Current location:	work
Current mood:	numb
Current music:	Lifehouse - Broken
Entry tags:	bridgey, chelsea, rage omg, woe omg

Farewell to a legend...

Dear Bridgey,

Thank you for all the wonderful memories you've given me during your time at Chelsea, for all your contributions to the club both on and off the pitch, and for being someone I could always be proud to support. I'm so glad I got the chance to meet you and watch you bombing down the left in person! I'm sorry the PTB didn't appreciate you as much as you deserve and I will miss you forever, but I wish you all the best at City and I hope you enjoy reuniting with Wrighty. Oh, and may the Force be with you. ;)

♥ always,
Me



I'm still so angry I can't even cry.

I spent all last week trying to ignore the rumors, because I couldn't quite bring myself to believe that the club would be so monumentally stupid. But no, following in our long tradition of shooting ourselves in the foot at every opportunity, we decided to sell a player who has proven time and again that he is a hugely valuable asset to the club when given the opportunity to contribute, a player who is statistically the best crosser in the squad and who could provide exactly the sort of pace and width we are so badly lacking at the moment. And of course, we made this decision without ensuring that an adequate replacement is available.

I don't know why I was surprised. Since 2007 the management has done nothing but ship out players and staff without properly replacing them: Duff, Robben, Gudjohnsen, Huth, Gallas, Crespo, SWP...even Shevchenko and Pizarro. We won't even go into the shambles that was replacing Jose and his staff (or not; we were--utterly inexcusably--without a fitness coach for months last season). I understand the reasoning behind the sales, I even agreed with most of them in principle, but I don't agree with weakening the squad without first guaranteeing that a player of equivalent quality (or at least a promising youngster) would be coming in to fill each position. So now here we are, and instead of learning from past mistakes the PTB are all busy pointing fingers and wondering why an aging and injury-ravaged squad is struggling to find form under a manager whose tactical knowledge and match preparation is light years behind what most of the players had come to expect. I despair, I really do.

I don't blame Bridgey for leaving. As much as he loves his teammates, as much as he must have been reluctant to uproot his young family, on some level he surely felt a bit betrayed by the club and Scolari. After all, he signed a new contract over the summer after being assured he was a valuable member of the squad and would have plenty of chances to contribute. What a joke that turned out to be. Mourinho was the only manager who ever played Wayne ahead of Ashley when he was in better form. And let's face it, apart from the end of last season Ashley's form has been pretty average, whereas every time Bridgey got a run of games he did well in defense and also had an assist rate of something like one every other match. Why no one since Mourinho has been willing to reward that, or even just to recognize that Wayne's presence pushed Ashley to up his game, is completely beyond me. Clearly Bridgey deserves to be playing regularly at a top club; since this top club failed to recognize that I guess we don't deserve him anymore.

You know, it would serve the Chelsea board right if Wayne goes on to get his England place back, set up/score hatfuls of goals for City, and help his new club win silverware while his old one continues its pathetic and wholly avoidable downward slide due to colossal mismanagement. Obviously I don't want that last bit to happen, but sadly I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Okay, I lied. Turns out I can cry after all.