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/ 17 December 2004
Everybody in the crowd at Stamford Bridge refers to John Terry by his nickname. JT is what his friends call him and that familiarity has extended to thousands of punters. Chelsea fans may these days develop relationships with a selection of new, glamorous heroes every season, but JT is the one they know and understand best.
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/ 19 November 2004
Few that have been relegated from the Premiership have fallen as far as the Owls. In 1992/93, Sheffield Wednesday were having, arguably, the most successful campaign of their history. They reach both domestic cup finals, play in Europe, and finish a creditable seventh, immediately above Tottenham, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea.
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/ 15 October 2004
This was World Cup week, when club football takes a break and international football takes over. But scattered around Europe, while their compatriots are fretting over the latest bout of qualifying matches for Germany 2006, a worryingly large number of elite footballers will spend the time with their feet up and their minds at rest.
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/ 17 September 2004
With precious little to crow about since the last time England looked to a cocky young Tottenham player for inspiration, those who have spent the post-Gazza years traipsing to White Hart Lane will this season be excused for skipping all the way. Maybe the years of miserable mediocrity are coming to an end.
Either he is putting on a sensational act to camouflage a deeply sensitive and shrewd mind, or Jose Mourinho really is the most self-adoring person to set foot in the English premiership. A handful of days into his new job at Stamford Bridge, he said: “I think at the end of my contract the club will be interested in giving me a new one.”
In certain parts of London you would be forgiven for thinking that the real cup final is happening this weekend in Cardiff. West Ham’s midfield starlet Nigel Reo-Coker contemplates the first division play-off final, promotion to the Premiership, the significance of a sudden windfall. This in itself is a bizarre twist of fate.
It may be fanciful to imagine that all the European starlets that Arsène Wenger has been reeling in will form the nucleus of his team in five years’ time, but there is a compelling reason why Arsenal are so purposefully assembling a team-behind-the-team. How else can they possibly compete with Chelski’s unlimited millions?
What are you made of, Arsenal? It was the question Haunted of Highbury was asking at half-time on Good Friday as Liverpool were on course to continue the path of destruction begun by Manchester United and Chelsea. What was at stake did not need spelling out.
Your average 57-year-old coach would not dream of wearing one of the figure-hugging jerseys manufactured for modern athletes, yet Fabio Capello looks dandy in AS Roma’s skin-tight top as he saunters into the café at the club’s plush complex at Trigoria.
By 5am quite a crowd had gathered outside the Stade Gerland. When the ticket office opened, it took a mere two hours for Olympique Lyonnais to sell out the tickets for their Champions League quarterfinal against Porto on Wednesday. The lucky ones skipped off, clutching little rectangles of paper as if they were gold bullion.