The Man in The Shed

The Man in The Shed 29 th May – End of season report So with the dust having settled after a great night in Baku it seemed a good time to look back and assess what the 2018-19 season had delivered – or not. Realistically, with the late departure of Conte and the arrival of Sarri, I confess that I could not see Chelsea winning the league. So what would a good season look like ? I genuinely felt we had a great chance in the Europa League and fourth place in the league would be progress. The positives Despite a short period (when Zidane stood down as Real Madrid manager) I was always convinced that Eden Hazard would not sign a new contract and force the board to sell him this summer. The best bit of man-management from Sarri was to acknowledge this, encourage the Belgian to focus on offensive football and the result was the best set of stats. (goals and assists) in his Chelsea career. Thank you Eden – the most talented footballer to wear the shirt. Antonio R...

The Man in The Shed 29 th May – 2,500 miles Whilst nobody can doubt the rationale for the “Say No to Anti-Semitism” campaign or the $4 million raised for good causes from the post season friendly in the US, the outcome was another crocked Englishman. Poor Ruben (finally injury free and playing his best football in a blue shirt) would not only miss the Europa final but several months of next season too. Most of the pre-match journalism was quite rightly focussed on just how far away the game was and how few tickets were offered to the real fans. Spending £700 getting to Moscow in 2008 now seemed quite cheap and relatively quick; UEFA were now expecting us to find £1000 to travel 2,500 miles each way. In light of the fact that neither team could sell their 6,000 allocation it also begs the question “should the clubs have subsidised the trip” ? It was blatantly clear on TV that the game had not sold out and The Times reported that turnstiles were opened for free entry du...

The Man in The Shed 12 th May – Whatever We were last on Match Of The Day – says it all. Higuain missed a sitter. It finished nil – nil. On the positive side the extra point meant we finished 3 rd above Spurs. Next up – the Europa League final (OK so there’s a friendly in the USA next week) ! © BBC

The Man in The Shed 10 th May – Not again Another home game, another absence – sadly. Instead of being parked in my usual seat in The Shed here I was at the home of the world marbles championships ( link ), a pub in Crawley, watching on the big screen. With a 7am flight to catch the day after the game I was staying close to Gatwick airport. So was this really Eden‘s last home game in blue ? Would his last ever game for Chelsea be in Baku ? The away support was again impressive. Plenty of flags and plenty of noise. No great surprises in our starting eleven although I was perhaps surprised to see the “old” short making a re-appearance. The officials were in a very fetching red. The game was pretty even in the first fifteen minutes although another good save from Kepa kept the scores level. We were at least working their keeper too. A Willian free kick was headed on by Luiz but cleared off the line. Close, but no cigar. Never mind it didn’t take long for our next ...

The Man in The Shed 7 th May – Goodbye Cahill Where did that season go ? It was time for the last home league game of a very inconsistent season. Well true to form, Tottenham had done us (yet another) favour by deciding to play half of their league game with 9 men and letting in a winning goal in injury time ! My hope was that Watford, mindful of an impending cup final, would roll over and let us grab what could be a significant three points. Our team selection showed no great surprises with Hazard and Higuain back in the starting line-up. https://youtu.be/SQcoadw0ZrA The kit for the 19-20 season was debuting today. There was a time not so long ago that a kit lasted more than one season. Recent developments now mean that Chelsea players switch kits before a season is over. How long before we get two new kits per season (we kind of get three already if you include second and third strips but you know what I mean). The social media feedback on the new kit would b...

The Man in The Shed 3 rd May – Atmosphere So after two evenings of Champions League football it was time for the main event ! It would be difficult to better Wednesday’s game in Spain. Whilst all Chelsea fans marvel at the exceptional skills of Hazard you really have to be in awe of the enduring brilliance of Lionel Messi.   Perhaps that’s how Hazard came to be on the bench – he asked Sarri for a rest so we couldn’t compare them. The other significant event leading up to the game was of course the new 2019-20 shirt launch. It certainly brought all Chelsea fans together – in apparent universal condemnation. I have to admit a soft spot for those Adidas kits in the recent past but accepted that (in the absence of increasing revenue via a larger ground) we couldn’t turn down the better offer from Nike. All this marketing BS about incorporating all 4 parts of the ground into the design – really ? I won’t be buying one – but don’t worry Nike – I’ve never bought a replica shi...

The Man in The Shed 30th April – Trepidation So as I sat down to prepare myself for Manchester United versus Chelsea on SKY I was counting my blessings that nobody else seemed to be taking the race to finish in the top 4 seriously. West Ham had kindly ended Tottenham’s unbeaten start in their new stadium and Arsenal had capitulated away from home again (although note for later, Leicester are looking rather good).   I did quite like the tweet from Sevilla : So we just needed a good result against United – who’d lost 7 of their last 9 games; but then we’d lost all of our away games to top 6 so far (aggregate 1-13). Good news on team selection with both Rüdiger and Kanté back in the starting eleven although a midfield of Kanté, Jorginho and Kovacic didn’t excite. Still, we did have a recognised centre forward in Higuain alongside Hazard. United always seem to pick all of the ex-Chelsea guys whenever we play them so Mata, Matic and Lukaku lined up for the reds. ...