Rodgers Excited by Chelsea Visit-LIVE on the Board from 3pm

COME ON CHELSEA
By Since66
August 1 2009

Firstly our condolences to former chairman Brian Mears' family and friends after Mr Mears passed away yesterday at the age of 78 and it goes without saying, condolences are sincerly extended to Elsie, to her family and friends after the passing of her husband and the legendary Sir Bobby who battled cancer for many years and of course to the Geordie army who really have suffered in recent months.

Brendan Rodgers, Reading's new manager couldn't contain his excitement at the visit of his ex-employers at The Madejski this afternoon.

BRENDON ROGERS

He said, "Reading and Chelsea have been a big part of my life for 20 years.

"It's an honour for me to be at Reading (Rodgers left Reading to join Chelsea) and you can argue that my time at Chelsea allowed me (via Watford) to be here because it gave me the confidence and put me on the map.

"I'm looking forward to it immensely, but the most important thing is that it's our last game of pre-season, our seventh match and the chance to finalise things.

"Hopefully there will be a good crowd who can see us perform well."

Chelsea have sold out their allocation and today's programme will cost you a mere £2.

The good news from Reading's camp is that the 'thug' Stephen Hunt, who battered Cechie Boy's skull into submission, is unfit and unavailable to play, but his brother Noel is expected to be in the line-up.

Ryan Bertrand's loan deal was finalised yesterday and he is expected to play some part in today's game

For Chelsea however, with the Community Shield to play for next Sunday, I doubt it will be possible to gauge the starting line-up for the Premiership opener against Hull on the 15th August (which is a 12.45pm kick-off) but we may get a bit of a clue with today's line-up.

Anelka

Nic Anelka went public with his view of Chelsea's successful tour of America.

He said, "It is still a little difficult, it will take a few days but we are back in training and it is good," referring to the jet-lag and the huge amount of travelling experienced by the players in such a short space of time.

Anelka continued, "It was a successful tour for us, we won all of our games and played well against some big teams so things are looking good."

Speaking about the 'new' 4-diamond-2 (which has worked well), Anelka said, "I like the new system, and we just learn again to play in this new way. Last season I was on my own up front, then on the left and the right, so now I am central with Didier and I think it is going to work well.

"After some games I will start to learn a little more this position because we can swap together and I think it will be like when I was on the right, it will take time to get used to but after that it will be okay."

Chelsea TV are showing the game LIVE and there will be LIVE updates on the board, from 3pm.

Rodgers Excited by Chelsea Visit-LIVE on the Board from 3pm

Posted by: 50 Years Over 100 Years (IP Logged)

Date: 01/08/2009 07:17

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