The talk in football

14 April 2012
Blues 'cheats' rile Sugar

Admiration for Chelsea's achievements is in short supply among the Tottenham hierarchy. Sir Alan Sugar, Spurs' secondlargest shareholder, this week claimed Roman Abramovich was "cheating" his way to glory.
Sugar told radio station Xfm: "The match with Barcelona was great entertainment, but you know in a funny way Chelsea are really cheating. Going out with £300million and buying ready-made teams, and putting together as many players as you can get for as much as you can spend to give you an instant win, is that what this game is all about?"

London's French sauce

Sacre Bleu! Despite Chelsea and Arsenal's backing of the London 2012 Olympic bid, half of their first teams are now pulling for Paris.
This line-up of traitors to the capital's cause includes (back left-to-right) Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, William Gallas and Claude Makelele, plus a couple of oeuf-chasers.
Hats off, though, to Pascal Cygan for staying out of it.

Early doors for Eriksson

Is There such a thing as football fatigue? Chelsea's victory over Liverpool may have been one of the most thrilling League Cup finals in years, but England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson missed the excitement.
The Swede, who watches Premiership games every weekend, was spotted leaving the Millennium Stadium after 70 minutes when Rafael Benitez's side were still winning 1-0.

Palace hols not at a cost

Iain Dowie may have taken his team on a sunshine break to Cyprus this week, but Talk understands it is not the result of Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan's generosity.
The squad have been able to take advantage of the five-day trip only because the owner of a new leisure facility in Larnaca wanted to host a Premiership club and has covered the costs.
Meanwhile, Brentford have also benefited from a holiday freebie, with ground sponsor Qatar Airways laying on flights for their trip to Dubai.

Sky sinks to a new low

Long-standing joke among football publicists is that Sky Sports News will send cameras to anything providing it promotes an event for which it holds the rights.
But this week the channel's banality sunk to new depths. A reporter was sent to Lyon ahead of the Champions League clash with Werder Bremen - shown on Sky the same night as the Chelsea and Man Utd games on ITV.
Failing to interview players or coaches, the reporter spoke to Bremen fans who believed their team were going to win, while a staff member at a local hotel admitted: "Yes, we are very busy."

Wilson is in safe hands

Bob Wilson is going bust, but not in the Mark Goldberg sense. The former Arsenal goalkeeper is posing for a clay sculpture of himself by artist Frances Segelman. In front of an invited audience, Segelman will create a likeness of the TV personality in just two hours.
The idea of the event - at All Saints Church and Arts Centre, Whetstone, north London, on 3 April - is to promote Wilson's charity, the Willow Foundation, which organises special days for seriously ill young adults.
He should be in safe hands with Segelman, who has previously crafted busts of Sven-Goran Eriksson, Vinnie Jones and Billy Bremner.

Contact us at: talk@standard.co.uk

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