Chelsea FC: Todays Top Stories The Football Report: No Drama from Mourinho, Liverpool Back to Winning Form Chelsea Fans Were Classy to Cheer Frank Lampard; But It Is Not Always That Simple Premier League: 10 Players That Need To Impress - Part Two, Featuring Arsenal and Chelsea Stars Chelsea 2 - 1 Bolton Wanderers: Match Reaction FIFA 15: Full Budgets and Player Lists for All 20 BPL Clubs The Football Report: No Drama from Mourinho, Liverpool Back to Winning Form Posted: 24 Sep 2014 10:39 PM PDT SWOL partner FUBO.tv brings you the latest up to date news in the world of football everyday with the Football report. Android Users: Gain Exclusive Access to Fury 90, the worlds most exciting new fantasy game. Jose Mourinho feels no drama after Manchester City match, Pep Guardiola not surprised by Paderborn and Liverpool looks to get back into winning form. Check out todays video below for all the latest news. < Please enable Javascript to watch this video Soccer News by FuboTV Love SWOL? Like us on Facebook and show your support! Chelsea Fans Were Classy to Cheer Frank Lampard; But It Is Not Always That Simple Posted: 24 Sep 2014 09:40 PM PDT The feel good story of the last football weekend was the response of Chelsea supporters in their reunion with Frank Lampard. #455911214 / gettyimages The midfielder spent over 10 trophy-laden years with the Blues before leaving last summer. Now temporarily with Premier League rivals Manchester City—on loan from their Major League Soccer franchise New York City, his next proper playing destination—he was greeted warmly by his former club’s fans. This, despite scoring the goal that drew Man City level, cost Jose Mourinho’s side two points that may prove important down the line. London Evening Standard columnist Des Kelly described the visiting Chelsea fans as “pure class”, praising their collective attitude. “Amid all the fuss and scandal it can be easy to forget this is a sport that can display plenty of dignity, too.” The complement was deserved. Anyone listening to radio phone-ins around the time Lampard’s Man City move was announced would have heard Chelsea fans conflicted as to how they should feel about it. When the moment came, they went with their hearts and chose to remember the good times rather than reflect on the damage the 36-year-old might cause them. The thing is, as nice as all this was; it is not always that simple. When a player has played as big a part in a club’s unprecedented success as Lampard did, not giving him at least a polite reception would be petty. At his age, he is not going onto a career elsewhere that is going to come back and haunt his old team repeatedly over seasons. The Englishman is obviously still a talented player, well capable of contributing at a high level. However, he is no longer the box-to-box midfield dynamo who is going to guarantee double figures on the goalscoring charts. If he was, Chelsea probably would not have let him go and he might not have wanted to anyway. But, if he been the one who wanted a parting of ways, it would not have been pretty (see the Liverpool fans who burned shirts with Steven Gerrard’s name on the back when it looked like he wanted to join Chelsea in 2005). Despite Chelsea and Man City battling it out for the title, their rivalry is not so fierce. Had Lampard joined Tottenham Hotspur or Arsenal, it might have been a different story for the fans. #948706 / gettyimages At the beginning of the last decade, those latter two clubs were involved in arguably the most hostile and venomous response to a player’s return in English football history. Sol Campbell had been Tottenham’s best player, the homegrown defensive rock who had helped maintain respectability and achieved a modicum of success (the 1999 League Cup) even as mediocrity mostly ruled at White Hart Lane. There had probably been no better servant to the Spurs cause for several years. Campbell had some legitimate reasons in wanting to move on for a better chance of silverware, and was unlikely to placate Spurs fans, regardless. But having publicly led them on about wanting to stay, only to then join their most hated foe, there was no chance of fondness. Their star man was now going to help the worst possible people. Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen later moved to Manchester United, Ashley Cole left Arsenal for Chelsea—each occurred under different circumstances, yet they are linked by the hurt from supporters at seeing a hero going to an enemy. The decisions made by players in instances like these provided an unwelcome stick to be hit with by fans of their new clubs at school or work the next morning, or these days, across social media. Also in Lampard’s favour was the feeling his departure was not totally down to him. A club making the decision for a player to leave, at least partly, can give a bigger bad to be vented at. It is why the former Tottenham goalkeeper, Pat Jennings—a bedrock of the team for 13, often successful years from 1964—did not receive the same level of ire Camp
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 09:35:08 +0000
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