The Modern Day Chelsea Blogsite

Friday 27 January 2012

Kenyon or Gourlay, you decide

I never liked Peter Kenyon, to me, he was a Manc, only interested in lining his pockets without looking after Chelsea. And I don't particularly like what I have seen of Ron Gourlay. But, was allowing Kenyon to leave one of the biggest mistakes Abramovich has ever made?



When Abramovich brought Chelsea, the club was hardly known across Europe and the rest of the world. Kenyon was brought in to change that, and it has to be said, he did a brilliant job, he over saw the change from a medium club, to a real heavyweight of European football.

There was always controversy with Kenyon, the tapping up of Sven Goran Eriksson and Ashely Cole to name but two. But he did do right by the club and its supporters during his time at the club, and during the clubs most successful ever periods.

Kenyon stepped down in 2009 and was replaced by Ron Gourlay, a former work colleague at Umbro and Manchester United. Since Gourlay arrived, the club has seen the reigns of Avram Grant and Scolari, the failure to keep Guus Hiddink on as manager, and the ruthless and stupid sacking of Carlo Ancelotti.



Not to mention the controversy surrounding the move away from Stamford Bridge and the attempts to undermine the CPO. To me, Gourlay seems a smug individual and its difficult to see what he has actually done for the club during his time as Chief Executive.

So have your vote on the poll > Kenyon or Gourlay.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Lacking Plan B

It’s been a nearly season so far for Chelsea, results just haven’t gone our way even when we have dominated games. The recent draw against Norwich however, just highlighted that AVB’s unwillingness to divert from his football philosophy, showed that if ‘plan a’ doesn’t work, then Chelsea don’t win.


After 30 minutes against Norwich, Lampard limped off with a calf injury; Lampard’s midfield role is where AVB likes his attacking midfielder to play, his ‘Modric’. Now on the bench, AVB had Malouda and Essien available, instead of bringing on Essien like most people in his position would have done, AVB opted for Malouda because he is seen as more creative than Essien.

The result was, we had a midfield with a player who simply cannot play in the central midfield role, while our most creative midfield player Juan Mata was stuck out wide, not able to dictate play. The unwillingness to divert from the original plan left us static and easy to defend against; needless to say we had enough chances to beat Norwich and should have done with great ease. But the problems would still be there, but people just wouldn’t highlight them.


Only once this season has AVB moved away from his ‘plan a’, Manchester United away, when in the second half we dominated United and were again, just a stroke of luck away from taking something from the game. Mata came central and another winger came on, something that perhaps should have happened against Norwich, with De Bruyne signing this week, maybe this is the signing that can help bring Mata centrally, but that would mean Lampard would be playing a bit part role this season, something he has openly been upset about.

AVB’s ‘plan a’ does work, it did it with Porto, but he had the players to do so. Maybe he has been naive with his loyalty to his philosophy, but is that a bad thing? Perhaps based on the league position yes, but with a few more round pegs being signed, the squares ones can move on.

Taking time with Courtois

A few weeks ago I caught my first sight of the future Chelsea number one Courtois, and on my first impressions he looks a very good prospect indeed. However, discussion on twitter shows that many Chelsea fans are already confident that Courtois could come into the first team next season and challenge Cech for his number one jersey, this is very unlikely and Courtois has a long way to go yet before he is ready for Premier League football.

I must say now, I am basing my opinion on Courtois from a few highlights and the game I saw him play, every time the camera focused on him, he was barking out orders to his defence. Now for a 19 year-old who has just moved to a different country with a different language, that is impressive and a good sign for the future. Courtois is also an excellent shot stopper; he made several classy saves to keep Atletico Madrid in the lead and looked commanding in the air.


Like every goalkeeper though, Courtois has his weaknesses, primarily in distribution. During the game he kicked several balls out of play and hit hopeless kicks up front for the lone striker to chase, that is something over time and with experience and extra training he should improve on and become better at.

Obviously, comparisons with David De Gea are going to happen, De Gea has struggled with adapting to the style of the Premier League and has been found wanting on a number of occasions. Chelsea’s initial plan was to let Courtois have another season in Madrid before bringing him back to England for a year on loan in the Premiership, so he can learn at the expense of another club. It would be a mistake to rush him back to England while he is still young and learning; any mistakes in England would be crucified by the press and would put a huge dent in his confidence, and Chelsea fans confidence in him.

Courtois is undoubtedly a great prospect for the future, and is showing signs of being a world class goalkeeper, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and keep our expectations in check. It’s going to be a long wait until our new number one arrives to take over from Cech, but my guess is, it’ll be worth it.

Saturday 7 January 2012

Chelsea Web Chat