By 40 YEARS A BLUE!
January 24 2006

Thanks to the 'Special One' for putting the world to rights again during his post-match press conference after the dismally disappointing draw to Charlton on Sunday (and the result could have been far worse).

Jose said "When you arrive at the end of January and lose two points at home for the first time, it’s a magnificent achievement." A simple sentence makes so much sense and a load of Blue boys and girls a whole lot better.

Although Chelsea scraped a win with a below par performance against Sunderland last week, their performance was even worse and probably deserved no more than a draw. Had the Assistant Referee, Andy Williams manic impression of an airport worker directing planes into the terminals, by continually raising and lowering his flag for debatable offsides decisions, this reporter could have bemoaning Charlton's luck. As it is I am not I am just bemoaning the AR's performance and subsequent TV replays have suggested that he got it wrong on more than one occasion.

Crespo the victim of Williams' decisions spoke on Chelsea TV today about offsides and said, "I know my character of play is to start in the line of the defenders so it is difficult for the linesman. But for me the mistake when Eidur passed me the ball was very, very big," referring to the 83rd minute ^{versus Charlton when he was flagged when clean through.}

"I read the action and I understood Eidur would pass me the ball and I was waiting. For me [I was] one yard sure behind the line of the defenders."

Crespo also explained that a deep-lying defence like Charlton’s requires him to bend his run from an initially offside position to an onside one and then beyond the defence again. It keeps the margins tight as he anticipates being given the benefit of the doubt as the attacker.

"We had a lot of opportunities to score and maybe I had doubts about the offsides. But normally it happens, this kind of situations."

For the record. Eider Gudjohnsen scored for Chelsea, Charlton's new signing Marcus Bent equalised with Petr Cech all at sea, or in no-man's land and Ricardo Carvlaho was sent off for a second bookable offence.

A note of complaint though. And this is directed to Chris Perry, one of the Charlton subs. I realise that you have to warm up - do your running, stretches and everything else that you have to do, but do me and about 60 other people a favour. Instead of standing direct in our eyeline blocking our view of the Shed End action, kneel or sit down next time whilst you want to chat to your mates. We pay good money to watch a football match, not to look at the back of your head!! And the Chelsea stewards at my section of the ground, well they are just no more than useless. BLOODY jobsworth's!

Last word must go to Charlton's manager Alan Curbishley. No doubt proud of his teams efforts, Curbs still found the grace and time to speak about JM.

He said "It’s not just about money. Man United have spent 30 million on Rio and 25 million on Rooney. Walcott and Reyes have come in down at Arsenal. Liverpool haven’t been too shy over the years.

"Mourinho has done his apprenticeship. He was looking and observing, he went around those clubs and attached himself to their managers and I think he formulated a blueprint of how to win games and thought if he was given a chance, this is the way he was going to play.

"I first saw him a couple of years ago at Porto and it hasn’t changed too much. Whenever he buys a player, they come in and play. Maniche looked as if he had been here all season. Really I think we should start giving him a bit of credit instead of just talking about the finances all the time."

 

40 YEARS A BLUE!