsenal are no longer a selling club. Having seen the likes of Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin van Persie and even Mikel Arteta head to Manchester, Arsene Wenger has now drawn a line under this whole sorry episode in the history of the Gunners.

Never again will Arsenal refuse to pay the going rate for a player, no longer will salary be an issue when talking to the world’s elite. Arsenal have come of age. They are now happily settled into the Emirates and, apart from not being very successful, they have no real worries, not of the fiscal kind anyway. (more…)

The North/South Football Divide Is Slowly Shrinking

Posted: January 17, 2017 in Arsenal, Chelsea, European Football, Everton, Football, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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Despite Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham all doing well in the Premier League this season the spotlight remains firmly on the Northwest, helped most certainly by the arrival of both José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola in Manchester.

The area provides the most interesting football and, generally speaking over the last forty years or so, the best and most successful football.

Last weekend a collective groan was to be heard at WSA when the live games were advertised as being all-London affairs. This was not because there would be no decent football on display, although that was a possibility, no it was because the feeling of boredom when no Northern team is involved is overwhelming. (more…)

Chelsea’s Credibility Battle

Posted: January 21, 2016 in Chelsea, Football, Managers, Opinion, Premier League
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Guus Hiddink will not be staying at Chelsea after this season. That is not good news for Chelsea fans.

Has he been brought in to save the club from relegation? Has he been brought in to try and win a trophy? What about sorting out the players who brought about the downfall of Jose Mourinho? He must know that there is more than one bad apple in this particular barrel.

The point now is, does he really care about that side of things? Providing he keeps Chelsea in the Premier League, maybe gets into the top six, has a decent run in the Champion’s League, (even he must know they are not good enough to win it, although, they weren’t good enough to win it the year that they won it, so you never know!), and also has a good shot at the FA Cup then Guus will probably feel as though he has earned his money.

Is it really his problem that the football club contains some players, certainly led by a Fletcher Christian-type character, who wanted Mourinho out of the way and are trying to become the tail that wags the dog? No, it isn’t. It would be much easier for Hiddink to serve his time, pick up his money and disappear into the Dutch reservoirs armed only with a fishing rod and some worms. (more…)

Jose Mourinho, The Friendless One

Posted: November 1, 2015 in Chelsea, Football, Jose Mourinho, Managers, Opinion
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Jose Mourinho is a winner, (usually). He is not in the football business to win friends, admirers or even fans. He is in the business to win trophies. In achieving this he may attract some of the aforementioned but, if he doesn’t, he isn’t the type of person to lose any sleep over it.

Having been very successful at every club he has managed, he is now finding out what it is like to be below average. Yes, Chelsea have not only descended from the top of the pile to being average, they have stayed on the elevator for one more downward level to become below average.

What is responsible for this sudden and dramatic downturn? It is not only a collective loss of form, confidence and cohesion, it appears to be a loss of faith and/or trust in the manager. How else can the loss of form of a whole team be explained? (more…)