and yes, maybe I should setup a page 3 for SL? Keep the random pics off the main page, so to speak?

To answer your question in the title: YES!! I am sure that if Rijkaard does not win a couple of trophies this season he will swap with Mourinho. An yes, I would also hate to see Mour at Barca. I have said before in a post that if anyone can make Barcelona play ugly footy it has to be the Special One, because it would be a special feat.

- Rijkaard made his debut as Coach with the Dutch national team.
- Owning something and letting others manage it, is called manage as well. It’s a century old Roman war principle, the term first nailed by Julius Caesar: Divide et Impera.
- ten Cate left Ajax for a role as #2 in the shadow of a nobody.
- Nope, I meant Trappatoni.
- Think a control freak such as Roman would not try to have obtained more control in CSKA than just a sponsor deal? Dream on, he’s a tycoon. He wants to know everything before opening the wallet. Think one would not think twice and investigate before banging $54m in a sponsor deal? Yes, that’s also (gathering) experience.
- Who cares when he brought Ballack and Sheva? Thing is, Mourinho didn’t want them, it was the oligarch’s power play.
- No one knows when he decided Mourinho had to leave. May is a guess because both UCL and Prem were lost. The Villa game was not important, more important was the direct attack in the days after (A-Class eggs)
- I wonder why Abrahamovich (I’m a ManU fan, I’ll call Romain whatever I want) invested 600.000GBP in a helipad on top of the Chelsea Village Hotel (Sunday Mirror, 28 March 2004). Surely not because his Sussex – Stamford trips took him more than an hour, and not because he regularly already flies to Weybridge for breakfast.

Otherwise there was a style figure in the entry, it was about the fairy tale.

Sorry about the Klinsmann error, I would have sworn the lunch was in London, as Klinsmann was in the capital visiting the company I work for end May. My bad.

Last but not least, no worries about the writing competition, Ahmed knows I just wanted to contribute hors competition. Heck, I write for an indirectly competing blog, with fan flair. There’s no way I’d want to be a regular contributor (on contract) on this popular blog where many times commenters forget it’s a blog, it’s supposed to be opinionated and doesn’t require a MBA in English. But even people writing in their fourth language are allowed to badly research and submit an entry.

Why don’t you submit an article? I’m happy with my wooden spoon. Actually I need one as the kitchen equipment goes to my soon to be ex.

“It’s doubtful Ten Cate would be pleased to be #2 to Rijkaard. He left CL and La Liga Champions Barcelona when in the same position in order to get a #1 spot at Ajax. Why should he go backwards again?”

Hasn’t he just agreed to work at Chelsea under an unknown, Avram Grant?? So why would he be so very averse to working under Frank Rijkaard at Chelsea? Or is a case of Ten Cate staking his independence from Rijkaard in particular? I’m curious.

On topic: good article, kind of curious myself how things will change at Chelsea. It’s pretty obvious that Grant won’t be there for a very long time. With the finances and player potential present at Chelsea, Rijkaard could probably realise Abramovic’s dream of winning things with attractive football…but then again, it’s a funny old game, even the world’s best striker somehow managed to turn crap when joining the blues

- His name isn’t “Abrahamovich”
- He never arrived at Stamford Bridge in a helicopter (ever)
- He didn’t decide Mourinho would have to leave in May (maybe January, maybe after the Villa game in September, but not May).
- He brought in Ballack and Shevchenko in only his 4th of his 5 years at the club
- He never owned CSKA Moscow
- He never had any previous experience at any football club
- He never managed multi-billion companies. He owned them and got someone else to manage them
- Klinsmann was never met in London. It was in America
- Trapattoni may well be available but he’s 68 and in Salzburg. I think you meant Lippi (age 59 – still too old)
- Rijkaard did not make a tremendous managerial debut. In his first season he was relegated with Sparta Rotterdam
- It’s doubtful Ten Cate would be pleased to be #2 to Rijkaard. He left CL and La Liga Champions Barcelona when in the same position in order to get a #1 spot at Ajax. Why should he go backwards again?

Given all that, the rest isn’t even good English let alone anything more than platitudes. It’s just complete and utter drivel from first word to last.

Good luck on that writing competition entry, Franky. The wooden spoon prize is surely yours.