Results tagged “chelsea”

The pitch at Wembley stadium will this week be relaid for the tenth time in less than three years. The hallowed turf was subjected to a blistering burst of heat from the Alex Fergsuon hairdryer after the Carling Cup final, with the United boss blaming the pitch for Michael Owen's season-ending injury. Further complaints were voiced after the England - Egypt friendly last week. The stadium's mixed-use programme-- it regularly hosts rugby and NFL, amongst other shows -- is usually blamed for the chopped-up pitch, but it seems to be a recurring problem. The surface was heavily criticised after 2007's FA Cup tie between Manchester United and Chelsea, the first match to be played there, and despite the regular relayings (costing £90,000 a pop) little seems to have improved. more ›

The original wobbly bridge, spanning the Thames between Battersea and Chelsea, closed today for maintenance work. The Albert Bridge will get a fresh road surface, a full paint job and some newly minted traffic lights while vehicles are diverted over nearby Chelsea and Battersea Bridges. The Albert has been the weakling of the Thames since its opening in 1873. The fey structure, with its pink pastels and fairy light illuminations is sometimes referred to as 'the trembling old lady'. This 18-month closure is just the latest in a never-ending series of loinal regirdings. So vulnerable is the camp crossing that it still carries signs requesting soldiers to march out of step. Its very timbers are said to be deteriorating from the constant challenge of dog piss. Although closed to motorists, the pontic hiatus will not affect pedestrians and dismounted cyclists. Image / janeslondon. more ›

Chutney Mary has garnered considerable praise since opening in 1990. Twice it's received Good Curry Guide's Best Indian Restaurant in the UK award as well as the London Restaurant Award as the Indian Restaurant of the Year and Square Meal Guide's Best Modern Indian Restaurant in London on several occasions. But what has Ms Mary done for us lately and is she living up to her reputation? more ›

A sting by the News of the World apparently shows England and Chelsea captain John Terry accepting £10,000 in return for a behind-the-scenes tour of Chelsea's training facilities in Cobham. more ›

Chelsea's champion-quality 3-0 victory at the Emirates yesterday saw the club run up a five-point lead over nearest rivals Manchester United, while the vanquished Arsenal remain fourth; most gallingly for the Gunners, that's a point behind rivals Tottenham -- St Totteringham's Day could come late this season. As if getting royally thumped at home in the biggest London derby of the season wasn't bad enough, Arsenal are to be investigated by the Football Association over allegations that an object was thrown onto the field during the game. The ofending object -- a camera, according to the BBC source -- was reportedly aimed in the direction of Frank Lampard's head from the direction of the home support. Of all the silly things to lob onto the pitch, a camera is among the most foolish: investigators shouldn't have too much troubling identifying Gooner Gary from his happy grin in the pre-match photos. more ›

Chelsea fans who chuckled at the risible new name for Newcastle's St James Park stadium will be choking on their match-day pies at the news that the league-leading Londoners are thinking of selling the naming rights to Stamford Bridge. more ›

An enterprising Danish company is offering sperm from the strapping sons of Denmark to childless Londoners. They're charging up to £1,000 for a premium-quality jar of Scandinavian jizz, and are targetting hospitals in wealthy areas such as The Lister Hospital in Chelsea where the kid-free can afford it. more ›

Ouch. Chelsea Football Club are banned from making any new signings for the next two transfer windows. The ruling by Fifa comes as punishment for 'inducing' a player to leave another club for Chelsea. Teenager Gael Kakuta was poached by the Blues from French team Lens in 2007. Lens appealed to Fifa that the player had broken his contract, and that Chelsea were culpable of wooing him to do so. Chelsea have yet to make a statement on the decision, and may appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. If upheld, the ruling means no new players will come to Stamford Bridge until January 2011. The player, who missed much of last season through injury, also faces a £682,000 fine and a four month match ban. The punishment provides rich material for football pundits. Will the team still be able to compete with their rivals without a periodic influx of fresh talent? Or will the forced hiatus in new signings actually stabilise the squad into a something more harmonious? Image / Chris 07 in the Londonist Flickr pool. more ›

While all the summer transfer madness was blowing out of Manchester City and Real Madrid, for those clubs not propped up by dubious financial arrangements the credit crunch remains a solid reality, and this was reflected in the absence of last-minute mega-deals as the transfer window slammed shut yesterday. Remember last year's wig-twisting hijacking of Chelsea's bid for Robinho by Manchester City? The biggest deal this time round saw Richard Dunne join Aston Villa. The biggest losers yesterday were Sky Sports News -- this is their Christmas and birthday rolled in more ›

A delicious and filling three-course meal (four if you count the fresh dates presented first off to honour of the end of one's Ramadan daily fast) may be had at Awana Malaysian restaurant in Chelsea until the 19th of September. more ›

For those Londoners observing Ramadan (starting next week) - or simply interested in sampling traditional Malaysian street food in a fancy schmancy Chelsea resto - consider Malaysian restaurant Awana's "A Feast to Break Fast" menu available every evening from the 24th of August until the 19th of September. During Ramadan, executive chef Mark Read and Malaysian born head chef Lee Chin Soon will be offering Malaysian standards such as roti canai, satay daging (beef served with Awana's spicy peanut sauce) and more. All in all this seven-course foodie celebration will cost £23.50. Rest assured all meat dishes are halal. more ›

With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, David Beckham has nabbed the position of this summer's most-rumoured transfer target, as reports indicate that both Chelsea and Tottenham are casting come-hither glances in his direction. Becks' return to LA Galaxy hasn't gone brilliantly well, with his longer-than-expected stint at Milan's San Siro stadium - a venue more glamorous than the Major League Sawker no-hopers' Home Depot Center - irking US fans, and the midfielder's burning desire to represent England in the World Cup means a move to Europe is in mind. Given his pedigree in the Premier League, and recent househunting in the capital, it's little wonder the Blues and the Lilywhites are sizing him up. Though his best playing years are behind him, the pride of Walthamstow can still whip in a dead ball like few others, and his celebrity heft and reputation for dressing-room conviviality would give a huge boost to either team. But with AC Milan and other European clubs looking at bringing him back, the London sides may be at the back of the queue. more ›

Rumours outta Tinsletown suggest that Britain's most popular Stateside export since smallpox, David Beckham and wife Victoria, are fixing to buy a property in London. Lest LA Galaxy fans fear that Becks won't be around to put in his token 15% effort on the right wing: the couple aren't giving up on the American dream, but require a bolthole for their frequent visits to the capital. That said, new Chelsea boss Carlo Ancellotti was a big fan of Becks while the two were together at AC Milan, so who knows? One property website is already excited by the prospect of househunting with the Beckhams. While they willl probably look in the typical millionaire enclaves of Mayfair or Hampstead, we can only encourage them to look further afield: Peckham, obviously, given the joyful assonance, or perhaps even Leytonstone, where a young David Beckham first learned to kick a ball. more ›

Why is it that royals called Charles have such a talent for winding up their lordships? Lord Rogers, the architect responsible for the Chelsea Barracks development, is furious that - by having the audacity to criticise his work - the Prince of Wales has set Britain on course for a full-blown constitutional crisis. But, as any nanotechnologist or GM food producer could tell you, there's no constitutional precedent to stop the heir to the throne from speaking his mind on issues outside politics. And with reform of the upper house on the cards again, we suspect it might be the unelected Lord Rogers' whose constitutional role is really under threat right now. more ›

Two cash-rich, patience-poor west London football club this week unveiled their sixth managers in as many years this week. Yet the new appointments unveiled by Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers couldn't be more divergent: while the Blues' Carlo Ancelotti brings continental class, a stackload of trophies and AC Milan on his CV, the Hoops' new boss, Jim Magilton, boasts a middling playing career, a decent stab of things as Ipswich boss, and not a great deal more. more ›

England's top four clubs rarely sell between eachother, and players transferring to hated rivals is a typically dramatic affair, yet rumours coming out of north London this morning suggest that both may happen at once: Arsene Wenger hinted he may be ready to offload Emmanuel Adebayor to Chelsea. Despite a hefty pay bump last summer, the Togolese striker's lackadaisical approach and dithering in front of the net has frustrated Gunners fans, and few would miss him. He could join a Chelsea strikeforce that, in Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, already boasts more sulkiness than a Montessori nursery; yet the prospect of an aggrieved ex-Arsenal pairing of Anelka and Adebayor, ready and willing to stuff the boo-boys' chants down their necks, would haunt the nightmares of Emirates regulars for years to come. more ›

Continuing our amble round London's independent bookshops more ›

Emboldened by his impending star turn at RIBA, Prince Charles has returned to where his fledgling career in architectural criticism began by launching another broadside against a Richard Rogers project. more ›

Madge isn't the only one peeved about not having enough children: Chelsea residents are irked about the local council's decision to turf a family out of a £1.2 million council house because they didn't have enough offspring. Jamie Pascall, a tenant in the Billing Street address since his teens, had been living in the house with his partner and their 10-year old girl; however, under Kensington & Chelsea council's strict guidelines, the four-bedroom property is meant for a more ample family, so the three were packed off to another flat in Shepherd's Bush. Since then, the pastel-coloured des-res has been boarded up to prevent squatters moving in. () more ›

The Varsity Boat Race was re-enacted at Loftus Road last night as the plucky underdogs made the early running only for the favourites to put on a surge about a third of the way through which their opponents never seriously threatened to overhaul. Goals for England from captain Ciaran Clark of Aston Villa and Manchester City striker Daniel Sturridge, in the 20th and 30th minutes respectively, quelled early promise from their Italian visitors and established an authority over this friendly fixture that the home side never relinquished. more ›

Fry and Laurie would be working themselves up into a right old state about the opportunities available to the capital's football watchers over the next few days. It's not every day that you can pitch up at the turnstiles of the new Wembley Stadium and buy a ticket to watch the England team in action as its stalwart, David Beckham, makes history, but that could happen later today as FA supremos grapple with the technical and PR side of such a move against the reports that there are around 10,000 seats still available for today's 5:15pm friendly against Slovakia. Indeed, tickets priced at £30 are already available to the general public online and they won't even have to jump through the standard hoop of joining the FA's club, englandfans, to get them. Seats would usually go for almost twice that, but Wembley still has to be paid for and banks of empty red plastic doesn't set the right tone for a team still trying to feel more like the home team than visitors. more ›

It's been reported that Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole was arrested last night on suspicion of "being drunk and disorderly". Cole was held after allegedly cussing at the boys in blue outside a Brompton Road nightclub. He was taken down to the station, served with an £80 penalty notice, and sent home three hours later. Cole's four-letter rants are legendary among football fans -- he earned the scorn of millions when, in his autobiography, he described reacting to Arsenal's derisory £55,000-a week contract offer by screaming "they must be taking the p**s!" -- and it'll be interesting to see what licked the left-back's lairiness this time round. We don't imagine new Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink will be amused more ›

News this week from the great city of Londongrad about two of our fine Russian friends with interests in the city of a footballing nature. more ›

A ray of pecuniary sunshine for you now: London's council tax bills will increase by less than the national average. After the Mayor kept his word to freeze the GLA's portion, councils are raising bills by an average of 1.6%. Hammersmith and Fulham are even cutting bills by 3% - but that's been achieved by making staff redundant. Oh. Kensington and Chelsea are handing £50 back to most residents, but if you live in Richmond your bills are going up by over 4%. Sorry. But at least it's good news in general. Which makes a change. more ›

We imagine when Chelsea FC's Performance Director agreed to talk at Birkbeck Sports Business Centre's Seminar series tonight he did not imagine that it would be only 48 hours after club manager Luiz Felipe Scolari's dismissal. Given that Big Phil lost his job primarily because the team's results had been unsatisfactory Mr Forde, at Stamford Bridge since August 2007, might face some awkward questions when he speaks at 6pm on the subject of "Creating Sustained Success: Delivering a World Class Player Performance Model for an Elite European Champions League Club". more ›

The sound of toys being heaved out of the pram and crashing to the floor was heard today around Stamford Bridge, as Chelsea terminated Luis Felipe Scolari's contract with immediate effect. Were he capable of smiling, Avram Grant would probably be sporting a grin right now. more ›

Harry Redknapp spent January as the footballing incarnation of those odd fellows at car boot sales who go around buying up other bits from rival stalls and then attempting to sell them back for a profit the next week. more ›

Stadia mania seems to be gripping the Premier League: a week after Tottenham announced plans for a new stadium, Chelsea are apparently considering a move away from their Stamford Bridge home to a purpose-built ground in Battersea. more ›

A quick reminder that our credit-crunch-friendly FREE guided walk takes place this coming Friday. Join us outside the new Saatchi Gallery, from where we’ll probe the passages of Chelsea as only Prince Harry knows how. Full details here. Please RSVP to londonist - at -gmail.com to reserve a space.
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