Gallas makes himself available for transfer

~Rebel~

Pal wrote:

Chelsea have one weakness. one full back.

Johnson doesn't cut it.

they need to replace him.

Cole would be ideal.

Wouldn't Paolo Ferreira be their first choice right back anyway? and he's quite a bit better then Johnson and probably better then Cole if Cole was to be played out of position..

growler

in fairness to Johnson, he is getting better under Jose's tutelage (hasn't given away any silly penalties anyway) and I think Chelsea are likely to hold on to both him and Huth as cover but also they will be very useful when the rules about homegrown talent come into play.

case n basket

Pal wrote:

Chelsea are the greatest etc etc

Drogba is a better player than Van Nistelrooy? ahahahahhaha.

Sure, Chelsea havent had Robben for much of the season, Drogba has been in and out of the side, Duff wasn't "fit" at the start of the season, Bridge and Parker have been out for long periods, Carvalho has been out etc. Some of those were big losses, some of them weren't even starters. The backbone of that side though, Terry, Makelele and Lampard have been ever present. Have any of them even missed a single game through injury all season?

Not taking anything away from them, they've been outstanding and superbly consistent. Their rivals have been blighted though so it's made the gap look bigger than it is.

I'm not that familiar with United's various player problems, although I do know they've been without RVN for a large portion of the season, while I recall Scholes and Ferdinand being out for a while too.

Arsenal have not ONCE played their first XI all season. Campbell has been in and out of the side all season, Gilberto has missed 7 months, Vieira missed a big chunk of the first half of the season, Edu has had a series of injuries, while Cole, Pires, Ljungberg, Reyes, Henry, Bergkamp, Senderos etc have all been out for a couple of weeks at least.

Gangsta

case n basket wrote:

Drogba is a better player than Van Nistelrooy? ahahahahhaha.

Sure, Chelsea havent had Robben for much of the season, Drogba has been in and out of the side, Duff wasn't "fit" at the start of the season, Bridge and Parker have been out for long periods, Carvalho has been out etc. Some of those were big losses, some of them weren't even starters. The backbone of that side though, Terry, Makelele and Lampard have been ever present. Have any of them even missed a single game through injury all season?

Not taking anything away from them, they've been outstanding and superbly consistent. Their rivals have been blighted though so it's made the gap look bigger than it is.

I'm not that familiar with United's various player problems, although I do know they've been without RVN for a large portion of the season, while I recall Scholes and Ferdinand being out for a while too.

Arsenal have not ONCE played their first XI all season. Campbell has been in and out of the side all season, Gilberto has missed 7 months, Vieira missed a big chunk of the first half of the season, Edu has had a series of injuries, while Cole, Pires, Ljungberg, Reyes, Henry, Bergkamp, Senderos etc have all been out for a couple of weeks at least.

That maybe true but Wenger needs to buy some experienced backup this summer instead of playing the kids who show fantastic potential but, just aren't ready yet.

smuckers

Terry has played with injuries, so has Makelele. Lampard never gets injured, he's only had the flu this season and played on NY day with it at Anfield it.
Despite Carv playing well, I still believe that Gallas and Terry were the best pairing, less goals conceded for one thing.

Gangsta

smuckers wrote:

Terry has played with injuries, so has Makelele. Lampard never gets injured, he's only had the flu this season and played on NY day with it at Anfield it.
Despite Carv playing well, I still believe that Gallas and Terry were the best pairing, less goals conceded for one thing.

I don't recall that? Even if that is true, then case n basket is right.

smuckers

Well they said it on Chelsea TV. I thought there would be a blip when PF and Bridge got injured as the cohesion in backline went. The only blip was the defeat to City and you could also argue at the beginning of the season with the 1-0 wins despite not playing well.

Chucky the tree

PHB wrote:

And Rio and Keano in United.

.

was rio injuried for much of the season?

PHB

He was suspended for 5 matches actually

Sun, 15th A Chelsea (PREM.) 1 - 0 | Lost
Sat, 21st H Norwich (PREM. 2 - 1 | Won
Sat, 28th A Blackburn (PREM.) 1 - 1 | Draw
Mon, 30th H Everton (PREM 0 - 0 | Draw
Sat, 11th A Bolton (PREM.) 2 - 2 | Draw

thats 6 from 15
That lost us the title right then and there

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

He was suspended for 5 matches actually

Sun, 15th A Chelsea (PREM.) 1 - 0 | Lost
Sat, 21st H Norwich (PREM. 2 - 1 | Won
Sat, 28th A Blackburn (PREM.) 1 - 1 | Draw
Mon, 30th H Everton (PREM 0 - 0 | Draw
Sat, 11th A Bolton (PREM.) 2 - 2 | Draw

thats 6 from 15
That lost us the title right then and there

So if they didnt drop those 9 points they somehow would have managed to be ahead of Chelsea now despite Chelsea being 18 points ahead now?

The Chelsea/Everton/Bolton games would have all have been tough ones anyway. And they only conceeded one goal in total against Chelsea and Everton. Something tells me that Rio wouldnt have made that much a difference there. And as for Keane, only Heinze, Ronaldo, Scholes and Silvestre have started more games than him.

Chelsea have not suffered from injuries because they have the best squad. They have had their fair share with Carvalho (months), Bridge (months), Ferreira (months), Parker (months), Robben (months), Drogba (months) and Duff as well. Thats a pretty hefty list.

PHB

Can you please explain to me how you went from:

thats 6 from 15
That lost us the title right then and there

to :

So if they didnt drop those 9 points they somehow would have managed to be ahead of Chelsea now despite Chelsea being 18 points ahead now?

G'wan, I'm sure there was soime logic there.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

Can you please explain to me how you went from:

You said that not me.

PHB wrote:

G'wan, I'm sure there was soime logic there.

There is no logic to it. Thats my point. United dropped 9 points at the start of the season without Rio. They are 18 behind Chelsea. Missing Rio isnt the reason they are behind Chelsea.

jank

Im with u there jivin doesnt make sense to me either?

Chucky the tree

PHB wrote:

He was suspended for 5 matches actually

Sun, 15th A Chelsea (PREM.) 1 - 0 | Lost
Sat, 21st H Norwich (PREM. 2 - 1 | Won
Sat, 28th A Blackburn (PREM.) 1 - 1 | Draw
Mon, 30th H Everton (PREM 0 - 0 | Draw
Sat, 11th A Bolton (PREM.) 2 - 2 | Draw

thats 6 from 15
That lost us the title right then and there

suspensions dont really come down to bad luck though.

arbeitsscheuer

Chucky the tree wrote:

suspensions dont really come down to bad luck though.

Concur. Injuries are much more apt in bad luck terms... In which case, it was Gilberto's injury which had a bigger impact on the title race! Not that I'm biased or anything but that really did cripple Arsenal's charge to retain the title. Well, that and Vieira having a pretty dire season. Arsenal's centre-midfield partnership at the start of the season, Gilberto Silva and Francesc Fabregas, were the best combination, and it's a pity they didn't get enough time to show how good a duo they could be.

Having said this, Arjen Robben got injured when he was on top form, and that had no bearing on the title race - But that's cos "money-bags" Chelski had a vast enough squad that it didn't really have any effect whatsoever on their dominance.

Bannor

United lost the title for three reasons - dodgy keepers, no team spirit and no van Nistelrooy (If their lucky Man Utd have had him available for about a third of the season and he hasn't been fully match fit). If they had a decent keeper and a fit RVN then the league table would certainly read differently. I'm not sure they can do anything about the team spirit without a change of personnel/manager. Without team spirit they will struggle to challenge for the title because it's something that Chelsea's squad has in abundance.

eyerer

nothing conclusive, but i've noticed before each CL game against liverpool he has made press statements which have been pretty complimentary of liverpool
perhaps he fancies a move

smuckers

Bannor wrote:

United lost the title for three reasons - dodgy keepers, no team spirit and no van Nistelrooy (If their lucky Man Utd have had him available for about a third of the season and he hasn't been fully match fit). If they had a decent keeper and a fit RVN then the league table would certainly read differently. I'm not sure they can do anything about the team spirit without a change of personnel/manager. Without team spirit they will struggle to challenge for the title because it's something that Chelsea's squad has in abundance.

and a lack of quality cover in the middle of the park.

KdjaCL

League tables never lie and Utd lost the league by losing 4 games away. Che lost 1 both have near identical home records.

Imo RVN and 20 goals were missing and thats how they didnt challenge, dodgy keeper? Score more than them usually fixes that, team spirit win games and score goals fixes that too.


kdjac