Re: Ronaldinho to Chelsea
 

No doubt. Mourinho wanted to assemble a winner, Abramovich wants to assemble a fantasy football team with his favorite players (the Sheva disaster) and "stars" (Ballack et al).

Blech. The Chelsea experiment was only interesting when they had an elite coach leading the mishmash. Now that they'll put a puppet in there, it becomes a whole lot less interesting. (Does anyone think the inept Sheva doesn't get a ton of starts? Against ManU, they were playing 10-on-11 even before Mikel got an early shower.)

Re: Ronaldinho to Chelsea
 

Also, I really think misassembled squad is a misunderstanding.

In the beginning Mourinho got exactly the players that he wanted and that he knew he could win titles with.

Drogba, Essien and Carvalho are great examples.

edit: agree with your last post and that Sheva though I think people are too hard on him, is certainly an example of the opposite.

Re: Ronaldinho to Chelsea
 

[ QUOTE ]
No doubt. Mourinho wanted to assemble a winner, Abramovich wants to assemble a fantasy football team with his favorite players (the Sheva disaster) and "stars" (Ballack et al).


[/ QUOTE ]

An honest question is WTF happened to these two? My best approximation is that Sheva never really recovered from his knee injury (and Drogba seemed to suck up all the "poachers" goals last year) and that Ballack suffered for the same reason Stevie Gerrard struggles for England: As good as he is, Lampard is incapable of sharing central midfield.

Re: Ronaldinho to Chelsea
 

Sheva was well-suited to a slower, more technical game in Italy...the Premiership is more frantic and his lack of pace becomes a major problem imo.

Ballack's had injury problems for most of his time in Chelsea...but beyond that, I agree with you. To be effective, he really does need to be the focal point of the team in midfield...when he's not, he's just not that useful (and this is coming from a diehard Germany fan who loves his team's captain).

Re: Ronaldinho to Chelsea
 

Speaking of Germany, when did Klose go from being Peter Crouch (Teutonic edition) to all sorts of awesome?

Re: Ronaldinho to Chelsea
 

He was actually pretty good for Werder Bremen the past few years, though they don't get the press that Bayern does obviously. His international record (35 goals in 70 games) is outstanding.

Don't compare him to Crouch. Crouch is straight rubbish. How a 6'7" footballer can be poor at heading and a passive player in the box is pretty embarassing. Klose is under 6' and he's got world class skills with the noggin.