Chelsea 1 Hapoel Tel Aviv 1
1st November 2001

Sir, I have barely recovered enough from last night to put pen to paper... to be greeted in the office this morning by a chorus of "shalom" and "masseltov", along with the suggestion that we should have salt beef sandwiches, tested even my legendary sense of humour To cut a long story short, what a shitty day I had. After spending the afternoon seeing a man about a dog (my lawyer about my ex-wife) I really thought the boys would cheer me up. I must have been living in cloud cuckoo land.... first half was dreadful... there must be something seriously wrong with Petit.. maybe he is being slowed down by having to carry his wallet with him... Zenden was running around like a headless chicken, whilst Stanic was... well just not there. I was so desperate at one stage I was even hoping for Jerkovic to be put on, but that feeling passed fairly quickly... second half we had seriously thought that we could score the four goals necessary... Don Claudio played a new formation - 1-1-8, with Zola, Forssell, Jimmy and Eidur all on the pitch at the same time. Shots galore.. woodwork several times... a couple of pen appeals... best goalkeeping performance since Kirkland for Coventry last year, but it wasnt to be... Can u fault the players ? Dont know.. another day we would have won 7-1.. in the end it was just laughable, and laugh and cry we did all the way to FRIENDS, where we we were subjected to much of the same. Franco, Eidur and Jimmy had dinner together along with Franco's family, Wilkins etc etc. I am absolutely sure that Jimmy stood at the buffet screaming to Franco at the top of his voice: "NEXT TIME MOVE THE MOZARELLA A BIT CLOSER - I CANT REACH IT...."

© 2001 Priesty's Chelsea FC Refuge.