Chelsea FC Preseason Round-up: Isn't Daniel Sturridge a Decent Signing?

Lots of stuff to write about: some interesting transfer news and rumours, some preseason friendlies, some continuing "situations," and the new away unis, in that order.

Chelsea is seeing. Chelsea is looking. Chelsea is monitoring. Chelsea is considering.

These are the things press say to involve Chelsea when there is complete silence or indifference from Chelsea. I’m toning down my expectations and talking to myself: We’ve got time. It’s only July. Why so serious?

The biggest news is Emmanuel Adebayor’s move to Man City. That news is relevant for Chelsea because he was also supposed to be "monitored" by Chelsea. I hate Adebayor. He is a decent striker and has a good record in the premier league. I don’t like him, though.

For two reasons, I’m very happy that he joined Man City: first, Chelsea is clear of Adebayor.

Second, Arsenal is merely strengthening their direct rivals. With the purchases of Barry, Tevez, Adebayor, Santa Cruz, etc., Man City are a serious threat to Arsenal’s fourth place.

That’s what puzzles me—why would the old man sell a key player to their direct rival for their fourth place? It’ll be funny if Adebayor scores 20 goals and Man City grabs the fourth spot from Arsenal this season. Wenger has this track record. He sells players like Ashley Cole and Adebayor to his rival English clubs and gets only players like Gallas and Silvestre. Poor.

Rumors say Chelsea are now pondering a move for David Beckham. That'll stay just a rumor, because I don’t think we need David Beckham on our team.

I’m a big fan of Beckham, the footballer. I have a lot of respect for his dedication towards the sport and his true talent, which unfortunately are always overshadowed by the glitz and glamour.

Let’s admit—even as a mid-fielder, compared to the ones that Chelsea have, Beckham has his limitations, but he is way too strong with his strengths. In the system that we play, I don’t see a role for Beckham.

How do I know which system we are going to play this season?

We've seen some interesting preseason results. Warning: This is preseason, and these are friendlies. Arsenal were held to a 2-2 draw by Barnet. Arsene Wenger said that Barnet played a very physical game and that he is worried about the progress of modern day football. Man Utd. beat a Malaysia XI 3-2, with Michael Owen coming on as a substitute and scoring a winner. That’s a dream script for a debut.

I have a feeling that the Owen signing could be a master-stroke by Sir Rednose. The biggest challenge for him is to stay fit. If Owen plays about 40 games, he would surely score 10-15 goals, minimum. That’s his class. Let’s see if he stays fit until the community shield match against Chelsea next month.

Meanwhile in the United States, Chelsea beat the Seattle Sounders rather comfortably. The score was 2-0 with goals from Sturridge and Lampard. I saw John Terry on the pitch in a Chelsea shirt, and he had a white band around his arm that had this capital letter "C" on it. For every moment I saw him on the pitch, he looked every bit ours.

Deco’s performance was surprisingly good. For as long as I've followed football, he's been unhappy with everything from Chelsea to London City to Premier League; and now he turns up for a friendly match and plays like this. The ones who know the new Deco will know that he is a great player when he is un-challenged.

Seattle have just been promoted to MLS and they hardly were a threat. Hilario made a second-half presence, and you know what? He didn’t look comfortable. Di Santo came in in the second half, and was inches away from scoring a great goal. He created a chance with a sublime touch to beat the keeper, but was denied by a last-ditch tackle by the last defender. Great skill by Di Santo, though.

The star of the show was 19-year-old Daniel Sturridge. This was his debut, and he scored this brilliant goal. He made a nice on-side run and received the high ball so comfortably with some soft touches and beat the defender. Then, from almost the diagonal edge of the box, he made a sweet finish along the ground to hit the far post net. Amazing finish.

It was, in fact, very Anelka-like.

For the second goal, Sturridge provided the aid—for the newbies, "aid" is the pass to the assist. Sturridge’s pass to Anelka was sublime, and I’m surprised at the way Anelka read it and laid it off for Lampard. Lampard is known to be at the right place at the right time. He was there, and it was 2-0.

Daniel Sturridge, after the match, talked exactly the kind of words you’d expect a young player to utter after a great match:

"It doesn’t matter if anyone thinks that I played well, I know I didn’t myself and I know I can show the fans more of my ability once I get used to the playing style of the team. Obviously it is going to take time. I am a young player and I am just learning the game. I don’t think I performed too well today but hopefully I can show the fans a little bit more and maybe score a few more goals. It is not any one thing in particular but I just want to show that I am a better player than I showed today. I know I can prove to the fans that I am a decent signing."

"I am very happy to play for the team for the first time in front of a big crowd with a good atmosphere, and I was very happy to score the first goal. For the second it was a good run by Nico and a good pass from him to Frank who finished very well. There was a lot of space behind the defenders and it is a lot different here for me. I have to get used to playing with the team because the playing style is a lot different to what Man City’s is. You get the ball in positions where you can cause problems for the opposition more and it was a very good experience for me today."

Good for him. While I’m pretty pleased for Sturridge for a great debut, I felt sorry for Franco Di Santo that he couldn’t score that goal. Sturridge’s signing is a threat for Di Santo, as he would start playing the Argentinian’s three minutes towards the end of the match.

Sturridge and Di Santo seem to be entirely different players. Di Santo plays like a center-forward through-and-through, while Sturride might take a second-striker type of role. We might have the next generation of Drogba and Anelka there.

For the cup matches, we should let Sturridge and Di Santo partner the attack up front. That would be some sight.

That was also Ancelotti’s first match in charge of Chelsea. He played a 4-4-2 diamond and used about 20 players. I did realize that we didn't have too much width in our play. I’m not sure if it was because of the formation or because of the type of players he used.

For a first match, it's the result that matters and he got that. I’m more impressed with Ancelotti’s post-match comments. I don’t know if he said this in English or this was translated.

On Sturridge, he said:

"Sturridge now is not a star. He is a very good player, he has to improve with the work and he started well. For a young player these are good things, and I like his game because he scored one goal and worked for the team."

On Mark Hughes’ trail of John Terry he said:

"Mark Hughes has to stay calm, because John Terry is a player of Chelsea and will remain a player and a symbol of Chelsea. I think there is not a question for Chelsea, maybe for other people. I am not interested in this."

Lovely.

Is the Terry story over?

Once again, in the last week, we had dozens of other people saying why Terry should not leave and will not leave. So he may not leave.

We saw Terry being pictured in the Chelsea photo shoot. A player who's leaving won’t normally do this. We saw him going to the Unites States for the preseason matches. Why would he go there if he were to leave?

We have a lot of situations and circumstances from where we are made to infer, guess, and judge Terry’s stay with Chelsea.

As I’ve said a million times before, the simplest thing I’d expect is Terry calling the press and laughing it off. I don’t have the mental strength to go through another heart-in-mouth last transfer day with the Terry situation still not clarified. Please.

Why am I always ending the posts with a sad tone surrounding Terry’s situation? Let me do something else this time, while retaining the sad tone. Chelsea’s away kit was unveiled a couple of weeks back. It does not look impressive, and I thought it made common sense to have a light-coloured away kit if your home kit is of a darker colour.

My suggestion for Chelsea away kits: If it has to be lighter, make it white. If it has to be darker, make it black. Just don’t play around with nonsense. I feel that there should be some theme or some mood while designing the kits.

Honestly, the away kit is ugly and just looks so un-Chelsea. Damn, these horizontal stripes. Well, I’m getting my new Chelsea away kit sometime next week. When are you getting yours?