It only seems months ago that ‘The Special one’ Jose Mourinho left England to head to mainland Europe, but in truth it was now over a year ago. Now with a job at Inter Milan who primarily want to win the Champions League, Mourinho is already looking at post-Inter options. The former Chelsea boss was quoted saying that he looks to return to England after his job is done in Italy.

He has said “I have a contract with Inter but when it ends I will probably return to the Premier League, a league I really like.”

Jose Mourinho left Chelsea FC last year after a few bad results and ‘complications’ with owner Roman Abramovich. He was immediately linked with the England job after Steve McClarens failure to qualify for Euro 2008. The Portuguese manager has said that he was close to becoming manager of our national team, but the life of only a handful of games a year and lack of time with his players led him to decline the offer and look elsewhere.

After a sabbatical, Mourinho took up the post of Inter Milan manager. He has always expressed his love for England and Chelsea in particular. The main question however, is where will he go? After publicly expressing his interest, this article is no longer a hypothetical look at something that will never happen. Mourinho is on his way, but where?

Here are some options that he may like to consider:

Manchester United

- Alex Ferguson is not many years away from retirement. This leaves a huge job open that only a huge personality can fill. But will United go for a foreign manager when they have the likes of Hughes, Ince and Roy Keane with links to the club?

Liverpool

- Benitez is under constant pressure to pick up the league title. With respect to him, he has won the FA Cup and Champions League. Not speaking for Liverpool fans, but there is one trophy they want in the near future. Mourinho has publicly expressed his respect for the commitment and atmosphere of Liverpool fans, but do they speak the same way about him after the ‘Chelsea/Liverpool’ wars that have developed?

Manchester City

- Manchester City now has the cash to hire anyone they want. With the experience of Mourinho, the new owners will have to open there cheque book. Like Chelsea, Mourinho will walk in to a club that has lots of potential with this new cash injection, but have not won anything. Although Chelsea had previously won a lot of trophies in the late 90′s, they had never picked up the title. Man City is in that same position now.

Arsenal

- I apologise to the Arsenal fans, but I have no link with ‘The Special one’ and the gunners. Some are getting frustrated at Arsene Wengers rules of having young inexperienced players, but not winning anything! However, I still think most Arsenal fans are behind him.

Tottenham

- Looking across to the other side of North London. There is no need to update you fans about the situation at Spurs. With Ramos hanging on to the hinges of the exit door, another potential gap is open. I have talked about money, but Mourinho has proved that he doesn’t need a bottomless pit of cash to succeed. His success with Porto may persuade Tottenham fans that Mourinho may be the man for the job. Will the Portuguese boss take a step backward in to the UEFA cup battle though?

Chelsea

- And finally, Chelsea will have to be up there in the favourites. The fans in West London already love him and would welcome him back to the manager’s chair. He knows the club, the players, the fans and the opposition. There are complications with this as well though. Would he want to work with Abramovich again after previous troubles? Chelsea seem to have finally steadied there boat after Mourinho’s departure last year. Would they want to risk rocking it again?

Many say that Jose Mourinho’s heart left the Premiership after the FA cup win over Manchester United in 2007. He was a shell of his former self at the start of last season and it showed with a defeat at Villa Park, escaping with a draw at Anfield and a struggle to beat Birmingham at home. He has since said that he should have left after the cup final.

With a return now in mind, I would like any comments on where YOU think he will/Should or shouldn’t go? Plus, what do Premiership fans (apart from Chelsea) think of him and would you welcome him to your team?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

It seems to be a distant memory now… back in the days when a football weekend consisted of every team in the English league kicking off at 3pm and finishing at 4:45pm on a Saturday afternoon. To the younger readers, there was no Super Sunday, Setanta was a non existent word and Match of Day was watched every week by most males in the UK.

The FA cup final was a family day to have the rare opportunity of watching a full football match on TV. People actually went to football games in there area. Manchester United fans were actually from Manchester! (Ed: They still are, contrary to popular misconceptions…)

There is no point dwindling on the past, we are now in a Rupert Murdoch era, the era where Sky Sports rules the roost and tells teams when they are going to play.

The main sufferers of this are the Big 4. And more interesting facts are upcoming to prove this:

Consistent 3 PM kick offs at home are a distant memory for the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea. Now with Setanta in the running, things are only set to get worse as time goes on. Here are some facts to prove how television is affecting top clubs…

• Manchester United have only had one game at 3′O clock kick off this season so far. (Yes the one with THAT penalty) They will have to wait until November for there second.
• Arsenal have only had one home kick of on A Saturday at the traditional time and will have to wait until mid-November for another.
• Liverpool have been the lucky team of the big 4. They have had the luxury of two home league games on a Saturday. That is double the rest of the Premiership contenders!
• Chelsea’s last Saturday game at 3 PM was a 2-0 win against Tottenham on the 12th January 2008! Their next one will be in November against Sunderland which will be one of the three games at home in the whole year, the other being Newcastle later in the month!

As a season ticket holder at Chelsea football club, I have attended games that have kicked off at 1:30, 2, 3 and 7:45 pm this season and none of them have been on a Saturday. A lot of Premiership teams have suffered with the constant movement of matches due to Sky and Setanta sports. If it isn’t Sunday afternoon, its Monday night, Wednesday night or even as I learnt last year, Thursday night as well.

Now to those who have never attended a football game in their lives, this is luxury. Instead of waiting until match of the day to see what the stadium of the team they support actually looks like, they can watch all of the games live from their living room.

There was fear last year that the ‘blanket TV coverage’ of games would ruin attendances. Stadiums like the JJB and the Riverside are half empty every single week. While the TV coverage increases, prices for the tickets also increase as well. With Season Tickets at a premium, there isn’t much chance for the Carling cup which is at extra cost to fans as it is not covered in the season ticket plan.

But with so much money being put in to the game, how can we stop the likes of the Sky Sports juggernaut? Someone once said, ‘fans are no longer at grounds to support, they are there to make it look good on TV’ and as time has gone on, I genuinely am starting to believe that. You obviously now have the opinion of someone whose club has transformed in to a top 4 team. The opinion of fans outside the ‘Big 4′ would be appreciated.

Football is no longer a sport, it is a business. As much as football fans love the likes of Jeff Stelling on a Saturday afternoon, they are still not showing live matches at 3 om which in the long run is a good thing. But how long will it be until this as well as other ongoing traditions are broken. When will we be watching Saturday afternoon games ‘Live on Sky Sports 1′ or ‘Live on Setanta Sports’? When will the TV domination stop?

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The current group of players who wear the England shirt are the proportion of the premier League dream team. The likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Ferdinand and John Terry would be welcome in any squad in Europe. Before you click away thinking I am about to rant about how bad these players are for not performing in an English shirt, I am strongly backing the individuals.

The ‘superstars’ have taken a bashing from just about every media outlet and from this website as well looking at previous blogs. I am not attempting to engage in an argument with fellow writers, but I believe calling the players lazy and uninterested millionaires is highly inaccurate. Everybody on this website follows or supports a team and a good amount of people support someone at club level who will pull on the English shirt on Wednesday night.

When members of the team mention they are proud to where the shirt, I think they are telling the truth. The next question you will now ask is, ‘Why can’t they play well?’ A Sunday football team meets up more often then these individual players, yet they are expected to be as good as they are on club level. I am a season ticket holder at a Premiership club and have seen first hand how some of these players do brilliantly when they are working with stars they see and work with every day of the week.

Perhaps the problem isn’t what’s happening on the pitch, it could be off it. I am addressing those fans who have booed Lampard, Crouch and Ashley Cole most recently just to mention a few. A human being makes a genuine and rare mistake and gets booed by his own fans for the rest of the game… When was the last time the Kop end at Anfield booed one of there own players? Players such as Risse who scored an own goal in a European semi final have been supported from the moment the ball hit the net. (And no, that Premiership side I follow is not Liverpool)

Congratulations to Rio Ferdinand for supporting Cole and condemning the fans that have paid to support the team yet boo them. This is the best set of England players that the nation has had for a while now with names that are known around Europe. They now have a manager who knows what he is doing. This is until a couple of results go the wrong way and the nation decides to make Mr. Cappello, ‘an embarrassment to the England team’ by slating him.

Here are a couple of recommendations that should help more then any argument swaying statistics:

- STOP booing players when they make a mistake (even if they play for Chelsea)
- STOP booing those who are trying to find there feet in the team
- IF you want a goal after twenty minutes, DONT boo the team because they haven’t got it
- SUPPORT Lampard and Gerrard when they play together (even if you don’t like it)
- IF they are playing bad don’t start calling them spoilt millionaires who don’t care about England

This is not directed at anyone on this website, but to those who attend England games. I think Gerrard had a bad game on Saturday, which not only proves I don’t support Liverpool but shows that I can see that players don’t play up to the standards for England. I like to read comments and peoples thoughts, but please don’t inform me of England’s poor form as I know. All I am saying is that we should support the team in times of troubles…NOT BOO THEM!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Sunday was the day that the Aston Villa juggernaut was set to send the Premiership in circles by derailing what is turning out to be one of the most astonishing records in Premiership history. Instead of ranting about what Chelsea football club have done, this will be a more interactive article involving every football fan.

Take the team you support, and try to remember (without opening another tab on your explorer) the last time that 3 points were hijacked from Stamford Bridge by your team…?

Have you found out yet? Well here are answers for some of the football community, while I would genuinely be interested for those clubs outside the following to let me know:

• Arsenal fans will point to February 2004 when Claudio Ranieri’s team fell to the eventual champions.
• Manchester United are not so lucky and will have to grab at the tail of a 2002 memory, back when a Paul Scholes stunner set United to a 3-0 win.
• Liverpool are not too far behind Arsenal, snatching a 1-0 win back in January 2004.
• Looking across to the blue side of Liverpool, Everton have not gained victory in West London since November 1994.
• Bolton picked up a 2-1 win in 2003 thanks to a late John Terry own goal, but had not won for 28 years before that.
• Sunderland grabbed a surprising 4-2 triumph in March 2001.
• FA cup holders Portsmouth haven’t won at Stamford Bridge in 53 years.
• After Sunday, Aston Villa haven’t won in their last 7 trips to Chelsea.
• Blackburn picked up all 3 points in a 2-1 victory over the blues in 2003.
• And although Tottenham are at the wrong end of most jokes recently….Spurs’ last League victory at Stamford Bridge was 18 years ago, Gary Lineker hitting the winner as they beat Chelsea 2-1 in February 1990.

However, most of these results were before the invasion of Roman Abramovich and his seemingly bottomless pockets of cash. None of the above victories took place during Jose Mourinho’s time in London and none have since. The special one has installed a mentality to the squad that you just don’t lose at home. On the other hand, there is hope for people outside the SW6.

Many teams have taken points away from West London during this long run (and I am not talking about Craven Cottage.) Wigan followed Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Everton, Aston Villa and Liverpool in taking a point from Stamford Bridge last season, while from December the previous term Chelsea were held at home by Arsenal, Reading, Fulham, Bolton Wanderers, Manchester United and Everton.

The only other team to come close to this achievement was a record set previously by Liverpool who had an all-time run of 63 games unbeaten at home between February 1978 and January 1981. This was the standing record until it was beaten by Chelsea’s current standing in Aril 2007. Manchester United put together there own unbeaten run at home last season, but next door neighbours Man City swiftly put an end to that with a 2-0 victory.

There is an old saying that nothing goes on forever….Someone just has to tell Chelsea that!

From Soccerlens.com - Football News