By Myles Palmer
CHELSEA badly need a midfield anchorman.
Any Chelsea fan with half a brain will tell you that the one position they were weak in last season was that anchor role.
CFC needed a holding midfield player more than they needed full backs, wingers or half-strikers.
They tried for Emerson, but he stayed at Roma.
They wanted Mark van Bommel, one of Europe’s greatest halfbacks,but he is still at PSV.
So they go to Slovakia for a CL qualifying game.
Veron looks unhappy at the airport,looks unhappy before the game.
And then we see why.
Geremi is in central midfield with Frank Lampard.
Veron is wide on the right!
Geremi looked good as a right back at Real Madrid. I hoped Arsenal would sign him and play Lauren in midfield.
Geremi is very solid.
Very, very reliable. He can tackle, hold the ball, use it, slow the game down, shoot superbly. And he can score from free-kicks
Geremi is a powerful technician who has all the equipment.
Far better player than Gronkjaer, the Dane he looked like replacing on the right flank.
But Geremi might be the anchorman Chelsea need.
The new Blues team could be Cudicini,Geremi and nine others.
If that’s the case then Ranieri will have done what Arsene did with Petit, Grimandi and Henry.
GEREMI now has a big chance, as Toure does at centreback.
Chelsea beat Zilina 2-0 and Duff played well.
Gudjohnsen scored the first goal, but he was average.
What happened to his spark?
I think his wife and kids went back to Iceland, he got lonely, lost £400,000 in a casino, had a bad season, like Hasslebaink.
Jimmy and Eidur were electrifying together. Then they were rubbish together.
And now they might be washed up together. We shall see.
Poor Frank Lampard.
At West Ham, his uncle and his dad are in charge.
They sell Berkovic, so young Frank can get forward, score goals, make headlines, get in England team. That doesn’t work so he moves to Chelsea.
Over-awed in his first season, Desailly gives the ball to Petit, the mate he trusts
Second season, Lamps is more confident, scores goals, looks OK for Sven’s 2004 squad.
Then a new owner spends £75 million on seven new players.
Arsenal should beat Everton by two goals, but might only win by one goal.
Because Freddie needs to find a cutting edge. And Robert and Thierry are short of full match fitness
Three of their goals recently have been lucky.
The first two against Rangers. The penalty? A dive by Vieira, the ball was long gone.
Thierry’s equaliser in Cardiff was a fantastic shot from 35 yards.
For a tackle that was not a foul.
The three-man wall was the worst wall Sir Alex has seen since he left Aberdeen.
The shot went past Nicky Butt’s hip,between him and Scholes.
American keeper Tim Howard had a good view but did not reach it. Nobody in the MSL hits them like that, probably.
Few in the Prem hit them like that.
A terrific strike Mr Newly-Married Henry, but an element of luck.
I’d like to see Herr Lehmann start with a clean sheet.
Slightly cooler weather now. I can feel my appetite for football coming back.
Any day now, I’ll put my trousers back on and get back to work.
Yesterday Caroline, Keara, Neela and three pals from Hampstead Comprehensive went down to the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, to be interviewed by 5 Live about their A-levels.
When she came back I told her I was about to do 10 minutes on Dublin radio, talking about The Professor.
She said, “It’s all radio today.”
14th August 2003