february 7th
Again thanks to Tom for filling in. A combination of 90 minutes of football on Saturday evening, lack of proper internet and the flu – ok, and some carnival Saturday night drinks – left me the worse for wear. I am lucky my good wife discovered these fantastic pain killers. Two of these fuckers is like drinking a pint of Solpadeine mixed with some delicious morphine so I spent all day yesterday on the sofa and wondering if I could feel my toes. I couldn’t.
The internet situation is particularly vexing. I have discovered it’s a mix-up between Telefonica and Terra, two supposedly different companies even though Telefonica own Terra and you get your Terra bill on Telefonica paper. Confused? Not as much as I was when I found out what had happened. Of course when I phoned Telefonica they told me to talk to Terra and when I spoke to Terra they said I had to speak to Telefonica. Trying to figure out exactly where the problem lies and who is now providing my ADSL has been probably the most frustrating experience of my adult life. What’s worse is I still don’t have a fucking clue. Hopefully today will bring some clarification but I’m not holding my breath.
After further evidence yesterday and communication from Arsenal that we want to take the matter further the Premier League are to launch an investigation in the fact that Chelsea illegaly tapped up Ashley Cole. A statement said “The board is finally able to establish a clear position from Arsenal and is grateful for chairman Peter Hill-Wood’s confirmation that his club want the Premier League to investigate the matter and that they will co-operate fully with any inquiry.”
Chelsea have also promised their full co-operation – not that they have much choice after being caught so red-handed – but Jose Mourinho is not bothered at all. Given previous similar offences I’m sure the worst that will happen is a fine and a reprimand for Chelsea who no doubt took that into consideration when bending the rules in meeting Cole. Any fine is meaningless to a club with such resources and a reprimand means nothing in the greater scheme of things. I don’t like the idea of Chelsea being docked points – unless they get docked 20 or so (joking-ish) – and I don’t think previous cases would allow the Premier League to take such a harsh line on Chelsea when others have been guilty of similar charges and only been fined.
The most worrying thing about it all is the possibility of Ashley Cole leaving, as reported by The Sunday Mirror yesterday. They say he wants to move and considers Arsenal’s offers of contract improvements as ‘derisory’. Yes, it’s tabloid talk – ‘a close friend of Ashley says’ stuff, for that read ‘his agent’ – but Cole’s presence at this meeting suggests this is not the first contact. Chelsea could have gone through his agent to tell him what’s on offer but the fact he was there to meet Mourinho says a lot, in my opinion. No doubt there’s plenty more to come with regard to this story so we’ll just have to see how it pans out.
And that’s as much as I can piece together with my crappy dial-up connection. Off I go to battle with the faceless customer support people once again. How was your weekend then?
