Chelsea Blues

‘OFF the pitch, it’s not been a good start to the season for Chelsea. For starters, there was the little courtroom drama involving John Terry and Jody Morris, charged with affray over a brawl with a nightclub bouncer.

Ole!

Yesterday the two were cleared, but ”Stamford Bridge legend” Peter Osgood has warned them in the Sun that they ”risk destroying their careers if they do not learn from their Crown Court escape”.

”Both players have got to grow up and live up to their responsibilities,” he says. ”They must realise that they can’t go out drinking at night and acting like normal fans.” But even most fans probably avoid such incidents if they can help it.

”They are paid so much money and people look up to them,” adds Osgood. ”They’ve got to be careful where they go.” Their team-mate, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, is hoping to go to Barcelona, and not just for the sangria, either. The Mirror writes that last night the player ”dropped a bombshell on Chelsea by insisting he wants to join Spanish giants Barca”.

”The Dutch striker claimed he would be ‘enchanted’ at the prospect of moving to the Nou Camp as he threw his Chelsea future into major doubt,” says the Mirror. But can we believe him? After all, when has a footballer ever used the word ”enchanted”, in public or otherwise?

With the club in debt to the tune of £97.7m, Chelsea may be tempted to sell their prize asset, but Hasselbaink’s plea in the Star to ”Flog me to Barca” is hardly going to help their preparations for tonight’s clash with Manchester United.

One man not likely to budge for some time is India’s star batsman, Rahul Dravid, who notched up his second century of the summer against England at Headingley yesterday.

The Independent writes that yesterday’s play ”was a throwback to a bygone era when runs and wickets were given away resentfully”. It might not have been a thrill a minute up in Yorkshire, but there was still some great play, almost all of it from Dravid.

”For the second Test match in a row Dravid was in brilliant form,” says the Indy, which sees his ton as a potential matchwinner. Couldn’t the press at least see more than the first day’s play before writing off England’s chances? ‘

Posted: 23rd, August 2002 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink