31st July 2000 Deschamps Does One: More Laughs From Sutton: 27th July 2000 26th July 2000 24th July 2000 Other news is that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink limped away from the friendly against Kingstonian with a twisted ankle, having earlier scored with only his second touch of the ball. I understand that the injury, though painful, is not that serious. Other scorers in the 3-1 victory were Roberto Di Matteo and new boy Mario Stanic. Chelsea opted to play with only 10 players in each half, completely changing the lineup for each period, thus giving most of the squad an outing. Sammy Winston replied for Kingstonian. 18th July 2000 Casiraghi Under The Knife Again: 14th July 2000 Check out this forum if you fancy having a pop at Chris yourself. It's open season as far as I'm concerned.. 13th July 2000 Chris's apparently god-given gift of an almost complete disregard for reality is touching, and I only wish I had the same ability to kid myself so comprehensively. Having said that, I wish him all the luck in the world at Celtic because, if last season is anything to go by, he's going to need it. 10th July 2000 3rd July 2000 June stories
Đ 1996-2002
Priesty's Chelsea FC Refuge.
The Truth Is Up North:
I'm gutted that Chelsea have sold Dan Petrescu to Bradford City. "Mulder" apparently took only ten minutes to agree terms with Chris Hutchins, and joins The Bantams for the "poultry" sum of Ģ1 million. They've got the bargain of the century - Petrescu is a fantastic player. The only negative thing you could say against him is that he does tend to drift in and out of games a bit, and his petulance when substituted is legendary. His brilliance on the pitch, however, is not in doubt. Reading between the lines it looks like Petrescu has left because he doesn't like the old rotation policy, and you can't really blame him for that. Best of luck anyway, Dan.
Didier Deschamps has pissed off to Valencia for a few quid. I couldn't give a shit - he failed at Chelsea, having said he was here to win things, but he only stayed for ONE season. Not exactly getting your head down, is it ? Now he's coming out with the same old guff about being there purely to win things all over again, this time for Valencia, when in reality it's clear to anyone with half a brain (that leaves Valencia out, then - Ed.) that his ego can't take the fact that he can't hack the Premiership, so
he's cynically taking the easy option by going for another big payday elsewhere. His contempt for us fans is transparent. Another Laudrup, in fact. Good riddance.
The Sutton/O'Neill double act got off to the best possible start in Celtic's first league game on Sunday. Sutton accidentally scored when a ricochet bounced off his foot, and of course O'Neill immediately started banging on about what a good signing he was and how perceptive he is as a manager. How I laughed. I'm afraid it's going to take a lot more than that to keep you in work, Martin. Sutton will shit on you sooner or later, just like he did to Jack Walker, Blackburn and Chelsea.
Remember Hillsborough:
Please forgive a moment's seriousness on an otherwise superficial site: On April 15th 1989 at Hillsborough, Sheffield, 96 Liverpool fans died as a result of injuries caused by crushing due to overcrowding in pens 3 and 4 of the Leppings Lane terrace at the start of the FA Cup semi-final. The survivors, families and friends of the dead formed the Hillsborough Justice Campaign to fight for what they see as a gross injustice in the way the disaster was dealt with by the authorities, both at the time and subsequently. All football fans should visit this site; the harrowing stories from some of the survivors and relatives of the dead will have a profound effect on anyone who reads them.
Lord Fergie in "Mao Tse Bates" Bustup:
Lord Ferguson of Cat's Arse has been having a go at Ken Bates in his new book "Miseryguts Strikes Again" (Er.. don't you mean "Managing My Life" ? - Ed), likening poor old Ken to the late Mao Tse Tung, the benevolent and libertarian former Chief Honcho of China. The kernel of his complaint seems to be that Ken tends to be a bit on the mouthy side. Well I never. This shock allegation obviously comes as a complete surprise to me and everyone else who follows football in this country. Lord Fergs also has a go at Arse Wenger in the book, claiming that he is a Carp (..are you sure ? - Ed), so it can't be all bad. Keep sucking the lemons, Fergie.
Chelsea Narrowly Fail To Sign Toasted Sandwich:
Italian defender Christian Panucci of Inter Milan has spurned Gianluca Vialli's advances, preferring to stay in Italy with a move to Roma.
Shock Horror Probe - Priesty Supports The Arse
It appears that I must correct what I thought was an obviously tongue in cheek statement about the French Arsenal players at Euro 2000 being rubbish, as I've had some grief about it from people with no sense of humour. If you watched the tournament and know the first thing about football, you would have to agree that Henry was in a class of his own, and that Vieira was also excellent. It's just a pity he turns into a psychopath in the Premiership. Or is that Dennis Wise ?
Spare a thought for poor Gigi Casiraghi, who is to have yet another op on his damaged knee tomorrow in Bologna. I make that at least the eighth. My gut feeling is that he'll be lucky to be able to even walk properly, let alone play professional football again; both the cruciate and medial ligaments in his right knee were snapped when he collided with Shaka Hislop, and that's virtually the entire support for the knee gone. I wish him well and hope that he will defy the gloomy predictions and return soon, although it will be a good few months before he finds out if the op was a success.
Another Reality Check For Sutton
And there was me thinking we'd had our last laugh out of Chris Sutton;
I have it on good information from my friends at the excellent ExtraordinaryWorld.com that Sutton's agent rang Colin Hutchinson asking for a "leaving payment" for his client. He was informed in no uncertain terms that "there will be no payment, and if he doesn't leave he will be back with no squad number and he will rot in the reserves all season". Superb. This obviously installs Sutton and his agent as firm favourites for Cheek of the Year Award.
Sutton: "Je Ne Regrette Rien"
Chris Sutton has given us the best laugh we've had out of him since he fell on his arse while clean through against the Sunderland keeper in the first match of last season. He has stated that he has no regrets about his season at Chelsea (pause for incredulous laughter). I'm wondering how he could possibly have made that statement, given the glaring evidence of the large pile of excrement with one league goal sticking out of it that represents his year at the Bridge. Still, to quote from that famous line of the epic poem The Charge of The Light Brigade by Kenneth Branagh: "Ours not to reason why".
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow:
Ladies and Gentlemen, please remove your hats. Chelsea Football Club is about to lose one of its greatest ever strikers. No, it's not Kerry Dixon. It's not even Peter Osgood. I'm afraid it's a lot worse than that: it's Chris Sutton. I know you will be devastated to lose this sublime predator of the six yard box, but I'm afraid you must face up to it. The laughably small sum of Ģ6 million has assured Scottish also-rans Celtic of Chris's signature. I'm not saying that Martin O'Neill is thick, mind: if Celtic get half the comedy value from Sutton that we've had over the past season, they are onto a sure fire winner. Amen.
Chelsea 2 Italy 1:
Congratulations to France for adding the European Championship to their honours list. A big part of France's success was, of course, due to Marcel Desailly and Didier Deschamps, ably assisted from the bench by Frank Leboeuf. Needless to say, the Arsenal players in the side were rubbish, especially the lout Vieira and moany My Little Pony lookalike Petit. 
