What Good Is a Weekend without Football?

Now you’ll tell me there was football this weekend. International football means nothing to me unless it is in proper stages of tournaments or there is something really really exciting happening there.

For all this indifference towards international football and breaks, this time around I’ve welcomed this break. The reason is, Man Utd seem to be heading for a freefall if not in one already.

Having lost in two successive games for the first time in many seasons, they must be itching to play again to get back to winning ways. Now they’re put on hold. All their rush of blood must take a break. That helps is in the bigger scheme of things.

Of course, Chelsea lost as well. That was the most shitty thing to happen when Man Utd lost, but it did happen. Someone needs to put Man Utd on pressure. If it’s Liverpool, I’m fine with that.

If Liverpool’s pressure on Man Utd helps us, we can slowly sneak back in. And then if it’s between Liverpool and us, no problems.

Rafa’s decisions will put more pressure on Liverpool than Chelsea would ever be able to. Then the title is ours. I know we are not in the race and we need a miracle to even join the race, let alone win it. But what harm in just letting your imaginations run wild?

So let’s catch up on some footie news in the last week.

Hiddink is not going to stay with Chelsea. He has said this a million times now. Still, everyday I get to see news like ‘Hiddink hints Chelsea stay’ or ‘Guus: I’m going’ or ‘Guus: I won’t stay here even if I’m dead’ and all that. I think he’s made it pretty clear. He has a contract with Russia.

Not just a contract, he thinks he has a responsibility to take Russia through for the world cup.

In fact, this week and next week, he is managing Russia and not Chelsea. He has a contract with Chelsea only until end of May. He has said that he would not consider Chelsea unless Russia gets eliminated.

I don’t want Russia to get knocked off just for Hiddink to join Chelsea. Russia are a good team now and they deserve a place in the world cup.

Hiddink also talked about the possibility of him being a consultant for Chelsea beyond May. I’m never a fan of roles like football director or such consultants who end up overlapping with the manager bruising each other’s egos.

Hiddink does not look like a manipulative guy and he looks and sounds like a big man. A man who’s not cheap or silly or cunning.

So his being a consultant might even work. Whatever the outcome is, I don’t want Chelsea to start their manager hunt yet. We’ve got time for that. I read somewhere that Peter Kenyon is tight-lipped about Ancelotti becoming Chelsea manager. Those kind of news are just scary. Ancelotti? No, please no.

In other news, Rafael van der Vaart wants to leave Real Madrid for Chelsea. I love van der Vaart. He is a fantastic player and I’d love to see him as a Chelsea player. He says that he’d like to join Chelsea and also claims that Chelsea have shown their interest. That’s where I think Hiddink’s value comes in.

Just like Scoalri was wooing Brazilian players, Guus can bring in those magnificent Dutch. If any of these Dutch players end up joining Chelsea, you can be rest assured that Guus is here to stay, as manager or whatever. The only problem I have with a probable van der Vaart deal is the whole deal itself.

It’s very well documented that Real Madrid are double crossing bastards when it comes to the transfer market. Not sure if they would start behaving like a football club when talks about van der Vaart start.

Elsewhere, in the wordy duel between Fergie and Rafa about who spent more, the best comment came from neither. David Moyes was asking why is that they are fighting that the other team spent more while they don’t open this topic at all when they visit places like Goodison park.

Top interception that one. Money does get you success. There are enough examples for teams with less money winning things and big spending teams getting stuffed out. That was a lame comment by Rafa. We know that he and his team have got Fergie and Man Utd’s number.

Rafa is on a high after a few very good results and signing a long term deal. Rafa said this money thing only to fuel the fire because he was winning the battles but still that was really a lame comment.

Next up, Newcastle away on Saturday. On that very day, Man City can win at Emigrants, Fulham at home can hold Liverpool. The next day, Aston Villa can dump Man Utd in deep shite.

All this can happen. What should also happen is Chelsea beating Newcastle. Hoping for all this.