Can Man City do a Chelsea next season?

WITH Gareth Barry joining Robinho in the Eastlands and possibly Carlos Tevez on the way, Manchester City are starting to look the way of Chelsea at the start of the Roman Revolution just a few seasons back.

We all knew how that turned out didn’t we? Chelsea won the Premiership title for two seasons in a row under Jose Mourinho, with stars such as Arjen Robben, Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko (still considered a star at the time of signing at least).

The Citizens are attempting to flood their dressing room with the same embarrassment of riches in footballing talent this transfer season, although Mark Hughes is definitely no Mourinho, based on last season’s results.

Furthermore, the Blues were nearly there (i.e. already in the Big Four) when Claudio Ranieri in charge, Abramovich’s money and Mourinho’s managerial nous arguably proved to be the final boost needed for the London club to clinch their first Premiership title in 50 years.

City, however, do not have the same foundation to start with, finishing 10th in the league this season, even with additions such as Robinho and the return of Shaun Wright-Phillips.

But can City do one better than Chelsea and jump from mid-table mediocrity to the Big Four next season, with all the money available for big-money players and maybe even a new high-profile manager?

Blues deserve expected UEFA backlash?

Understandable Rage? (Picture: Jon Super/AP)

AFTER all it is football and what a boring world it would be without passion.

But where do we draw the line? Didier Drogba looked to have crossed it and even Michael Ballack’s running and gesticulating after the referee during the game could be called into question. Surely though footballers are allowed to be human. With so much money and pride on the line, it would seem inhuman if the boys in blue walked off without so much as a whimper.

Now we await Tom Henning Ovrebo’s match report and the expected fines and suspensions that UEFA will mete out to Chelsea and their angry players on the night.

Given time you could expect Drogba, Ballack and Jose Bosingwa to regret their actions and put it down to everything seemingly going against them at home on a couple of crucial decisions. Also, it was not as though they kung-fu kicked anyone.

Do you think the Blues deserve the stick they are getting? Football is a game of passion and will the expected clamp down by UEFA possibly infringe on the human element in the game?

Q&A with Letter of the Weekend winner Dinesh Bora

When and why did you start supporting Chelsea?

Well I wouldn’t say I am a life long supporter of Chelsea but it started after the 2006 World Cup which piqued my interest in football. I decided to look up the players who had played in the tournament and found that a few of the top players had played for a Premier League side named Chelsea.

I was curious, who were they and were they any good? I later found out they had won 2 consecutive league titles and had spent alot of money buying many of their players.

It’s all Roman’s fault

LUIZ Felipe Scolari’s 224-day reign as Chelsea manager has ended late last night Singapore time, after the London club gave him the boot following a string of poor results in the Premiership.

Ironically, his much-detested predecessor Avram Grant survived longer in the Blues hot seat than the Brazilian, lasting 227 days after taking over from Jose Mourinho in late 2007.

THE POSTMAN LIM SAY HENG says: Much has been said about Scolari’s management style, language barriers and the transition between managing national teams to clubs.

But I feel that Roman Abramovich is to blame for making Chelsea into an English version of Real Madrid, sans the success.

Terry-able against United

MANCHESTER United consigned Chelsea to their heaviest defeat at Old Trafford last night with a 3-0 victory over the Blues, with goals coming from Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.

THE POSTMAN LIM SAY HENG says: What was more worrying was how Chelsea conceded the goals, even with their first-choice central defensive pairing of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho back. All three goals, plus the disallowed header by Cristiano Ronaldo came from crosses from the flanks.

By most accounts, Terry and Carvalho would have eaten up these crosses easily, especially the England captain, whose superb aerial ability is reknown. So what happened last night?