In our look at the latest Chelsea-related news stories from the media, Joe Cole talks about the Blues new brand of football after our 2-2 draw against Valencia in the Champions League, Valencia midfielder Carlos Soler looks back on a lively game at the Mestalla and Samuel Eto’o talks about his plans after retiring as a player.
Cole on Chelsea’s exciting new style
Appearing as a pundit on BT Sport after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw at Valencia on Wednesday, Joe Cole spoke of how neutral fans are enjoying Chelsea’s exciting new brand of attacking football.
As an attacker, it’s amazing to play in a game like that, because everything is so open and you have so much space, said the former Blues midfielder. ‘But as a defender, it must be a nightmare because you’re so constantly exposed to one-on-ones.
So many times now, we’re talking about philosophies and cultures of football clubs and this is Chelsea’s new way of playing. We’re gung-ho but we going forward, we’re exciting and it’s unnerving everyone.
Everybody loves watching Chelsea now – I’m not used to it!
Asked how Frank Lampard would have felt about the performance of his side, Cole said the Chelsea head coach would have seen both positives and negatives in the game.
He’ll be disappointed with elements of the performance, added Cole. ‘He’ll be happy with Kovacic, the midfield did okay at times, but it was a little bit fractious at times at the back.
He will be delighted with, first and foremost, the result because a draw at Valencia is a very good result but he’ll know there are still improvements to be made and that’s to be expected from a young manager and a young team.
Everything they’re doing at the moment is great but there are still improvements to be made.
Soler rues missed chances
Valencia midfielder Carlos Soler felt his team gave a good account of themselves in their draw with Chelsea but rued their failure to take advantage of their opportunities to win the match.
Against these types of sides, we knew that the opportunities we had needed to be put away. The team gave their all, the fans are proud of us and now we need to recover.
Soler opened the scoring after 40 minutes but saw his effort cancelled out just a minute later when Mateo Kovacic netted his first Chelsea goal.
The equaliser coming so fast hurt us a little, but after their second goal, we reacted fairly well. We had chances.
Valencia coach Albert Celades described the match as ‘incredible’.
Everybody had a very good time, he added.
These players never give up, even with so much adversity, so many players out injured, us repeating starting line-ups every three days and with players having so many minutes under their belt – more than we would like.
They put in an incredible effort. It’s the kind of day in which a coach feels very proud of his players.
We took a lot of risks, because we wanted to win, although we couldn’t do so in the end because of a lack of finishing.
Eto’o heads to Harvard
The BBC reports former Chelsea striker Samuel Eto’o is to study business management at Harvard Business School after recently announcing his retirement.
The 38-year-old, who spent the 2013/14 season at Stamford Bridge, called time on his career in September and is looking beyond football for his next step.
In January I will start a business management studies at Harvard University after they kindly accepted me for a specialised training, said the former Cameroon international to French news website Jeune Afrique.
I will live in Boston for almost a year for this. It won’t be easy, but it’s a nice challenge and you know I always love to challenge myself.
The four-time African Player of the Year wants to use his studies to give something back to his continent of origin.
I want to help and to make my positive contribution to the transformation of our continent, he said.
When you’re a footballer, you pay people to take care of your career and things generally.
But when it’s up to you to manage people, and you want to develop them, you practically need to learn new skills.
