The BBC just put up a report indicating that Robben will soon sign with the Spanish giants:

Chelsea winger Arjen Robben has agreed personal terms over a move to Real Madrid, reports BBC Radio Five Live.

The clubs are yet to agree a fee, which is understood to be about £15m, but Robben, 23, is due to fly to the Spanish capital on Friday.

It seems that the hour of his imminent departure is upon us. I hate to see him go, and leave Chelsea never having fully reached his stride. Robben walks away from the elusive fifth-gear he was never able to reach. Among moments of sparkly, eye-catching brilliance, he never seemed to perform consistently enough to make a definite impact on the season.

Which is a shame. He has so much potential. With all that talent and ability (plus the pace and agility), what were the conditions that he required? Perhaps a regular starting-job was his achilles heel? Or was it actually his achilles heel(?) and various other niggling injuries that kept him out?

Being injury prone is a brutally devestating quality–a plague preying on many of football’s brightest stars. One cannot necessarily blame Robben for his skittish attendance.

But if a regular spot in the squad is what he requires, Madrid is, in my opinion, simply not the best option.

Interestingly enough, envisioning Chelsea playing without Robben isn’t hard. In fact, it’s far too easy. He is injured so consistently that I don’t even know if we will miss him. His performances are so inconsistent. As a spectator I can’t help but hope I get the chance to watch him. But in terms of his overall contribution to the team, what was really there? Nevermind the fact that he has been on a downhill slop since the original 04-05 season, and the statistics betray his diminishing returns. Goals, shots, and assists are ALL down. The only consistent number is games started.

This is not entirely Robben’s fault. He is a player with all the makings of a top wide-man, playing in a side as narrow as they come. Something about Mourinho’s tactics recently have inhibited the attacking qualities of our players. One of the many reasons I don’t want to see him go is that I believe Chelsea will be focusing on width this season. I believe our football will be better to watch this year than it has in the past five years if this is the case.

Fortunately, the BBC report I linked to above also records this little gem for us Blues fans:

It is also believed Feyenoord’s 20-year-old left winger Royston Drenthe has been lined up to replace Dutch international Robben.

This is the player we’re about to lose:

And here’s the Dutch kid we’ve been linked with:

Let’s hope his Ronaldinho-esque braids are an indicative of his footballing skills!

Tags: Robben, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Madrid, Drenthe, Football, Footy

Robben is one of my favorite Chelsea players. Although we’ve picked up Malouda, who would be considered an ideal replacement, I can’t think of anything more exciting than to watch both of them play together in a blue shirt. I will be quite sad if he does end up leaving.

Oh well. Perhaps this will allow us to play Essien on the right, in the formation I suggested earlier? That wouldn’t be so bad. He is perhaps the best jack-of-all-trades currently playing in the EPL. Powerful, determined, clever, quick, aggressive, and a true team player. When I watch him play for Ghana I can’t help but wish that he could somehow be fit into a central midfield role.

But perhaps he would be better than Mikel at playing defensive-mid in the diamond? I wonder…

I wonder what Jose’s appraisal is?

One thing is certain: I’m delighted that we’ve got the option.

Essien is definitely the type of player who can really grab the game by the scruff of the neck and drive Chelsea forward. Most all of the great teams of the past few years have had this type of player: Keane for Manchester United, Gattuso for Milan, and Vieira for Arsenal, just to name a few.

Here’s to hoping that Arjen stays with us, and that Essien is put in a position to shine like he so obviously should.

Like a few other football pundits, I believe that the spark a talented, creative, pacey winger can bring to a side cannot be underrated. The ability to really stretch a team by running up and down the lines and put in great crosses that allow the striker to score is essential to success. Furthermore, watching a winger like Kaka, Ronaldinho, C. Ronaldo, Robben, or any of the other such players is always a delight. A good winger plays the type of football you can’t help but enjoy.

We’ve just signed Malouda, who scored on his debut and had an assist (we can only hope he keeps up that type of incredible form). With the likes of him, Robben, Shaun Wright-Phillips, and Joe Cole (who has been moving more towards a role in the center of midfield but still looks proficient on the wings) terrorizing the flanks, I couldn’t be any more excited. Salomon Kalou, who I feel will have a solid season this year, has been employed mostly on the outskirts of Jose’s 4-3-3. But that shouldn’t keep him from remaining a solid backup striker/winger. Who knows, he may even have a breakout season and earn a spot alongside Drogba.

Furthermore, Ashley Cole , if he can remain healthy for the season, is the perfect left-fullback for this type of wide squad. Let’s also hope that we can get ahold of Daniel Alves to play at right-fullback. He’s commonly referred to as a right-sided Roberto Carlos. This really would be a perfect complement to Cole/SWP/Robben or whoever plays in front of him on the right. If we don’t manage to pick him up, which I find very unlikely, Paulo Ferreira is still a soild right-back and I wouldn’t mind having him start.

Since Mourinho has been charged with not only winning trophies this year, but also playing an eye-pleasing, attacking style of football, this is the line-up I would start with, assuming everyone is healthy.

———————————–
——Drogba–Shevchenko——
————Lampard————–
Malouda——————Robben
————-Mikel—————-
A. Cole–Terry–Carvalho–Alves
————-Cech—————–

As obnoxious as it is to go ahead and include Alves in the squad, all the speculation that’s reached my ears has affirmed the surety that he will be joining us before the window shuts. I would also start Lampard over Ballack, who has looked perpetually lethargic and apathetic. Mikel over Makelele is an obvious choice: the former looks to be one of the premier league’s upcoming stars, while the latter is a loyal but ageing shadow of his deliberately assertive self.

The wingers I’ve selected, Robben and Malouda, are my favorites. Joe Cole is also one of my favorite players and I would cycle him in very frequently. With so much ability Mourinho really can’t go wrong.

****Note: As I type this, Daniel Alves just put in a fine finish for his country, securing Brazil’s 3-0 lead in the Copa America final. Fantastic!

In another interesting move, Jose put on both Makelele and Kalou on in the last five minutes of the game.  Obviously, he was expecting the game to go to overtime and saved his remaining two subs specifically for it.  I think that if Essien hadn’t put it past Valencia’s keeper, Kalou would have torn Valencia’s defense apart in the extra time without a doubt.

Today, the stakes are higher and goal is clear.  With ManYoo’s recent stumble, Chelsea are a powerfully hungry team with a firm grasp of exactly what needs to be done.

Barring some disaster or a goal very early in the match by Valencia (which would throw us off mentally), I say we win 2-0 today.  Maybe, we win 1-0 if Valencia play it very defensively.

This match means too much to Jose for him and his players to give it anything but their all.

I didn’t manage to see the game, but the boring, lifeless, bland England performance that everyone is reporting seems completely unsurprising.

Even the England U-21′s are more fun to watch.

The Andorra game should be easier for them, although both games really should be sure wins.

Israel and Andorra are not teams that should pose a serious threat to a team with the talent, potential, and significance of the English game. Why then can England fans everywhere not help but feel slightly anxious about the fixtures? Why does every game have to be so worrisome? The problem with the team is both devastatingly simple and highly complex all at the same time.

The problem with the team is that they lack creativity, and all that it entails.

What the Brazilians have in abundance more than anyone else is a creative vision, and with that comes a natural, confident, witty style. It makes watching a fully-functional Brazilian team a delight to watch, and an unstoppable presence on the pitch. One needs to look no further than the domestic English football product, the EPL, to witness the difference.

In many respects the EPL is a great league. It draws world-famous players, countless impassioned fans, and tons of money. But the main draw of the EPL, and the characteristic for which it is most known, is it’s brutal efficiency. The English teams are like high-powered, fine-tuned machines. The up-tempo and cutthroat pace often make it a delight to watch. In some ways it makes the league (at least initially) inaccessible to foreign players and difficult to adjust to. Chelsea’s own Andriy Shevchenko is one such player who just now seems to be adjusting. Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano are two other players who were obviously unaccustomed to the English style. But this style, and general cultural preoccupation with fine-tuning the football club, is directly affecting the national team’s performance.

England’s national players do not lack heart or determination, nor do they lack the will to win and the capability to do so. Where they do fall short by a sizable margin from the world’s other football powers is the creative side of the game. Watching the team, I can’t help but feel sorry for them for taking it all so seriously. They’re so determined to win that they believe there is no margin for error. Trying so hard not to make mistakes, they rarely take chances to dribble an opponent or slice through a defense with the unpredictable confidence of a player like Ronaldinho. They’re not enjoying the run-out, and they’re not having fun. Instead, it looks more like they’re dutifully performing a dead-end job.

So, what do England need? Well first of all, McClaren is completely wrong for the job. He needs to pack up his things very soon, although it seems likely that he will anyways. In his place England need to appoint someone who can bring life and energy to the team. Someone familiar with the beautiful Brazilian, Italian, Argentinian, Spanish, or even French product should be considered. Someone who can inspire the team, allow them to relax, and play around a little bit on the pitch. Above all else, someone creatively gifted rather than technically learned. A Marcello Lippi or an Arsene Wenger rather than a Jose Mourinho.

Fixing the team will be an interesting and unenviable task. I only hope that the men in charge will realize how devoid of creativity the squad has become.

As the goals keep coming, so too does the confidence. He can only get better.

Good, too, for Shaun Wright-Phillips. SWP has had a tough spell so far at Chelsea and although his critics have screamed nowhere near as loudly as Shevchenko’s, I feel as though his drought has ultimately been the worse of the two. Shevchenko was always the confident, classy, tireless worker personality. For him it always seemed a matter of time before he got lucky and things started happening. SWP on the other hand, was a quieter, more brooding type. He wa always more likely to spend time brooding over his recent form than over his pedigree of success (Of course, Shevchenko’s “pedigree” always offered a larger cushion to rest on than SWP’s). And thus, he was more likely to stay in his drought perpetually.

Perhaps he too can snap out of it now?

Jose Mourinho picked him over Robben to start. Robben is fit and he’s one of my favorite Chelsea players. I love nothing more than to watch a pacey, agile, intelligent winger run at and attack an opposing defense, and to me, Robben is one of the best at it in the English game. Playing for Holland, he is perhaps the most exciting man on the pitch. And I wish his form would translate better to Chelsea’s tactics, but alas…

Point is, I would have picked Robben over SWP any day. Jose picked SWP and he scored a fantastic goal and put in a very solid, more intelligent performance. Shows how much Jose knows about footy compared to me, eh?

In other news,, Chelsea’s fixture list is officially out of control. Such is the price of victory. It’s ironic, but perhaps not unusual or surprising to most football fans, that the cost of winning as consistently as Chelsea (and ManU, for that matter) is such a brutal schedule. I get the feeling that Chelsea will inevitably slip up on at least one of the four fronts, and something tells me that the punishment will most likely come in a Champions League fixture. If not Valencia, somebody else will soon take advantage of our tired legs. The great European teams left in the competition will know how to exploit this weakness with brutal efficiency.

Good luck, boys.

Alright, just to get back in the swing of things and because of this recent “March Madness” mediastorm, I’m going to try my hand at making predictions for just a few of the upcoming games this weekend. Bracketology, as they call it, has got me all hyped up on picking winners.

My picks are as follows:

1. Man U 1/3 over Bolton 7/1
2. Chelsea 1/7 over Sheffield 11/1
3. Portsmouth 11/4 over Reading 5/6
4. Blackburn 8/13 draw West Ham 7/2

Pompey over Reading is a tough call and the bookies have given Reading the edge because they’re at home, but I’ll take a chance on this one.  Pompey looked solid against Chelsea last week and hardly deserved to go down 2-0.  I’m also tempted to call this one a draw, but the payout is quite good if Pompey manage to squeeze out a 1-0 win.

In other news, Chelsea as a couple of big, non-league matches coming up. In the Champions League they’re about to go up against a powerful, dangerous, and on-form Valencia. Both of their top strikers are capable of nicking one in the back of the net at any moment and we’ll be hard-pressed to find a clean sheet against them. If John Terry’s back I’m saying we draw or win 2-1. If he isn’t we’ll lose 1-0 or 2-0 and will struggle to organize much of anything.

Against Tottenham I predict a win. Terry should be back for the match and both teams will be hungry, but Chelsea’s class and Jose’s tactics will win it for us.