KNOW YOUR CLUB'S HISTORY.

How Chelsea's Italian Job Helped Make the Club Great Again.

It's the Serie A derby at Stamford Bridge on October 15 in Week 8 of the Premier League season. It's Italy versus Italy, ex-Juventus against ex-Juventus; Chelsea's past facing Chelsea's present and future.

Blues boss Antonio Conte and Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri have plenty in common, not least the fact they are connected by an affiliation with Chelsea. Ranieri may have different loyalties these days with the Foxes, but his affection for Chelsea still runs deep.

It's fitting that two Italians should come head-to-head at Chelsea in this season of all seasons. It was 20 years ago this year that Chelsea's fortunes really changed for the better, and it was done with an Italian influence at its core.

The Blues had hit hard times for well over a decade. Bad business deals had put Stamford Bridge at risk, and on the pitch, they were more used to relegation battles than fighting for titles.

By the mid-1990s, they were desperate for some inspiration to lift them from a slump that had come to define a generation. Then three Italians arrived in 1996, and it changed the club's history for good.

In truth, the revolution at Chelsea had already started 12 months earlier when Glenn Hoddle signed Ruud Gullit from Sampdoria. Having been a team made up largely of unglamorous names, suddenly the Blues had a superstar in their midst.

Gullit was in his twilight years, but that mattered little. His arrival gave Chelsea a significant boost to their ego; the swagger was properly returning to west London for the first time since those halcyon days of the 1960s and 1970s.

Gullit wigs became a common sight on the terraces as Chelsea fans revelled in having him at the club; his effortless displays from central midfield would mesmerise fans who were more used to watching this sort of thing on Channel 4's Football Italia than they were their own football stadium.

It didn't change things much in terms of results. The Blues had finished 11th in the season before Gullit's arrival, and in 1995/96, it was where they remained. It was more about the perception of Chelsea as a club; they had just attracted one of the world's biggest names. It was big news. To put it into context now, it's akin to a 33-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo joining Stoke City.

With Hoddle becoming England manager at the end of 1995/96, Gullit took charge of managerial duties and was able to use his profile to attract the sort of player to Chelsea that had been unattainable before. In his first summer, Gullit signed Italian midfielder Roberto Di Matteo from Lazio, with another Italian, striker Gianluca Vialli, joining him.

Similar to when Gullit had joined the club a year earlier, Vialli was the wrong side of 30. He had just won the Champions League with Juventus, though, showing he was far from being finished. Yes, Chelsea had a reigning European Cup champion in their team.

From the off things changed significantly, and it took just two matches for Di Matteo to make his mark when he scored a late winner against Middlesbrough to secure a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge.

That result set the tone, as did the celebration that night. Choreographed and performed to perfection, five Chelsea players—led by Di Matteo—got into position to pose in front of the old West Stand as they toasted victory.

It was just a celebration, yet it meant something so much more. It symbolised the newfound confidence at Chelsea that their overseas players were bringing. Gullit was blending the Anglo-Saxon grit with the finesse of Italy, and the likes of Di Matteo were leading the way.

Later that season, Gianfranco Zola would arrive from Parma in November. From that moment on, Chelsea's Italian influence would hit overdrive. Zola was a revelation; a player not seen in west London since Pat Nevin was marauding up and down the wings in the 1980s.

Nevin was just one of few back then; it was in the 60s and 70s when Chelsea last boasted a side that was capable of achieving something collectively. And with Mark Hughes, Frank Leboeuf, Dennis Wise, Vialli, Zola and Di Matteo, Chelsea had a combination that was hinting at doing the same.

It was that Italian flavour that really defined it all. Zola was the epitome of it as he tormented defenders—think Manchester United's Dennis Irwin, who was left chasing shadows in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge that year.

Zola signed for Chelsea in November 1996.
Until that point, overseas footballers had been viewed with an air of suspicion. There were always the success stories, like Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa at Tottenham Hotspur, or Eric Cantona at Manchester United, but league-wide, English football had never been welcoming to foreign talent. They just didn't fit.

At Chelsea at least, the influx of Italians changed that. Zola, Vialli and Di Matteo set out a new blueprint for the club's future and where they were headed. While it was bad news for the England national team, it was good news for Chelsea, as the club celebrated having a cosmopolitan squad.

Watching Zola succeed, it gave confidence that the European market held value for Chelsea. Soon the Blues would follow up his signing with Albert Ferrer from Barcelona, Gustavo Poyet from Real Zaragoza, Pierluigi Casiraghi from Lazio and Marcel Desailly from AC Milan. More would follow, including Desailly's fellow World Cup-winner Didier Deschamps.

These players were coming in to replace the likes of Craig Burley, John Spencer and Gavin Peacock; all good players in their own right, but not at the same standard as those replacing them. Chelsea were buying Champions League players.

They started to cast their net far and wide; they were no longer limited to British shores, adding the odd sprinkling of stardust here and there. Watching how their Italians performed in that first season was an epiphany; it was a watershed moment in the club's history.

No more would Chelsea see their fortunes swing from feast to famine and back again. The pathway to greatness was set out, and they followed it.

With their brand of "sexy" football, Chelsea had the momentum in the Premier League. They were back competing again, climbing the table to finish sixth in 1996/97.

The league form was impressive enough, but winning the 1997 FA Cup was the jewel in the crown. It was the first time in the club's history that the Blues had won a major trophy at Wembley Stadium. Indeed, it was their first major honour since 1971's Cup Winners' Cup victory against Real Madrid.

Inspiring that 1997 victory was Di Matteo again. Like he had done nine months before, it was he who scored the crucial goal against Middlesbrough. Rather than waiting 86 minutes this time, he couldn't even hold himself back for one—Chelsea were leading the game after just 41 seconds thanks to his thunderbolt that caught the goalkeeper cold.

That campaign built the Blues into the club we see now. They would go on to win the League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, adding another FA Cup in 2000. That same season they tasted Champions League football for the first time, with Vialli the manager leading them into battle with Europe's elite.

Come 2003, a little known Russian businessman named Roman Abramovich purchased Chelsea. Without all the success from the late 1990s leading up to that, we'll never know if he would arrived on Stamford Bridge's doorstep to change the face of English football.

Still, with Abramovich in charge, that Italian influence remains strong at Chelsea. It's been 20 years since Italians helped change the face of the club, and in the present, with Chelsea at a similar crossroads, it's another Italian in Conte that the club has turned to in order to get back to the top

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2668163-how-chelseas-italian-job-helped-make-the-club-great-again

The Prof. EagleScribes

Abeg how dem dey take post gif?


Cc, ibime, nihilist, dayo, bigkesh.

Tammy Abraham may be Chelsea's great hope - but club's old habits die hard
The 19-year-old is on a blistering run of form at Bristol City.
Chelsea still want Antoine Griezmann - despite growing number of options.

So many of Chelsea's emerging talents have already become victims of the club's loan purgatory. Homegrown youngsters and exciting imports alike are already on the well-worn track that inevitably terminates with a long-term future away from Stamford Bridge.

Of the 38 currently away on temporary deals, there is one player in particular that has the most hope of shattering the trend. 19-year-old Tammy Abraham has already struck 11 goals in 14 games for Bristol City this season. On his debut for the England Under-21s on Monday (10 October) against Bosnia and Herzegovnia, he showed the poise that has made him the Championship's most prolific goal scorer to date, scoring twice to immediately fill the void left by Marcus Rashford. According to City boss Lee Johnson, the teenager is already at the level needed to go straight into the first team at Stamford Bridge.

Whether he will make the leap remains to be seen. While Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Nathaniel Chalobah have been retained by Antonio Conte this season, the club's ugly record of having had no home-grown first-team regulars since John Terry (who was actually poached from West Ham's youth system) still looms large. While Jose Mourinho has attracted much of the blame, the dearth of academy products challenging for first-team football has been a long-running theme of the Roman Abramovich era.


An investment of over £100m has yielded unprecedented success for the club's ever-blossoming youth teams, having won the FA Youth Cup three years in a row and two consecutive Uefa Youth Leagues in 2014 and 2015. Seemingly the only thing that has prevented them from winning a third this season was the senior team's failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Five members of the England squad that won the Toulon Tournament last summer came from that same academy. Abraham wasn't one of them, but he is the jewel in the crown of Chelsea's homegrown hopefuls.

Abraham is held in extremely high regard at Stamford Bridge. Recalling Bristol City's talks with Chelsea during the summer, club CEO Mark Ashton recalled how difficult it was to prise the teenager away having made a swift impression on Conte. "Once [Conte] was in, he made it very clear that he liked Tammy Abraham. When Tammy went from the [Under-19 European Championship] straight to the US on tour with Chelsea, the feedback we got from Chelsea's director's was that Conte was keen on him. At that stage, were were thinking he might keep him in and not allow us to take him."

In the end, he did leave. By that point, Chelsea had already signed Michy Batshuayi from Marseille, who has so far acted as an understudy to Diego Costa, the Premier League's leading goalscorer with six to his name already.

It is that sort of approach in the transfer market, one that has largely come to define Chelsea, that poses the greatest threat to Abraham's hopes of becoming a regular for his club. And it could get even more complicated next summer when he returns to the club.

Despite the presence of the Spain international and Batshuayi, Chelsea's ever-growing ambition sees them linked with one of the most sought-after forwards in the game.

Antoine Griezmann is contracted to Atletico Madrid until 2021 but recent developments – parting ways with his former agent and Diego Simeone's decision to bring forward the expiration date on his contract by two years – have intensified talk of a move away from the Spanish capital next summer. Chelsea are known admirers of Griezmann and the Daily Telegraph claims the Blues are ready to match any offer Manchester United make for the former Real Sociedad star.

While Marcus Rashford has proved at Manchester United the arrival of a world-renowned name doesn't call time on first-team opportunities, Chelsea's recent history works against them.

Dominic Solanke, who struck 41 times in 39 games during the 2014-15 season where Chelsea's youth sides celebrated a double, is yet to get a look in under Conte, having been sent out to Vitesse Arnhem last season. Bertrand Traore similarly has returned to Netherlands for a spell with Ajax after a handful of opportunities under Guus Hiddink during the second-half of the 2015-16 season.

Abraham's thrilling start to this campaign suggests he will return to Stamford Bridge with a with a reputation that eclipses those two. But the club's desperation to compete for the game's biggest names at the expense of their own means nothing is certain yet.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tammy-abraham-may-be-chelseas-great-hope-clubs-old-habits-die-hard-1586048

Conte's 3-4-3 system is a work in progress for Chelsea

Chelsea's past three halves of Premier League football have seen them employ a three-man back line. After Italy's Euro 2016 campaign highlighted their exceptional balance between defence and attack, as well as the inherent tactical discipline of the squad, it is no surprise that Antonio Conte has switched to his adopted his former international system in the wake of some disastrous performances by his new team.

While Italy played a kind of 3-5-2 with two genuine strikers in Graziano Pelle and Eder, Chelsea have so far been set out as a 3-4 3, with Diego Costa supported by Willian and Eden Hazard. So far the system has kept the opposition out with Arsenal failing to add to their 3-0 lead after its introduction and Hull City falling 2-0 in the following game. Having conceded 12 goals in the seven-and-a-half games that preceded the change, the added security has been most welcome.

Defensively it has meant that the centre-backs have been less exposed with two midfielders effectively shielding them and added protection alongside them. Given Gary Cahill's sudden penchant for dawdling in possession, this extra coverage has been essential.

There does, however, remain a concern about opponents exploiting the space left by the attacking forays of Chelsea's two wing-backs. The key to stopping this is the mobility of the two wide central defenders, in combination with the two deeper-lying midfielders.

John Terry's return from injury ahead of Saturday's match with Leicester will surely see him return to the side, most likely in the middle of the central trio. This will not only allow him to more ably organise the defence and utilise his underrated passing skills, but would also mitigate against his lack of pace if he is not forced into covering wide areas.

David Luiz is a certainty to be one of those next to Terry but the jury is out as to who will be the third defender. Cahill is a natural in that position, though his performance level has dipped badly of late. Cesar Azpilicueta slotted in at Hull and is a viable alternative, his ability to cover the ground quickly and press attackers being valuable assets. Branislav Ivanovic, having been dropped for that game, does not appear to be an option at present.


With 13 points from seven games, Chelsea currently lie seventh in the Premier League.
Further forward, there are other issues for Conte. With Hazard, Willian and Pedro Rodriguez now likely to be freed from some defensive responsibilities, they can occupy more advanced positions and have greater freedom of movement.

The new position should suit Hazard in particular and satisfy his craving to affect games from central areas, with the width largely being supplied by wing-backs. Ensuring the roving creators are still tactically diligent will be vital, though, as the tendency can be for individualistic players to do their own thing without thinking about the frontline as a cohesive unit.

Another question to be answered is the how Michy Batshuayi might feature. A strong and dynamic central striker, the Belgian seems unsuited to one of the supportive roles to Costa, who is guaranteed to start when available. Perhaps Batshuayi will need to adapt his game if he is to challenge for a starting spot, unless Conte decides to tweak his formation by playing the two in tandem, with one of Hazard or Willian in a free role behind them.

Two players who might wonder how they can get into a side playing 3-4-3 are Oscar and Cesc Fabregas. With both showing promise this season before ultimately falling flat on the big occasion, there doesn't seem to be a role suited to either at present.

Nominally they could each play as a central midfielder, though that would require them to not go missing in the same manner as did Oscar in the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool and Fabregas during the 3-0 reverse at Arsenal. At the moment even the underwhelming Nemanja Matic is ahead of them, while gifted youngsters Nathaniel Chalobah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek both seem better able to fill in there. Whether Conte is prepared to place his faith in either is another matter.

There are many questions still to answer and the new system is a work in progress that will be further stress-tested against this weekend. Emerge with another clean sheet and victory to match and perhaps Chelsea can start to think about turning the corner.


http://www.espnfc.com/club/chelsea/363/blog/post/2971204/antonio-conte-system-is-a-work-in-progress-for-chelsea

Giles Smith’s Thursday Thoughts

From the unsolvable (probably) to the unwanted (maybe), columnist Giles Smith looks back at empty days passed and the stirring of fond recollections ahead…



It’s Leicester at home on Saturday, a fixture which can only rekindle affectionate memories of the last time they were with us at the Bridge – that balmy sunlit afternoon near the end of last season when rich and warm emotions flowed from all sides of the stadium. Indeed, it’s rare to find a football ground so filled with mutual joy. Leicester were celebrating the fact that they were the new Premier League champions. And we were celebrating the fact that Tottenham weren’t.

I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that an atmosphere of easy comradeship and openly shared values hasn’t always existed between our two clubs. Certainly I can remember travelling to Filbert Street for an FA Cup tie, at some point in the relative darkness of the 1990s, and finding myself positioned right next to the fence separating the away supporters from their hosts. And I have to say that, if I remember correctly, there wasn’t a lot of love coming through that fence on that particular afternoon, and precious little in the way of offers of brotherhood.

But that was before fate and history brought us inseparably together on that night against Spurs when Eden Hazard sent the ball into the top corner and the title to Leicester – enabling, incidentally, John Terry to tweet out what was, for me, by a considerable distance, the best hashtag of the 2015/16 season: #notonmyshift

Leicester’s title victory and our part in its delivery signalled a new era between our clubs and created a bond which is set to be lasting and can surely overcome a small matter like the fact that we signed their best player over the summer.

2015/16, though – what an incredible and crazy season, probably never to be repeated, which challenged pretty much everything that we thought we knew and took for granted and turned all the available wisdom on its head. By which I mean not so much the fact that Leicester won it, because they were an impressive set of players with a real sense of purpose under a knowledgeable manager; but more the fact that their nearest challengers were Tottenham, of all clubs. That one is set to mystify the scholars for many long years to come. Will they ever solve it? I doubt it. Great memories for the rest of us, though. Roll on Saturday lunchtime.


It’s easy to take exception to international breaks – to object to them as a largely unwanted irrelevance, not to mention an almost complete vacuum, entertainment-wise, and to complain about the way they come along with such regularity during the league season and interrupt everybody’s fun.

It’s probably true to say that I’ve made a few such allegations in this column from time to time in recent seasons.
-
However, this week, with the usual empty time on its hands, even this column seems to have come to something of an eye-opening realisation about international weeks: it turns out that there is a point to them. It’s just a very different point, these days, to the point they used to have.

Back in the day, league games were thought to be a kind of long-form rehearsal for duty with your country. To this end, the league acted as a kind of enormous shop window. Players going well at their clubs were said to ‘put themselves in the frame’ for international selection. You’d speak of players trying to ‘catch the eye’ of the England manager. ‘If he keeps playing like that,’ you would hear people say, ‘surely an England call-up can’t be too far off.’

Nowadays, to the extent that international football has any function at all, it’s probably as the opposite of this – or certainly where England are concerned. It’s an opportunity for players who perhaps aren’t getting the chances they think they deserve at league level to get out there and play some competitive football (or thereabouts, in the case of England v Malta followed by England v Slovenia) and make an impression on their club managers.

It’s a chance, in other words, for Wayne Rooney (just plucking a name at random) to show Jose Mourinho exactly what he can do, coming off the bench. It’s a chance for Daniel Sturridge to try and impress Jurgen Klopp and make the case that he’s not just an intermittently flickering 40-watt light-bulb but someone who can be relied upon to lead a front-line on a regular basis. It’s a chance for our own Gary Cahill to indicate to Sg. Conte where he might fit in the event of the manager developing plans to go on a regular basis with a back-three formation. And it’s a chance for Andros Townsend to remind his manager - and indeed all of the rest of us - who Andros Townsend is.

Of course, we’ll all have our own opinions about how each of those players, in their various ways, got on with their personal mission over the past few days. But what the international week just gone undeniably granted them was an opportunity. And to that extent I guess we would have to say that it was welcome.

Could still have done without it, though, speaking personally.

CLUBS OFFICIAL SITE.

@donjazet

Costa is one yellow away from a match ban. He'll probably get that this weekend,and then we can see Mitchy in action as a starter vs United.

Abraham must get next move right to follow Marcus Rashford to the top.


Gloves tossed to the floor at the final whistle, eyes focussed straight ahead and a march off down the tunnel – it was an unexpected reaction from Marcus Rashford on Tuesday night, for a teenager who has cheerfully taken just about every opportunity offered to him over the last eight months.

He had come on as a substitute for the last ten minutes of England’s World Cup qualifier against Slovenia with the same brief that he has had many times before in his short senior professional career – that being to score the winner. Andros Townsend and then Wayne Rooney had come on ahead of him and you might say that Rashford deserved to replace Daniel Sturridge a lot earlier than he did.

His reaction suggested that the 18-year-old has strong opinions about where he should be in the hierarchy and that he is not necessarily just happy to be around the big names and the big games – without playing a key role.

Rashford turns 19 on the final day of the month, four weeks younger than another English striker who reached his 19th birthday on Oct 2 and is following a different development trajectory. Tammy Abraham scored twice on his Under-21s debut against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday, has 11 goals in 14 matches on loan from Chelsea at Bristol City, and, as top goalscorer in the Championship, is the breakthrough English talent of the season so far.

Two teenage strikers, two careers, two young men who have already come much further than many of their age-group peers on the ultra-competitive pathway that leads all too rarely from the Premier League’s top academies to the Premier League’s leading first teams.

It also poses an interesting question of their clubs, and the English game itself as to whether one or both of these boys - both born in October 1997, one in South Manchester, the other in South London - will one day find themselves England first-choice strikers. They have come a long way but both their careers are still hostage to factors beyond their control: a sceptical manager, a big name signing brought in ahead of them, a bad loan move.

Rashford is, of course, several laps ahead: a fully-fledged five-cap England senior international with 27 appearances for Manchester United and four goals this season alone. He has started five of United’s 11 senior games this season and his debut hat-trick for England Under-21s last month suggested he had already surpassed the requirements for that level.

Abraham comes from a club where the modern history of academy boys in the first team is not strong compared to United, even though it was injuries above all that meant Rashford got his chance on that night against FC Midtjylland in February. There are plenty of good young players at Chelsea whose loans have been a road out of the club rather than a way of reminding HQ as emphatically as Abraham has, that they are a talent worth paying attention to.

Abraham has approached every step up the ladder so far as a chance to shine rather than fade, just as Rashford has done. Not since Romelu Lukaku’s loans at West Bromwich Albion and then Everton have Chelsea exported a striker who has managed to raise his profile as dramatically as Abraham has over the space of a few months at Ashton Gate.

What suits one player’s development does not necessarily serve another and the best way of guiding a young footballer towards the first team is different each time. Had Rashford not seized his chance for United last season he would have been looking at the kind of loan that Abraham is on. As for Abraham, he was given two substitute appearances by Guus Hiddink last season, 53 minutes in all, that did not feature a breakthrough moment of the kind Rashford enjoyed.

For Abraham, the next move is crucial. He will recall Patrick Bamford’s loan season at Middlesbrough in 2014-15 when the Englishman scored 19 goals in the Championship. Bamford’s next move was Crystal Palace where he unilaterally declared his intention to leave early. This season he is at Burnley, his sixth loan club, where he has figured just twice as a substitute.

At 23, Bamford has time to come again and there is no question he is a talent but the question arises again: how best to develop if it is not to be in the first team of his parent club? Abraham will look at Rashford and ask himself why he cannot achieve what his fellow teenager has done at United if given the chance. It took Rashford 63 minutes of his United debut to score his first senior goal, a further 12 to score his second.

Is that what the likes of Abraham must accept now, that chances for teenagers at the elite level – especially strikers – are measured in minutes rather than games?


His loan move to Bristol City was carefully selected, with manager Lee Johnson sealing the deal by offering Chelsea clear plans on how he wanted to use the player, and also working hard to convince Abraham himself. Come next summer, Abraham will have another judgment to make – whether to take a loan higher up the hierarchy, or to stay put in Bristol, or even return to Chelsea.

Rashford has already passed that level now and as a first team squad member his immediate concern is a place in the United team to play Liverpool on Monday. Abraham has something of a local derby of his own on Friday evening, against Cardiff City, although he knows he will be playing. Such are the preoccupations of the modern English teenage striker whose decision-making must be as good when planning his career, as it is in front of goal, if he is to be a success.

Modified and attached below.

Tammy Abraham will remain at Bristol City for the rest of the season as Chelsea have not added a recall clause in their loan deal, according to reports.

The 19-year-old netted twice in his first start for England Under-21s earlier this week to take his tally for the season to 13 goals in 15 games for club and country.
But according to the Evening Standard, Chelsea will be unable to bring the striker back to Stamford Bridge before the end of the campaign as they have not included a break clause in his temporary deal.
With Loic Remy sent out on loan to Crystal Palace, Antonio Conte only has Diego Costa and Michy Batshuayi as his two recognised strikers.


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/13/chelsea-did-not-include-a-recall-clause-in-tammy-abrahams-loan-deal-6189661/#ixzz4My34TGI1

Nihilist:
@donjazet

Costa is one yellow away from a match ban. He'll probably get that this weekend,and then we can see Mitchy in action as a starter vs United.

I certainly hope he doesn't get a card . We need him against Man United. And Moreso he seems to have cooled down of recent.

[size=14pt]WILLIAN LOSES HIS MOTHER [/size]

Chelsea's Willian posts emotional poem after death of his mother, with midfielder set to stay in Brazil

Willian was in Canada on his way back to London when he heard the news and immediately returned to Brazil, meaning he will likely miss the game at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The 28-year-old scored for Brazil on Tuesday night before returning to be with his mother, who was battling cancer in Sao Paulo

Willian has postponed his return to Chelsea after international duty in the wake of his mother's death from cancer.

Maria Jose Borges died on Wednesday afternoon after a long battle with the illness in a hospital in the midfielder's home state of Sao Paulo.

The 28-year-old played for Brazil in Venezuela on Tuesday night , scoring his country's second goal, but returned to Brazil to be with his mother after the game.

Willian, who scored for Brazil in a 2-0 win over Venezuela on Wednesday, took to social media to share a touching poem in tribute to his late mother, who lost her two-year battle with cancer.
The 28-year-old, who revealed that his mother was suffering from the illness back in September, has tragically seen surgery and chemotherapy treatments fail to send the disease into remission.

Acknowledging the critical condition, Willian dedicated his Brazil goal to his mother: ‘I am very happy with the goal,’ he said after the match.
‘I also scored against Venezuela in the home match. Today, I was happy to score here.
‘The goal today is for my mother, who is in hospital, for my wife, for my daughters and for all the families who cheers for me.’

Willian shared the sad news on his Facebook account, attaching a poem called Mãe , or 'mother'.


One passage reads:

"I miss you so much. This is true. But I still accept this because we are going to live together for all eternity.

"I continue here on earth, faithful to the Lord's teachings, so that I can be like you and also have the Kingdom of Heaven."

The full poem below.

Willian's heartfelt poem to his mother
Mother
In the sky is your place
Where will you be now
Where do you live
Left you so much
After you left here
Just asking
Because I’m so sure
It is in heaven that you are
Yeah near Jesus Christ
I’m sure it’s your place.
Because for you to be holy
You don’t need canonize
Just be the mother that was
To Sanctify.
Don’t think I’m hurt
By punishments to me data
Because between the mother and son
Always all is forgiven.
Can you believe that I’m fine
Because between the punishment and love
Did you do with that I would follow
Definitely a good way.
I miss you so much
That’s true
But I still accept
Because we live together
For all eternity.
I’m still here on earth
To his teachings to be faithful
So I can like you
Also have the kingdom of heaven.
Then we’ll meet
Have detached from the earth
To participate
Dreamed of eternal life.

Willian has been granted compassionate leave as a result, and will miss the Blues’ games with Leicester City according to Sky Sports.
The club have given their own message to the Brazilian, saying: ‘All of us at Chelsea Football Club are sending our love and deepest condolences to Willian and his family after the passing of his mother.
‘We are thinking of you Willian.’


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/13/chelsea-winger-willian-confirms-the-death-of-his-mother-6189512/#ixzz4My150gyx

May her soul rest in peace.

Am kinda confused right now. Do I post more Chelsea articles or leave it at this, in order to like, commiserate with willian.??

Squawka doing the job for the NFF

http://www.squawka.com/news/from-abraham-to-akinfenwa-15-players-who-are-eligible-to-play-for-both-england-nigeria/796390

My Heartfelt condolence to Willian and his family. .

May her soul RIP.

R.I.P Mama Willian

Time for Pedro to step up and show what he can do or Maybe Oscar on that flank.

I think Willian needs at least a month or two to grieve properly.

Funjosh:
The Prof. EagleScribes

Yes boss. I remain loyal o

Finally, a Nike shirt...

Long Overdue...

RIP MARIA JOSE BORGES

Nihilist:
I think Willian needs at least a month or two to grieve properly.

.... Its like a prayer answered!

I remember when Lampard lost his mum and we sent her off with a victory over United at home


Let's do it again next week

So sad for willian....good player!








If na manu adebayor mama been die now I sure say na rap poem plus mega gbedu him for don arrange!

Paddy power suspends betting on Conte getting sacked

Dafuck?

I hope Pedro grabs this chance with both hands.

PulloutGameA1:



Tammy Abarham is unlikely to succeed but it will be nice having him, Iheanacho, Rashford and Traore battling for the charts.




[b][b]But then again, it's arsenal, he's most likely to end up in Germany or The lower divisions.
[/b]

Anyways, doesn't change the fact, your youth system is as good as Assnals Title hopes [/b]

I really don't follow/understand what your saying

Nihilist:
Time for Pedro to step up and show what he can do or Maybe Oscar on that flank.

I think Willian needs at least a month or two to grieve properly.

Any Intended pun??

donjazet:
I hope Pedro grabs this chance with both hands.

Forget Anal sex,Pedro can't do shit.....He is a useless baller,only way he plays is as a RWB to push moses Forward

Na to try Michy for wing o

donjazet:

Any Intended pun??

At all.
Losing a loved one is never easy, especially when your family and support network are thousands of miles away on a different continent.

Nihilist:
Paddy power suspends betting on Conte getting sacked

Dafuck?

For real? Did he not win his last game? And he is currently level on point with the special one

I'm hearing that this Nike deal is worth 900 million pounds.


That's how much more than those guys up north got again?

raumdeuter:


For real? Did he not win his last game? And he is currently level on point with the special one

My speculation is that maybe someone thinks Conte has been running his mouth in the press a bit too much...

The odds went from 20/1 to 8/1 to suspended in just one day. Crazy.

Nihilist:
I'm hearing that this Nike deal is worth 900 million pounds.


That's how much more than those guys up north got again?

They still earn higher than us per annum just that ours stretches longer than theirs.
And I think I have a problem with that, no deal should be longer than 10 years. For now, it could be a very good deal, but what if by ten years time, the Chelsea brand is much more valuable and other clubs are earning much higher?? We made this mistake with Samsung and we are repeating it again.
Overall it's a good deal, but the time frame stretches too far, in my opinion though.